The oft-maligned wine varietal merlot is finally receiving some love this Valentine’s Day season, thanks to Sonoma filmmaker Rudy McClain. “Merlove,” the young director’s pro-merlot love letter, doesn’t come in a heart-shaped box; instead it’s 95 minutes of documentary footage that is by turns whimsical and edifying.
Five years ago, director Alexander Payne’s film “Sideways” handily denounced the varietal, which has only recently begun to recover in the market. After recognizing the dip, McClain knew he had a subject, if not a flat-out rebuttal, on which to base his frosh film effort. Likewise, McClain’s generation has embraced wine as its own in the intervening years, which has primed both the wine and wine-film market.
“More people are getting into wine, especially younger people. Guys like me, [wine blogger] Gary Vaynerchuck and others are breaking down the stereotype of wine being this snooty and stuffy thing where you ask, ‘What do I say, what do I do?’” said McClain, who wryly added, “The more you know, the more you don’t know. It’s like life, which always knows how to raise the stakes for you. You go through this huge journey and say ‘Yes, I did it,’ then the stakes get higher.”
While making “Merlove,” McClain found that filmmaking and winemaking are analogous processes, both dependent – as he learned – on collaboration.
“Go out and get help. Seriously. I had this vision of myself as a wizard behind the curtain doing the whole thing. And you can do that, it just takes a really long time,” said McClain. “‘Share the glory’ is what I’d say to anyone now. You’re not going to lose any originality, and at the end of the day, your name is going on it anyway.”
Wine’s popularity hasn’t merely grown with the millennial generation – many filmmakers have brought their own wines to market, locals Francis Ford Coppola and John Lasseter among them. This makes sense to McClain.
“With art, as an artist you’re having an experience and you’re trying to translate that into a delivery device so that other people can enjoy what you’re experiencing. I think artists identify with wine because all the fruit is subject to a year of life out in the world, and then it gets translated into an experience you can share with other people,” said a sage McClain. “The glass is the movie, the glass is the song, the medium – that glass is an expression of a year of life.”
“Merlove” screens at 7 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 7 at the Sonoma Community Center’s Andrews Hall. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. and guests are invited to come early and enjoy a chocolate reception provided by local chocolatiers Denny Lane and Rachna Sachasihn of Chaac Mol Chocolate. Wine sponsor Michel-Schlumberger will be on hand to pour. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with McClain and associate producer Marisol Ramirez.
General admission is $10. Advance tickets are available by calling the community center front desk at 707.938.4626, ext. 1, or by stopping by the SCC office at 276 E. Napa St. For more information visit www.sonomacommunitycenter.org or www.merlove.com.
