Top 12 Wine Movies: Documentaries, Dramas, and Romances
I have spent more time than is defensible thinking about wine in films.
Not because I am a cinephile with impeccable taste—though I would like you to believe that—but because I once made the mistake of watching Sideways on a wet Tuesday afternoon when I should have been doing something useful. Two hours later I was googling "Santa Ynez Valley pinot noir" and wondering if my life had gone wrong somewhere around the choice of lager at university.
Wine films do something odd to people. They make us think we understand terroir. They make us want to swirl things in glasses and say "earthy" with a straight face. They make us believe, for approximately ninety minutes, that we too could distinguish a 1947 Cheval Blanc from a supermarket Merlot, when in reality we struggle to tell red from white in poor lighting.
So here, in what I can only describe as an act of service to anyone who has ever pretended to know what "notes of leather" means, is a guide to the twelve best films about wine. Some are documentaries. Some are dramas. One involves hiding a million bottles from fascists, which feels like a reasonable narrative arc.
I have ranked them not by critical acclaim—though that helps—but by how well they answer the question: "Will this make me feel like I understand wine, or at least make me want to drink some?"
Let us begin.
1. Sideways (2004)
The one everyone mentions first, and for good reason
If you have ever had a conversation about wine films, someone has already brought up Sideways. It is the law.
Two men—one depressive, one delusional—drive through California's Santa Ynez Valley drinking pinot noir, visiting vineyards, and having minor emotional crises. It is tender, funny, and strangely specific about wine in a way that makes non-wine people feel included rather than patronised.
The film is also responsible for the so-called "Sideways Effect," where pinot noir sales surged and Merlot sales collapsed because one character delivered a rant about it in a moment of romantic anguish. If a film can destroy the commercial prospects of an entire grape varietal, it has achieved something.
You watch it for the scenery, the mid-life angst, and the gentle reminder that wine is best enjoyed with people you half-tolerate and landscapes you can't afford.
2. Bottle Shock (2008)
The underdog story wine needed
This one dramatises the 1976 "Judgment of Paris"—a blind tasting where Californian wines unexpectedly beat the best of Bordeaux and Burgundy, causing French wine snobs to have what can only be described as a collective moment.
It is not a perfect film. The acting occasionally veers into "enthusiastic amateur theatre," and the script takes liberties with history in the way biopics always do when the truth isn't quite cinematic enough.
But it captures something important: the idea that wine is not owned by Europe, that New World producers are not just making "decent table wine," and that blind tastings are absolutely ruthless when reputations can't do the talking.
If you have ever rooted for an underdog, or if you enjoy watching the French look mildly uncomfortable, this is your film.
3. SOMM (2012)
In which people make wine much harder than it needs to be
A documentary following four people attempting to pass the Master Sommelier exam—one of the most absurdly difficult qualifications in existence.
They taste wines blindfolded. They memorise appellations, soil types, and vineyard altitudes. They practice describing flavours using words like "wet stone" and "forest floor," which I assume means someone has licked both and reported back.
The film is gripping in the way watching someone revise for finals is gripping: you are anxious for them, you are impressed by their commitment, and you are quietly relieved you are not doing it yourself.
It also makes the case that wine, at the highest level, is as much about obsession and pattern recognition as it is about taste. Which is either inspiring or deeply unhinged, depending on your temperament.
4. SOMM: Into the Bottle (2015)
The sequel that goes deeper and broader
Where the first SOMM was about people, this one is about bottles.
Ten wines. Ten stories. Each exploring a different corner of wine's history, politics, mythology and craft—from ancient cellars in Europe to biodynamic experiments in California.
It is one of the most information-dense wine films you will find, but it wears its nerdiness lightly. You come away knowing more about why Champagne bubbles, what "noble rot" actually is, and why some people will pay five figures for fermented grape juice.
If the first film made you want to taste wine seriously, this one makes you want to understand it.
5. Red Obsession (2013)
Or: how Bordeaux became a Chinese status symbol
A documentary about the surge of demand for top Bordeaux wines from China's new wealthy class, and what that did to prices, prestige, and the people who make the stuff.
It is less about viticulture and more about wine as luxury commodity—less terroir, more trade. But that makes it essential viewing if you want to understand how the global wine market actually works, as opposed to the romantic version involving sunlit hillsides and passionate winemakers.
You watch it and realise that at a certain price point, wine stops being a drink and becomes an asset class. Which is either fascinating or depressing, depending on whether you own any.
