Original subtitles

No, no, no, no, no.

First you swish the wine around in your mouth.

Then you drink it. No, then you spit it out. Are you kidding me? A hundred

people are going to waste that great wine?

No. They're not here for the last weekend, Billy.

The wine conference is a chance to smell, to swirl, to tickle the palate. I

don't know. It's kind of like finding a beautiful woman in your bed and admiring

her lipstick.

Sure, I knew.

I knew the Court of Appeals loves to reverse lower decisions.

That's how all those old judges write themselves into the history books.

Well, it looks like you've earned a chapter or two for yourself, Counselor.

guess I've been pretty lucky.

Darling, it wasn't luck that made the oil companies clean up the shoreline.

did that. Score one for the people.

Trouble is, no sooner do we knock down one bad law than the politicians vote in

ten more.

Maybe there's room for another vote in there somewhere.

Whoa, Peter. I plead anything to the charge of politics.

Well, you never know, once in a while, even an innocent man is condemned to the

legislature.

Brilliant.

Bouquet.

Flavor.

This grape was grown with love, Ed. Time was you'd have had to send to France

for a wine like that.

And now you're doing to France in wine what the Japanese are doing to us in

cars. Just trying to help the balance of payments.

Ah.

I hope that includes the discount for the St. Gregory.

Maybe.

If you'll make my table red, your house wine.

Excuse me.

Well, how can you tell when a really good wine is really good?

If it tastes good, it's good.

If it tastes good. Well, that sounds simple enough. Maybe I just don't have a

palate. If you didn't have a palate, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference

between fried onions and blue cheese.

Christine, Francis.

Link Bridger, my right hand.

Hi. Hello.

Listen, don't be snowed by jargon. The only important thing is that you study

wine with love, like a woman.

Or a man.

Well, it's wonderful.

It's very strong.

That's what they say about red wine.

Strong as blood.

Feel like company for that?

I've already got company. 200 law students who need me to tell them that

is more to the law than defending insurance companies.

You know I love listening to you.

Nah, you'd only be bored, hon.

Besides, don't you have that invitation from the mayor's husband?

For the art show?

It would miss me.

Well, I thought you enjoyed dressing up for those things.

Well, I do.

But that's not the point.

Lucas. May I ask you something?

Uh, hon, I'm late, okay? I need to run. We'll talk later, all right?

You know what they say about you, Lucas?

If the work wasn't there, you'd make it.

I work hard because it is the only way to get anything done.

Great Pinot Noir.

It's fat, it's round.

It's full of promise.

Hey, after ten years, it better be full of a lot more than promise.

To the best Pinot Noir ever grown in California.

To the competition.

You know, if Anthony hadn't kept me out of the valley, I might not have found

that gray soil in the foothills.

And that barefoot kid working in the fields.

And what does that barefoot kid think today?

You know, no one's ever beat Anthony's Pinot Noir before.

Listen, as Joe Lewis once said, Every man's got a figure to get beat sometime.

Eh?

How about some flowers at Lucas's chair?

As good as done.

Anything else?

Christine.

Showtime again, huh? Yeah, the Keith Berwick show. He's flying up to

Lucas Todd.

And maybe some deep leather chairs.

Billy!

Hello, Michelle.

Obviously, the two of you have already met.

Oh, we've met.

Yes, I remember.

How nice to see you again.

Oh, look at this, Papa.

I went antique hunting. Old Spanish. Isn't it great?

Well, that's a rare piece.

Very fine.

Oh, I knew you'd love it.

You know Vincent's here.

For me?

It's unexpected.

Thank you, Camilla.

Do you know Vincent entered his Pinot Noir against ours in the blind tasting?

I'll use this for my tasting.

Come on, Papa.

How long are you going to keep this up? Talk to me.

I am talking to you.

But you're not listening, are you?

That's very beautiful.

Mr. Mearson, you have to let me enter my Riesling.

Jack. Jack, what happened? They won't let me enter my Riesling in a blind

tasting. Says who? Says the rules.

No homemade wines allowed.

You have to have a commercial distributor before you're allowed to

thought you wanted to enter the conference to find a distributor.

That's right. Catch 22.

Oh, no, they didn't. Can you believe it? Because of some dumb rule.

I'm sorry, Jack.

Must be something you can do.

