Cash-strapped moviegoers have been able to vacation vicariously this summer.

"Brideshead Revisited" transported us to Castle Howard, "Mamma Mia!" flew us to a halcyon Greek island, Woody Allen brought us to Barcelona and beyond, and, now, "Bottle Shock" lets us soak in the sunny vineyards of Napa Valley.

If it ever rains in Northern California, you wouldn't know it from this movie, based on a true story but taking liberties with some details. It spins the clock back to the '70s, when most connoisseurs would have done a spit take at the notion that California whites and reds could rival the finest French wines in a competitive tasting.

But such a real-life contest took place, as "Bottle Shock" dramatizes. The competition was the brainchild of a Brit named Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman), who owned a small wine shop in Paris and opened a wine school there. He decided, in 1976, to travel to America and select some California wines to be used in a blind tasting.

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'Bottle Shock'

3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

• Starring: Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman, Chris Pine.
• Rating: PG-13 for brief strong language, some sexual content and a scene of drug use.
• Web site: bottleshockthemovie.com

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That is how he encounters a former lawyer and novice vintner, Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman), who has a chip on his shoulder the size of his mounting debt. He has a boxing ring at his Chateau Montelena Winery, a son named Bo (Chris Pine) who exasperates or disappoints him, and a suspicion that Spurrier's experiment is designed to embarrass America during its bicentennial.

"Bottle Shock" shows us what happened and how the movie's title can be interpreted in a number of ways. As you might expect, it celebrates Galileo's sentiment -- repeated here by Spurrier -- that "wine is sunlight held together by water."

Randall Miller, who shot "Houseguest" with Sinbad and Phil Hartman in Pittsburgh in 1994, directs, and he wrote the screenplay with his wife, producer Jody Savin, and Ross Schwartz. Like a wine glass filled to the very brim, it threatens to overflow when consumed.

In addition to the Barretts, its characters include an American in Paris (Dennis Farina), a fetching intern (Rachael Taylor) and a vintner (Freddy Rodriguez) who believes you can't buy your way into the business.

"You have to have it in your blood," Rodriguez's character says. "You have to grow up with the soil underneath your nails and the smell of the grapes in the air that you breathe. The cultivation of the vine is an art form, the refinement of its juice is a religion that requires pain and desire and sacrifice."

And stirring speeches, too.

But the movie shows that hardship is good for the grape and the grower, and it dramatizes a real-life twist about wine that I never knew was possible and a tasting that shocked the world's tastebuds and tasters. Pullman delivers although his character is a bit too pugnacious, but Rickman is, as always, pitch perfect.

It's not "Sideways," but the setting is glorious. It's a more stirring story than "A Good Year" and doesn't overwhelm the way the documentary "Mondovino" did. And the next time you reach for a bottle of California wine, you will be able to hold your head high and know why.

"Bottle Shock," produced by former Shadyside resident Marc Lhormer and his wife, Brenda, opens Friday but will be screened tonight at the SouthSide Works Cinema as a fundraiser for Steeltown Entertainment Project.

Tickets are $65 and include a 6:15 p.m. red-carpet walk and glass of chardonnay before the 7 p.m. movie, with a party after with wine, tapas and a Q&A session with the Lhormers. Tickets or more information: www.steeltown.org or call 412-622-1325.