6. Mondovino (2004)
The one that makes everyone slightly uncomfortable
An essay-film about globalisation in the wine world: small family estates versus corporate brands, terroir versus "international style," tradition versus marketability.
It is provocative. It asks whether wine is being homogenised by consultants and critics (hello, Robert Parker) who impose a house style on producers desperate for high scores and export deals.
Some people find it preachy. Others find it essential. I found it the kind of film that makes you want to argue with someone over dinner, which is arguably what good documentaries should do.
If you have ever wondered whether wine is losing its soul in the pursuit of consistency and profit, this will either confirm your fears or make you roll your eyes. Either way, you will have opinions afterwards.
7. A Year in Burgundy (2013)
Slow, patient, and worth it
This follows several winemaking families through an entire growing season in Burgundy—pruning, watching the weather, making decisions in the cellar, and hoping the harvest doesn't get destroyed by hail or frost or some other viticultural nightmare.
It is not flashy. There are no rivalries, no crises, no melodrama. Just people doing careful, deliberate work in one of the most storied wine regions on Earth.
You come away understanding why Burgundy inspires such obsession, why terroir is not just marketing nonsense, and why making wine is less "romantic hillside dream" and more "agrarian anxiety with occasional moments of beauty."
8. Back to Burgundy (2017)
The fictional, emotional version
Where A Year in Burgundy is documentary, this is drama—three siblings inherit a family estate and have to navigate grief, resentment, modernisation, and the question of whether to sell or stay.
It weaves the personal and the viticultural together beautifully: harvest timings, blending decisions, and succession planning all tangled up with family baggage and unspoken regrets.
If you have ever wondered what it is like to inherit a wine domaine, or if you just enjoy watching French people argue quietly over dinner, this is excellent.
9. Uncorked (2020)
Wine meets race, class, and family expectation
A young man in Memphis wants to become a sommelier. His father wants him to take over the family barbecue business.
It is about the Master Somm exam, yes, but it is also about what it means to pursue a career in a world that does not expect you there—where fine dining and wine certification are still coded as white, European, expensive.
The film does not pretend the wine world is a meritocracy. It shows the studying, the tasting, the anxiety, and the quiet (and not-so-quiet) barriers. It is warm, specific, and more honest than most wine films about who gets to belong.
10. Sour Grapes (2016)
The one about fraud, auction houses, and very expensive lies
A true-crime documentary about a man who fooled collectors and auction houses with fake rare bottles—relabelling cheap wine, forging labels, and convincing people they were drinking history.
It is astonishing how long he got away with it. It is also a useful reminder that at the ultra-high end of the wine market, trust, provenance, and ego matter as much as what is actually in the bottle.
You watch it and think: if even experts can be fooled, what hope do the rest of us have?
11. A Good Year (2006)
The fantasy version
A stressed London financier inherits a Provençal vineyard, rediscovers life's pleasures, falls in love, and learns to slow down.
It is not subtle. It is not particularly interested in the realities of running a vineyard. But it is gorgeous to look at, and sometimes that is enough.
You watch it when you want to imagine owning a stone farmhouse surrounded by vines and the biggest problem in your life is whether to have lunch at noon or one o'clock.
12. The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969)
Or: how a village saved a million bottles from the Nazis
Set in a small Italian hill town during World War II. The Germans are coming. The locals decide to hide their entire wine supply—over a million bottles—so the occupying forces cannot requisition it.
It is part comedy, part wartime drama, and entirely about wine as communal identity and resistance. The wine is not just valuable; it is theirs, and they will go to absurd lengths to protect it.
It is also the oldest film on this list, which makes it either charmingly dated or refreshingly free of modern wine snobbery, depending on your mood.
So, which one should you actually watch?
If you want the essential starting point: Sideways.
If you want to understand professional wine tasting: SOMM (then the sequel).
If you want history and industry politics: Bottle Shock, Red Obsession, or Mondovino.
If you want terroir, tradition, and Burgundy: A Year in Burgundy or Back to Burgundy.
If you want true crime and cautionary tales: Sour Grapes.
If you want escapist vineyard fantasy: A Good Year.
If you want World War II and wine as cultural symbol: The Secret of Santa Vittoria.
A final thought on wine and cinema
Wine films work because wine is never just wine.
It is memory, status, geography, craft, obsession, and occasionally fraud. It is something people argue about, care too much about, and pretend to understand better than they do.
Which makes it perfect for cinema.
So pick one. Pour something. And if, halfway through, you find yourself googling the nearest vineyard or wondering if you could train your palate to detect "hints of tobacco and saddle leather," do not worry.
That is exactly what these films are designed to do.
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