Yeah, like go under. I put everything I own into those grapes.

I'm tapped out. If you could just get into that tasting, they'd see how good

your Riesling is.

Great Riesling. Makes my spaghetti sit up and sing, to hell with Burgundy. Wait

a minute. You eat spaghetti with Riesling?

When Dave cooks, we eat spaghetti with everything.

Yes, I think those should be okay for Pacific Heights.

And let's shoot two of those same bouquets over to the Gordons and the

on Mob Hill.

I'll call the orders in right now.

The Gordons and the Prentices.

Pretty heavy.

Just letting the right people know that the Todds are in town.

How are you, Billy?

I'm glad you decided to come in. I saw you trying to make up your mind.

I guess we're grown up now.

Grown up enough to have dinner with me and Lucas tonight?

I read about you both in the newspaper sometime.

He's quite a man.

I'd like to meet him.

Great.

Well, looks like you found a place for yourself.

Best I've ever been.

You? You said it.

It's really good to see you again, Michelle.

It's really good to hear you say my name again.

Don't let me disturb you, Mr. Bridger.

I won't.

Just checking sediment levels.

Doing a little tasting.

Your wine looks a little thin. I hope your tasting technique's good enough for

world -class competition.

Maybe you'd like a demonstration.

I'm sorry Marie couldn't be here.

She took the kids on a tour of the Bordeaux country. I'll be joining her

week.

In your bare feet?

Yes, just like the old days.

Arms around one another, singing.

Our legs aching as we danced over the grapes.

Sounds very old world.

Romantic enough.

I fell in love with the winemaster's son. We were 16. And we kissed in the

Rosa! And you...

Captured my heart forever.

Now I know the conference is the most successful ever.

Roger Damiani, will you meet Mark Danning, our director of guest

Hello, Mark. A real pleasure, sir.

Mark, you know Vincent Pallandri? Yes, Miss Pallandri.

A benevolent little wine, good -humored and slightly presumptuous.

Smells like my old puppy.

Come on, Peter, what do you think?

Not bad.

Not bad at all.

Not bad?

A quarter of a million dollars worth of prize -winning wine is a lot better than

not bad.

Sure, but I'll tell you something, Christine.

The only time we ever had wine in our house was on strictly special occasions.

You know, Thanksgiving, weddings, Christmas. We made a big thing out of

We'd get out the napkins, the trays, the old wine glasses.

Just cheap wine.

And you know what?

Tasted better than any prize winner, didn't it?

It's hard to beat Kansas City jug.

Victoria. Anthony.

How nice of you to have us up here.

Camilla. Oh, it's a terrific conference.

Well, I hope this is my Chardonnay you're serving.

Actually, it's mine.

Must I leave or will you?

Tony, after all these years.

Please. Can't we share a toast?

No toast to share.

Not even with your own brother?

I have no brother.

My brother is dead.

I didn't raise you to waste your time on a field worker.

Papa, he's a winemaker like us.

I'll show you a winemaker.

Boitano, from the Marco Vineyard.

Devereaux, from Eagle's Flight.

Ferrero.

Honorable families.

I know who they are.

Do you?

Well, when their first generations arrived in this country, they didn't

charity.

That boy has no tradition.

Sure he has. Uncle Vincent.

Why can't you let Vincent come home again?

Before you were born, before your mother died, we made a

Cabernet, Vincent and I, with our single wine above all others.

People talk about a 50 -year wine.

This one we knew would last 100 years.

No reason we couldn't make it again.

Let's bring the family together again, Papa.

Never.

This man makes me feel like I'm filled with broken glass.

I love you.

Love you, too.

I brought my birth control pills.

What do you say I stop taking them?

I thought we already talked this out. How can we have a baby now?

Oh, how about nine months from now?

Todd here.

Uh, yes, Governor.

Tonight?

Sure, sure.

Yes, I'll be there.

Goodbye, sir.

Tonight?

What about our dinner with Billy?

Oh, your friend.

Uh, look, I'm really sorry, baby.

The Governor is in Los Angeles for a conference, and he wants to have a

Oh, then fly down tomorrow.

He said tonight. I can't say no.

Is that all you're going to say?

What else is there to say?

Hello,

Angel.

You come to see the family skeleton?

Uh -oh. Come on in.

