Blood Into Wine

(Twinkle Cash Co. / Semi Rebellious Films)

Video Review by Adam McKibbin

For fans seeking to know more about reticent celebrities – and for press seeking to engage with them in interviews – there are few greater blessings than “other interests.”  The chances that we’d have David Lynch and Tool/A Perfect Circle frontman Maynard James Keenan in our own interview archives would be smaller if we’d come knocking about Blue Velvet and Tool instead of Lynch’s love of music and the formation of Puscifer.  Keenan has also become slightly more of a public figure since becoming a winemaker.  And in honor of a documentary subject who likes to tell it like it is, let’s tell it like it is:  if Keenan didn’t have that wine to sell, it’s hard to imagine you’d be watching a documentary on him.

Keenan, of course, is acutely aware of this fact, and there are numerous attempts at self-deprecation throughout Blood Into Wine, an engaging but flawed film that is essentially a self-consciously promotional video for Keenan’s Caduceus Cellars, his partner and viticulture mentor Eric Glomski’s Page Springs Cellars, and Arizona’s underdog foray into the winemaking world. 

The filmmakers, Ryan Page and Christopher Pomerenke (Moog), have a strong albeit largely drama-free story and a compelling protagonist with a substantial built-in audience.  For their part, they provide some gorgeous shots of Keenan and Glomski’s Arizonan stomping grounds.  They’re less effective at taking the various narrative threads and weaving them into a cohesive whole; the same applies for style, as they deviate from the narrative to try for some levity via Keenan’s considerable connections in the comedy world: an interlude with Patton Oswalt, a recurring faux-interview bit with Tim & Eric, and an end credits bit with Bob Odenkirk.  It’s all mildly amusing – for those of us who are fans – but would have worked better as bonus materials. 

At the heart of Blood Into Wine, though, is not just an interesting story but an inspiring story, at least for those who take fuel from others digging into the depths of their passion.  Keenan draws some parallels between his newer career and older career, while rejecting the assumption that one takes precedence over the other.  He is hardly an absent father, literally getting down in the trenches with his team (though he wryly notes that for all we know, he could just be doing it for the camera’s sake). The film also does a good, concise job of summarizing what goes into that bottle of wine you see on the shelf, including the courting of influencers like Wine Spectator and the scores that can make or break wine, particularly the ones from newer, smaller producers.

Blood Into Wine is not a documentary that’s likely to have its subjects come out in protest of their portrayal.  It practically seems like Keenan had final cut.  The only whiff of tension is when Glomski seems a little annoyed by Keenan’s celebrity shadow during a wine signing, but even this is a good-natured moment and is less rooted in friction between the partners than in vague condescension about the grape-illiterate Tool / A Perfect Circle fans who come out to the signings, a feeling that seems to be shared somewhat by Keenan and the filmmakers, based on who receives their focus.

But while he may cringe if you ask him a question about the meaning of “Stinkfist,” the dominant impression of Keenan is that he realizes that he’s been lucky to have a few of those great, passion-finding, meaning-bestowing “ah-ha” moments in his life – and if he can help shepherd others to those same moments, whether through a scream or a grape, well… maybe he wouldn’t mind that at all.