Bottle Shock Character Analysis

In Bottle Shock, a recurring element throughout the movie is the French superiority and snobbery over American made things. It was clear in the way that Steven acted around his friend, Maurice, and how he acted was he arrived in California. Maurice calls Steven out on how his shop, L’Academie du Vin, should be called L’Academie du Vin Français, because all he sells is French wine and that really doesn’t give his shop an international perspective or opinion in wines from other regions. Maurice even tells him how he read in the newspaper that the Californians are making wines that people think will begin to surpass the French. This leads to Steven’s idea and adventure of going to Napa Valley, California to find wines for a blind tasting competition in Paris. I feel that this was the first step in Spurrier’s character development since he decides to bother finding “worthy competition” for the French wines. His character development continues as the movie progresses and he gets more interaction with the people of Napa and their wines. This is shown in his genuine surprise of the good wine that the Californians are able to make. There is a particular montage in which the film shows Spurrier

As we learned in class wine production begin a lot earlier in Europe, around 200 BC - 400 AD during the Roman Empire, and because of this they were able to learn and evolve their wines into the finer quality that was fit for royalty. So when they compare the French wine, where the particular species of grapes grow naturally, to the new America wine, of course people already have assumptions that the wine won’t be as refined. It is known that Americans had been trying to grow European grapes in American soil as seen in Thomas Jefferson’s early attempts. In the American Heritage, it states