Important News Flash!!!
Lino Pujia, producer and director of The New Wine Spy, just won a prize for his film tribute to Pierluigi Tolaini, a most wonderful winemaker and visionary. This short film, “Reflections of a Winemaker during Lockdown,” won the Best Philosophical Musings prize in the 2020 Wine Spectator Video Contest.
Reflections of a Winemaker during Lockdown
Under lockdown in Canada, vintner Pierluigi Tolaini was unable to return home to his winery in Tuscany before he passed away in April. His last reflections were on the similarities between vines and men, and wine and music, and the legacies they leave for the next generation. Narrated by Thelonious Monk lll, this video is a collaboration of the Monk and Tolaini families in memory of their fathers.
“There are three kinds of wine films these days: documentaries on the wine world, dramas set amid the vines, and Charlie movies.” Wine Spectator
Director, Lino Puija (Duel of Wine) and Sommelier, Charlie Arturaola ( El Camino del Vino and Duel of Wine) have worked together in the past making the successful film, Duel of Wine. They have a good track record, and Charlie, a famous sommelier and now actor, is a very popular character. The first preview of Wine Spies was at the Venice Film Festival, 2019, and received very good reviews.
Charlie Arturaola used his 30 years of wine experience as the backdrop for his first movie, El Camino del Vino. It screened at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) that boasts the largest public attendance of any annual film festival. Also the San Sebastian Film Festival, (Spain) and the Mar del Plata Film Festival in Argentina, where it won the prestigious International Federation of Film Critics Award (The FIPRESCI Prize), and was translated into eight languages. The movie sold in 11 markets.
The Duel of Wine, Arturaola’s second film, a comedy, was presented at the Venice Film Festival and also screened in Montreal, Canada, and in the Valladolid International Film Festival, one of the most important festivals in Spain.
These festivals are looking forward to Charlie’s new movie, and we expect to see the same success, if not more, with The New Wine Spy.
