In the Canadian documentary “Crush: Message in a Bottle” the philosophy and life stories of Ann-Marie Saunders of Saunders Vineyard, Thomas Bachelder of Bachelder Wines and Le Clos Jordanne, Kelly Mason of Mason Vineyards and Shiraz Mottiar of Malivoire Wine Company and Mottiar Vineyard discuss their approach to making wines in the Niagara wine appellation of Ontario but to a degree get personal about their family life and history.
Over the years I have visited numerous wineries in Portugal, Italy, France, Spain, Ontario, California and New York. Let me simplify matters by saying if you have visited one winery you have visited them all. Being a member of the media, I have one advantage. I get behind the bottle. I have spoken with winery owners, vineyard managers, public relations teams, distributors and vineyard workers all important players behind the bottle. I have had many a lunch with vineyard workers in Portugal and the ladies that feed them incredible chefs. Yes that bottle of wine sitting in front of you that you pour and hopefully enjoy is more than wine. “Crush” drives home that indeed there is a message in every bottle and the common thread is passion. A passion for technicalities that stare at you from the label but never speak. The result is an intimate look at the winemaking and wine growing philosophy of these Niagara characters on the Niagara wine stage but it is not simply representative of a certain winemaking region but applicable to all winemaking regions of the world.
Bravo to writer and director Maya Gallus for crafting this intimate portrait of winemakers and grape growers battling the elements and for some on the edge of financial calamity without getting lost in overly technical explanations and terms. You will encounter such terms as powdery mildew, wild ferment, sustainable and regenerative farming, brix, carbonic maceration and punching down but you will not get lost.
And death is covered here of Kelly Mason’s parents as she was orphaned at 21 and shook up to her bare soul. And Ann-Marie Saunders losing her mother and her father Warren after the film wrapped up. Warren summed it up nicely saying that you just gotta take what you can get when growing grapes as you can’t control nature.
As a final story about life, death and wine several years ago while on a press trip to Campania I attended Southern Italy’s big wine show Vitingo in Naples. I encountered an amazing Barbera. I sent my review to the owner of the winery. A few months later I received a thank you from her saying that the Barbera grape was the passion of her younger brother who died at the age of 34 of cancer. He never had the opportunity to try the Barbera that he bottled. She said to me that I had brought back her deceased brother back into her soul by my review. So dear reader there is indeed more than wine in that bottle and it can be joyous or it can be heartbreaking. And this big seasoned wine writer was reduced to tears even writing about this now.
“Crush: Message in a Bottle” will be screening at Toronto Hot Docs on Sunday 5November2023 at 19:30. Reps from the wineries and growers will be present for a pre-screening meet and greet and a post screening Q&A.
RKS 2023 Film Rating: 86/100.
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