A Thought Piece on Learning about Sommeliers and the movie Uncorked

I first heard the term Sommelier watching the 10th season of Fox's reality cooking competition, Masterchef. The final three contestants were a white woman named Kate whose husband was a Sommelier, a black woman named Dorian whose expertise was baking, and an imaginative Harvard student, Nick. On several occasions, Kate’s nerves and lack of certain food knowledge worked against her while Dorian's willingness to learn and adapt aided her in becoming a leader in the competition. Kate's advancing in the competition was only due to another contestant doing worse than her.

The look on Kate's face when Dorian won was priceless. When the confetti dropped and Dorian's name was revealed, Kate was in utter shock for quite some time at the fact that she did not win. The one thing Kate did wrong, in my opinion, is use wine as a base for most of her dishes, a method obviously inspired by her husband. She touted his profession throughout the entire competition.

I believe she thought this would impress the judges. Most times, however, as in her finale dish, the wine did not reduce properly, subsequently ruining her entire dish. Not discouraging anyone from cooking with wine but if you aren't necessarily an expert, it probably shouldn't be the base of most of your dishes on a high stakes televised cooking show, just saying.

I tell that story to 1.) brag about the winner of Masterchef being black for the second year in a row, and 2.) provide my origin of learning the term “Sommelier”. Kate’s constant bragging of her husband’s status as a wine connoisseur led me to research Sommeliers and watch the documentary on Hulu about how one becomes such. And…wow, the process is rigorous. When a film can educate and entertain as well as Uncorked, the praise is well-deserved.

Set in Memphis, TN, Uncorked successfully illuminates the worlds wine and Memphis barbecue: highlighting their individual intricacies and similarities. What I enjoyed most about Uncorked is the soundtrack. It features Memphis-bred rappers Yo Gotti and Black Youngsta and French hip-hop artist Marty De Lutece, also hitting us with some old-school R&B. Uncorked cleverly intersects wine and bbq while the music remains true to the setting and the characters throughout the entire film.

Niecy Nash and Courtney B. Vance deliver a romantic performance as Sylvia and Louis, owners of a long-standing family restaurant and parents to Elijah (Mamoudou Athie) who's looking to chart his own path as a Sommelier despite his father's desire for him to inherit the business. A classic storyline with a nearly all black cast makes this Netflix film a must-see.