What you clearly need is a glass of your Uncle Vincent's red plunk.

Why not?

Dad thinks I'm a traitor to the family anyway.

He'll come around.

Why do you two hate each other so much?

Have you ever heard me say anything against him?

No, never, but... Your father is a great man, Camille. In his own way. Remember

that. But he tried to wipe you out.

I haven't done so badly, have I?

Not such a terrible thing living in the south of France for ten years.

Well, I heard Dad made you go.

Yesterday's headlines.

How come you're both hiding something from me?

I wish you'd try this fine wine. I wish you'd stop treating me like I'm 12 years

old. Camilla, let it lie.

The past is a painful place to visit.

Sounds just like the present.

Just tell him you make a fabulous Riesling and that issue put it under the

Damiani label.

Oh, good evening, Mr. Damiani.

Hello, Mark.

Go on, be brilliant.

Just tell him Bordeaux is the king of wine.

These are all California wines.

Did I say it was going to be easy? Come on.

Excuse me, Mr. Damiani.

May I introduce Mr. McAdoo? He'll be at your table for the tasting.

Mr. Damiani, good luck.

Thanks, Mark.

I owe you one.

It's okay. Glad to help.

Let's just hope everything comes up rosé.

How's it going?

He's making his pitch.

Jack's a real dynamo.

Mr. Damiani, just give me the opportunity, please. Sorry.

No.

Looks like our dynamo just got short -circuited.

Their daddy wins ten bucks for dressing up as a girl.

And winning the dance competition.

Well, he was a knockout.

I remember how we all got high afterwards and played stickball.

Oh, how we were going to save the neighborhood someday.

Some dream.

It's more like a nightmare.

I think of 129th Street.

And it is just a nightmare.

Yeah, I guess we are.

I guess we're lucky we all got out.

You, me.

Lucas.

You'd like each other.

Yeah, I hear he's a good guy. How'd you meet?

I went looking.

And I found him.

You know, I had to get out.

I had to get out too, but I didn't turn myself into white bread to do it.

That's a lousy thing to say.

I worked damn hard to improve myself, Billy.

I heard you were in jail.

And I heard you married the first big -time guy who asked you.

Seems that this dinner was a big mistake.

I'm sorry I hurt you.

and I'm sorry I had to go and say something stupid like that.

Remember that first day?

You were chasing my pigeon.

I knew I was going to have to either whoop you or fall in love with you.

And I kept thinking, when is this guy going to stop talking?

I guess maybe I should have whooped you good instead.

I love you.

So make a respectable man of me.

If it was up to me, I'd say let's get respectable tonight.

Sure, it's up to you.

You mean it's up to me to walk out on Papa?

Well, at least tell him that we want to get married.

I tried.

You know that.

I love him, and I want his blessing.

I'm sorry.

It's just that I'm so scared of losing you.

Oh, Link.

Good evening, Billy.

How about a nightcap?

Yeah, maybe a fast one.

That fast enough?

That's too fast to be a good idea.

It's the best idea we've had.

Why didn't we have it a long time ago?

We did.

Don't talk so much.

You always did talk so much.

You always made me want to tell you things.

What do you want to tell me now?

May I come in?

Well, I don't think that's such a good idea.

I'd like to talk. Maybe if I explain. Wait, I'll come to your suite.

What's the matter?

Whore! Are you crazy? Papa, you don't know what you're saying.

This is what I say.

You're as big a whore as your mother.

Well, the least you could have done was said goodbye.

Bad enough I work here.

Listen, I wasn't planning on breaking any rules either.

You're married, Michelle.

Am I?

Maybe you should remind Lucas.

Not the way I see it.

Do you remember when we used to make wishes?

Do you remember yours?

To be rich and famous, married to the most important guy in the world.

You know I'll never be that guy.

I know what I want.

What you want.

You're in love with the past.

I want what we had when we were kids.

The past always seems better than it really was. It's only great because it

isn't here anymore.

Faithful? Is that why he called her a whore?

Oh, easy, Camilla.

If your father said that, he must have been very upset.

He didn't mean it, I know. He meant it.

I want to know why.

I don't know why.

Only those two men know that.

But you knew my mother.

She was a wonderful woman.

She was my friend.

But it was an arranged marriage.

How do I begin to explain this to you?

