From the team behind the award-winning Somm movies comes SOMM TV, a streaming service dedicated to the worlds of wine, food, travel, and hospitality. Husband-and-wife duo Jason and Christina Wise co-founded the brand in 2019 alongside Jackson Myers, who cast a spotlight on the sommelier profession with the first Somm film in November 2012. Jason and Jackson went to film school together, and all three worked on a PBS series that Jason directed, Christina produced, and Jackson filmed.
“It was a movie that hit at the right place at the right time,” Jason says, reflecting on the 10-year anniversary of Somm’s premiere. “It hit a zeitgeist. Previously, sommeliers were not well known. This changed that. It was kind of like a sports film. It won awards. It created our careers.”
When the production team set out to create Somm, they instantly looked to The Little Nell for both inspiration and the film’s protagonists. “When it comes to wine education, I have always considered The Nell a nucleus,” Jason says. “I think of The Nell for wine the same way I think of New York City or Milan for fashion, or L.A. for entertainment.”
The first person confirmed for the film was master sommelier Brian McClintic, who worked at The Nell in the ’90s. He brought in fellow Nell alums and master sommeliers Dustin Wilson and Sabato Sagaria, who arrived in the 2000s. Their onscreen chemistry was infectious, and the first film was such a success that a sequel, and then a third film, soon followed. Master sommelier Jay Fletcher, known as “Papa Fletch,” has played an instrumental part in educating many of The Nell’s sommeliers and, justly so, appears in all the films. Master sommeliers Bobby Stuckey and Carlton McCoy, former wine directors at The Nell, also appear in the series.
SOMM TV is the first SVOD (subscription video on demand) streaming platform and full podcast network in the wine, food, and travel space, offering exclusive new shows, films, and educational content created from the ground up. Production has taken place in notable locations around the world, from Mount Vesuvius to the Vatican, and sent the team to abandoned wineries, underwater with great white sharks, and to venues throughout The Nell during the 2022 Food & Wine Classic, including The Wine Bar and the cellar.
What’s next for the team behind the small screen? Cup of Salvation, the fourth installment in the Somm series, will be the next feature documentary from SOMM TV, followed by Ghosts of Spring Mountain, a feature documentary that tells the story of reportedly haunted wineries in Napa Valley.
Find SOMM TV online and stand by for Somm 4: Cup of Salvation, slated for release in 2023.