Yuletide Classics
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. This week, we celebrate the season with three classic films concerned with Christmas.
The Bishop’s Wife has Cary Grant as an angel. I know, I know. Typecasting. It’s mighty handy to have an angel around to decorate the tree super fast. And that magically refilling bottle of booze is pretty sweet. I also could use that voice assisted typewriter, hoping that the spell check on it worked better in 1947 than it does now.
Dudley (what a name for an angel) is on Earth to help a bishop and those around him see a more spiritual side of life. He could have been the fourth Christmas ghost for Charles Dickens, except the studio loaned him out for this movie. All goes swimmingly until Dud falls for, you guessed it, the bishop’s wife. The bishop is fixated on trying to raise money for a new cathedral. Fixated, until ol’ Dudley’s dates with wifey give him something more to worry about.
We’ll pair a nice red wine, of course, with The Bishop’s Wife. Talley Vineyards of San Luis Obispo County has a Bishop’s Peak Pinot Noir, which sells in the nicer places for about $20. Throw in a box of crackers and you can have your own private communion.
https://talleyvineyards.com/trade/bishops-peak-pinot-noir/
The original film version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was from the silent movie era. This one’s a talkie. A Christmas Carol has been remade a number of times over the years, notably in 1951, with Alastair Sim in the lead role. It was filmed in black and white. Colorized later, for your protection. Sim was a great Scrooge, but has there been a bad one? He’s simply one of the most imaginative characters ever created. My fave? Jim Backus, from Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol.
Dickens let Ebeneezer Scrooge’s nephew Fred describe Port to Bob Cratchit: “It’s wine, Bob. A cheery, warming, goodly wine. A wine that’ll race through your veins with little torches. It’s port, Bob. The fifth essence of the Christmas spirit.” Well, way to bring it, Fred.
Quinta de la Rosa’s vineyards are on the slopes above Portugal’s Douro River, and the grapes are crushed by foot. Ruby Port is usually the least expensive of the many different styles of the wine. The de la Rosa Ruby Reserve Lot No. 601 tends to be slightly drier than the norm. The fruit flavors are bold, while the acidity rips and the tannins exert their will, with little torches.
http://www.nowandzin.com/2018/03/a-good-night-for-port.html
Most of us grew up with the 1946 Frank Capra gem, It’s a Wonderful Life, as a holiday staple. That’s because the film’s copyright expired in 1974, making it a cheap piece of holiday property for local TV stations around the country. Movie goers and critics alike were less than thrilled with it in its initial release, but the constant viewings over the years brought around everyone except Scrooge.
Wonderful Life grabbed five Oscar noms, but couldn’t pluck any trophies from the gift tree. I used to hang at The Shack in Santa Monica, where the owner regaled me as I sat next to the video yule log by hitting the cash register while saying, “Get me, I’m given’ out wings!” That, plus the free Jagermeister shots he poured for me, really endeared him to me.
No Jagermeister for this movie. No Jagermeister ever, please. George and Mary Bailey gifted some new homeowners with bread, salt and “wine, that joy and prosperity may reign forever.” I don’t know what kind of wine it was, but we might as well make it an icewine from upstate New York. Weis Vineyards (just down the road from Bedford Falls, no doubt) has a Riesling icewine for about $60. It’s a tiny bottle, but it sure beats a flaming rum punch.