Arranged marriages weren't at all unusual among the old families. And

ones? Oh, no.

Oh, no.

There was love.

The palandris don't know how to love.

Only how to hate.

Just my luck, Miss Breakfast.

Hi, honey.

Lucas, you're back early.

Well, I couldn't stay away from you. Did you miss me?

Of course.

Oh, Lucas, Billy Griffin.

Oh, Billy, hi. I've looked forward to meeting you. Michelle has told me all

about the old days.

Pleasure's all mine.

Well, maybe we can make lunch.

Sorry. I'm on duty. Late already.

Nice to meet you.

Michelle.

That's the man on the move.

Hey, I got a job for you.

Lady Howard needs you to pick up her jewels this afternoon at customs.

This afternoon?

Yeah, no problem.

I was going to trade shifts with Norm, and, well, she asked to special aid for

you.

I need some time for myself, Peter.

I'm sorry.

Well, get Norm on it, okay?

Right.

Hey, I'm sorry, Peter. Stop apologizing.

Nobody's as perfect as you'd like to be.

I have here a slightly muffled, musty character.

Isn't that marvelous?

The same grape, grown in roughly the same climate, but how different they

Okay, now we can go to the next category.

I'll give you one minute, that's all.

Very stubborn man.

And you're going to die old and alone if you keep tearing your family apart.

I hear you're a good winemaker, putting your Pinot up against mine.

Good enough to want your consent to marry Camilla.

Not while I'm alive.

You've got about as much use for the living as an undertaker.

All right, all right, I'm sorry. Your minute is up.

Why are you turning your back on Camilla? She wants you.

You want her? Take her.

Looks like you already have.

I have no brother.

Now I have no daughter.

Sorry I keep abandoning you.

Did you have a good time last night?

Billy and I just had dinner.

It was very nice.

I'm jealous.

That was a big part of your life before we met.

I never think about it. I do.

And how I was before we met.

Oh, Harvard Law Review.

Taxes and contracts and Crowther, Leslie and Smith.

Michelle.

You have given me the only happiness that I have ever known.

You've never said that to me before.

And I have built everything on what you have given me.

And now it's happened.

What's happened?

I have accepted the governor's offer.

I don't get it.

You knew.

He wanted me as associate attorney general.

I thought you wanted it, too.

Well, sure, I did.

Until it hit me that this is all that we have together.

What are you talking about?

Lucas, if we don't share each other's lives, we have nothing.

We'll have a baby.

Just give me a couple of years.

This is important.

It's always important.

Everything about you has got to be important.

Except me.

There's Mrs. Todd here to see you.

She's okay.

I'm just about done. Send her in.

Michelle?

Did something happen?

I'm going to leave Lucas.

I mean, there's nothing between us anymore.

Maybe there never was.

You know, maybe you were always in the shadows.

You're sure?

You've got to be sure.

Oh, Billy.

I have always been sure.

I hope so, Michelle.

You don't have to be sure enough for both of us.

Mrs. Cash, Mr. Pallandri.

Victoria. Anthony.

I'm sorry to take you away from your tea thing.

My Pinot Noir can look after itself.

That seems to be more than your family can do.

Victoria, you rule here.

But please don't interfere in Pallandri business.

She's not.

I asked her to call you.

I'll leave you two alone.

Are you ready to come home?

Not until you tell me the truth about Mama.

I'm sorry I hit you.

That was a terrible thing to do.

I'm sorry, too.

It made me grow up real fast.

I don't worship you anymore like I used to.

It's taken me my whole life to realize I don't need to.

But I still need a father. A father who will tell me the truth.

Maybe he will, if you go to him.

What? I said go to him.

What are you saying?

It should have ended years ago.

Oh, my God.

They couldn't keep their hands off each other.

That's not true, not Vincent.

I found them together.

You wanted the truth?

Now live with it.

He is your father.

Vincent is your father.

An ex -con.

How long is that going to last?

As long as he needs me.

Did you get bored?

Is Billy better than me between the sheets?

Stop it, Lucas.

Why?

Just tell me why.

I'll see you before your interview.

I won't let you down before the press.

Michelle, I need you.

You never knew, did you?

I was the one who needed you to get me off 129th Street.

I knew.

I've always known.

Then it's true.

No, what is true is the love your mother and I had for each other.

