A snail clings to a grape cluster … Is this a sign of biodiversity in a vineyard, or just plain gross?

As a winemaker, wine journalist, and a wine educator, it’s never easy to ascertain exactly what a guest or client knows about wine until you have a few precious moments to spend with them.

Unfortunately, so much is left out of the conversation because the conversation is rarely long enough to speak about the part of the wine that really matters – everything.

Forgotten Man Films, the team that delivered SOMM: the documentary, has returned with a SOMM: Into the Bottle, due out this summer. This time, the focus appears to be as much a celebration of what’s in your glass as it is a turning of the compost which was used to …. Forget it, here’s the trailer.

The sea of wine education films and videos seems to grow by the day. Many of them inevitably fall short of rippling the liquid surface of wine’s depth. That being said, if the cast from the first film has anything to say about it, many of whom are returning for this second run at professional wine edutainment, my hope is they extend the conversation … at the very least, until they need to make a third film, which I would probably also watch.

Personally, I can’t wait to see this movie. After nearly fifteen years in the wine business, and seeing the overcoat and the underbelly of the trade, I can say with sincerity that there are many reasons why someone would turn away from Wine after bathing in it for so long, but there is virtually nowhere else I would rather be.