The first of two movies about the landmark Paris tasting of 1976 is set to make Napa Valley famous all over again when it hits theaters in major markets next Friday.

“Bottle Shock” is a wine story, a love story and a trip back to a time when some of the best rotten grape juice in the world was free to taste. Assuming the movie — which previewed in Calistoga Saturday with the screen stars and other VIPs on hand — got it right, think less traffic, more hair, plum-smelling chardonnay paired with marijuana and the super sounds of the ’70s.

Vintner Jim Barrett, whose Chateau Montelena chardonnay outperformed the French wines at the 1976 tasting and whose winery played host to the premiere, swears the movie is mostly fictional. Controversially, a character based on former Chateau Montelena winemaker Mike Grgich, the man who helped make the winning chardonnay, is nowhere to be seen in the film.

But outside of the Napa Valley, such facts and nuances may be meaningless to viewers. What they will care about is if “Bottle Shock” is an entertaining movie and there is enough storytelling magic to make it worth a 10 buck theater ticket.

This movie is not like the charming “Sideways,” in that you are likely to want to own it on DVD. But it’s no “Ishtar,” either.

It’s a pleasant 108 PG-13-rated minutes, with some great laugh lines.

Alan Rickman steals the show as the witty wine merchant Steven Spurrier. Bill Pullman pulls off devastation and humiliation with grace as Jim Barrett, and Chris Pine is a lovable loser as the young Bo Barrett.

Calistoga stars as itself.

The real shock to the Joe Sixpacks of the world may be that Napa wine’s vaunted 21st-century reputation had humble beginnings and a blue jeans mentality that persists in some of its 20th century pioneers today, Jim Barrett among them.

At the movie’s premiere at his winery in Calistoga on Saturday, Napa Valley VIPs and Hollywood actors celebrated the launch of the movie. Napa County District Attorney Gary Lieberstein, Copia CEO Garry McGuire and Calistoga Mayor Jack Gingles rubbed elbows with a host of people who had a hand in making the film.

In one section of the winery, planners set up a small red-carpet area where Rickman discussed the film and Pullman told a guest that he thinks being fried by a lighting bolt in Montana while fixing a broken sprinkler would be a noble way to die.

Pullman also said he will never be a wine lover. He lost his sense of smell in his youth somehow, which also restricts his palate. But he said he still could relate to his “Bottle Shock” character. The movie was put together relatively quickly, and Pullman said things came together pretty well.

“In the strain to get it done, sometimes it’s hard to recognize everyone’s contribution,” he said.

Rickman was bored with questions about his favorite haunts in Napa Valley, but offered the key to his success in portraying Spurrier: “I’m English eccentric and I’ve always liked to play English eccentric characters — they’re determined.”