Returning filmmakers Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw, known for their earlier works “The Truffle Hunters” and “Gaucho Gaucho,” present “Burgundy,” a whimsical documentary exploring the wine culture of eastern-central France. Released in 2026, the film offers an affectionate but somewhat shallow look at the region’s viticultural traditions, described by critics as pleasant yet lacking significant substance or sustain.
The film opens with a title card stating, “Everything that follows is true. Exactly as we dreamed it,” a wink that signals the directors’ highly stylized approach. While visually sumptuous, the documentary often feels more like a rambling reverie than an incisive portrait of the lifestyle it depicts. The directors, who also handle the cinematography, capture eye-catchingly pictorialist visuals set to perky ’60s pop songs, creating scenes that occasionally read as sardonic critiques of wealth.
The narrative centers on Bertrand Devillard, the patriarch of a 160-year-old winemaking estate. Bertrand is portrayed as a hands-on and anxious boss, even during moments of leisure such as skeet shooting or relaxing by the pool. His grandson, Melchior, shows little interest in inheriting the family business, preferring high finance instead. This gap is filled by Enzo, a handsome young man with ambitions to one day run his own vineyard. Enzo works his way up from cleaning vats to stomping harvests, training his palate on wines he could not otherwise afford. He is self-consciously modeled after midcentury icon Jean Gabin.
Supporting characters include Céleste, a trainee sommelier and Enzo’s girlfriend; Patrick, a maitre’d at a nearby three-Michelin-star restaurant; and Guillaume, a recently separated wine critic who provides comic relief through his dating adventures, therapy sessions, and physiotherapy for repetitive strain injury caused by lifting hundreds of glasses daily.
Dweck and Kershaw maintain their signature meticulous craftsmanship, employing deliberately stilted restagings of events that likely occurred in less picturesque circumstances. Editor Pauline Gaillard’s sharp cuts are often timed to coincide with the end of contemplative wine-swirling moments. However, the film departs from strict documentary protocol by including whimsical 8mm footage of Enzo and Céleste’s relationship. While nicely shot, these sequences, including a pastiche reenactment of “Bonnie and Clyde,” feel like filler when the main storylines thin out.
In contrast to “The Truffle Hunters,” which found warmth in the relationships between old hunters and their dogs, “Burgundy” lacks a natural source of effortless charm. Consequently, the portraiture sometimes veers toward caricature. The limitations of the directors’ constructed style become apparent when real life intrudes; Enzo abruptly quits the Devillard estate to try mussel farming, causing the film to flounder as it loses its scripted trajectory.
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