The family's decided she should marry Anthony.

He was the oldest.

He said he found you together.

One night, when he was away, I went to her.

He found you together.

No, I was leaving when he came back.

Nothing happened.

But if you loved each other... She married your father. She came to love

All I could ever hope to be was a friend.

Anthony never believed us.

Oh, my God.

All those wasted years.

Thanks for coming.

What happens now?

I don't know I checked out your resume

I'm sorry to disappoint you It's been a long time since I lay in the gutter

after a fight I can see

why Michelle thinks she loves you Why don't you just say what you want to say?

I neglected Michelle.

I know I drove her away.

But I also know about eight years of marriage.

Look, I'm sorry.

You think it was easy for a black man to become a senior partner in a law firm

that goes back to the Boston Tea Party?

I couldn't have done it alone.

Michelle got me through the worst times.

She has been my lover, my friend,

sometimes even my mother.

We fought the world together.

We became one person.

So you tell me, Billy, do you think Michelle can live without me?

any easier than I can live without her.

Sometimes I think we hate the people we love because they're the only ones who

can hurt us.

Are you satisfied now?

You turned Camilla against me just as you did her mother.

Oh, you poor fool.

You'd rather be alone here in the dark than be with your daughter?

Like you.

I came here as you did, to be with the wine.

It seems to be the only thing we've got left.

Whose daughter is she?

We shouldn't miss the Pinot Noir Awards, brother.

If she were my daughter, do you really think that I would let her live with you

all these years?

You're hooked on this, aren't you?

Oh, am I?

Maybe.

I enjoy it.

But you give it up?

Who says I have to give up anything?

I'm leaving Lucas. Not everything I've learned in eight years.

Sounds like you got it all figured.

I know public relations.

I know how to organize fundraisers. How to give the best parties in town.

How about settling for a barbecue and beer in the backyard?

Oh, it's incredible, Billy.

Put a hundred...

Lawyers and politicians and society folk under one roof eating pate. And you get

rumor, conspiracy, backstabbing, hate, fear, infidelity, social climbing.

I love it.

Yeah.

Pate sure suits my style.

We have totaled the scores from this afternoon's blind tastings.

Let's begin with the Johannesburg Riesling.

And the winner is bag number 16,

McAdoo Vineyards.

Yes, sir.

What I want.

Ladies and gentlemen, it seems that there's been an error of procedure.

The McAdoo Vineyard wrestling has been disqualified.

You're not going to watch the tape?

No. Let's go.

There's nowhere to go, Michelle.

Billy, what's happened?

An hour ago, we said... An hour ago, we said a lot of things.

They don't mean anything unless we do what's right.

This is right. We are right.

Be honest.

The future sure ain't what it used to be.

I know that I love you.

I love you, too.

That might just get us through the first year together.

Until I get out the pate.

Billy.

See you on the 129th.

A young man. Mr.

Damiani. I'm really sorry, sir. I...

I just didn't know any other way to get attention for my wine.

There's an old Italian proverb.

First secure an independent income.

Then practice virtue.

I tasted your Riesling.

Charming little wine.

Come see me tomorrow.

Keith,

we're going to let the audience in in just a few minutes.

Remove the flower.

Oh, Mrs. Todd, your husband's going to fit right in with the Attorney General's

staff.

Maybe.

Someday. You mean you might turn it down?

Well, all I know is my wife and I are

going on a nice long vacation.

And when we get back...

We're going to put in some time studying the younger generation.

And now we come to the Pinot Noir.

And the winner is bag number 11.

Vincente Winery.

Thank you, thank you. I don't know that I deserve this.

You know, every wine is an accident.

Any of a thousand accidents could make it less.

Too much sun.

Not enough rain.

But there's one thing that is not an accident, and that is the tradition of

and family laid down by all the palandres who've gone before me.

You speak of palandre tradition.

This wine of yours belongs to that tradition.

Any man who makes such wine is a man to respect.

I hate to say you told me so.

We've all been there.

I got an idea.

If you don't mind, I'm not exactly in the mood for wine tasting.

No, no.

Me neither. You know, I got a 15 -year -old bottle of barley corn in my office,

and I've been looking for somebody to open it up with.

Someone with impeccable taste.

Peter, you're a connoisseur.

I won't have to spit it out, will I?