Podcast Chapters
1:46 Wine Trivia Question of the Week
4:47 A Sequel to 1990's Total Recall?
17:57 The Idea Summit (Worldbuilding Superteam)
21:22 Predictive Policing
24:33 Precrime and Minority Reports
38:38 What We Thought Back in 2002
45:19 The Original Short Story Ending
50:26 2022 Quinta das Queimas Encruzado, Dao, Portugal
53:47 2021 Conceito Brut Nature, Gruner Veltliner, Duoro, Portugal
1:02:05 Wrap-Up!
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Wine Trivia Question of the Week
Cabernet Franc is the parent grape of Cabernet Sauvignon, but it’s ALSO the parent grape of two more Bordeaux varieties. See if you can answer correctly then scroll down to the bottom of the post for the answer!
Many thanks to
for suggesting we cover this movie as a companion piece to our month’s long Wine Conversation about AI in the Wine Industry!You can also listen to this episode on your podcast platform of choice:
Today we tackle 2002’s MINORITY REPORT directed by Steven Spielberg (coming lukewarm off of AI: Artificial Intelligence) and starring Tom Cruise (coming equallly lukewarm off of Eyes Wide Shut, M:i 2, and Vanilla Sky.)
Believe It or Not
The film was originally concieved to be a sequel to 1990s TOTAL RECALL!!! With Arnie returning as his character Douglas Quaid, and the mutants of Mars birthing the “precogs” that would form the Precrime Division of the Police Department!
Alas, this “Total Recall 2” was not to be, though the writers of both the original and the sequel would continue on to pen versions of the Spielberg script, and would ultimately recieve Executive Producer credits because of it.
But we love the idea of this one character running through the whole of the Philip K. Dick universes, like The Gunslinger in King’s The Dark Tower series!
And funnily enough, they did eventually make a sequel to Total Recal in graphic novel form:
Someday soon, we’re going to tackle both the OG movie AND this comic book sequel! No idea if it’s any good, but we’re gonna find out.
Dallas’ Wine Pairing
2022 Quinta das Queimas Encruzado, Dao, Portugal
USA readers can order direct from Diniz Cellars
Encruzado is one of the great white grapes of Portugal, usually able to take oak while retaining tropical fruit notes, white florals, and high acidity keeping it fresh and liely while also rich and flavorful.
A “Quinta” is a smaller vineyard (“Herdade” being the bigger more commerical vineyards) so you know any “Quinta” is likely a family affair, small lot and artisnal wine. Dallas found that he could drink this and “he never soured on it” much like the movie, which contains a weightiness to its themes, yet retains it’s livliness with its action set pieces, pulptastic characters, and that Spielbergian touch that allows all the tones to mesh seamlessly.
Dave’s Wine Pairing
2021 Conceito Brut Nature, Gruner Veltliner, Duoro, Portugal
This is a wine made from free will and choices.
What do I mean by that? Rita Ferreira Marques’s family has been growing grapes in the cool Teja valley, south of the Douro River, for generations. Some of their vineyards are pre-phylloxera!! But Rita made the first commerical wines from these vineyards (choice #1) and then she also imported in a grape that has no buiness in Portugal: Austrian Gruner Veltliner (choice #2) for no other reason than that she loved the grape. She then decided to make a champanoise style (choice #3) sparkling wine, Brut Nature (zero sugar, choice #4.)
This wine has the complexity and body of a high end Champagne, with the fresh vibrancy of the Gruner grape, all grown in the relative heat of the Duoro.
MINORITY REPORT is all about fate vs. free will - a reminder that we always have choice, even if we choose our fate. So I wanted a wine that only existed for that ability to choose, a wine that, like with Dallas’ Encruzado, combined the weight and the light touch of Spielberg’s approach to the material.
Alternately, look for your own “wine made of choices”. A wine that is not, in 2025, a foregone conclusion, for whatever reasons. A wine that only the winemaker’s passion willed into existence.
Answer to Wine Trivia Question of the Week
Cabernet Franc is one of the parent grapes of Cabernet Sauvignon, but it is also the parent of two additional Bordeaux varieties, one equally well-known, the other less so.
And the answer is….
D) Merlot and Carmenere (correct answer) - Merlot is the second-most planted grape in the world, beaten only by its sibling, Cabernet Sauvignon (parents: Cabernet Franc + Sauvignon Blanc.)
Merlot’s parents are Cabernet Franc and the very rare Magdeleine Noire des Charentes grape. Carmenere’s parents are Cab Franc and another member of the Cabernet family, Cabernet Gros.
All “Cabernet” grapes are known for their distinctive taste of pyrizines aka green pepper. Carmenere is especially notable for this as both its parents are Cabernet grapes!
Funnily enough, Carmenere was almost extinct in its home country of France (only 70 acres are left planted) but Chile picked up the grape and now has roughly 22,000 (!) acres planted of it! However, for a long time the Chileans thought they were growing Merlot, until they DNA tested the grapes in 1994 and discovered it was all Carmenere
So Merlot and Carmenere - definitely related!
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