Troy and Jill Campione were on the couch watching a Disney sing-along skit and sipping Piper-Heidsieck Champagne when inspiration struck. The six-time Video Contest finalists decided to add their own wine-centric lyrics to Beauty and the Beast‘s hit song “Be Our Guest” for this year’s “Wine at Home” theme, and film a music video. The end result, “Drink the Best in House Arrest,” took first place in this year’s Wine Spectator Video Contest.
The homemade video was shot over the course of two days, almost entirely on an iPhone, and voice recorded in a closet. “Since the video was a musical parody, we had to conjure our inner thespians and bring it all to the screen, a menagerie of hidden talents including singing and dancing, all while drinking and juggling a glass of wine,” Troy Campione told Wine Spectator. “Plus, we needed to synchronize our on-camera shenanigans with our pre-recorded song.”
Troy’s passion for wine started in 2000, when he moved to California and began hosting business dinners. He says the song’s lyrics borrow from his extensive tasting at events such as Wine Spectator‘s Grand Tour, and sommelier classes. Luckily, the filmmaking responsibilities were handed to his daughter, Madison, who shot and co-directed the production, along with videos from previous year’s contests. It has now become the “Campione family tradition.”
This year’s biggest challenge for the Video Contest veterans was working with animals. Although it felt like a wild card, their rescue pets Benji and Beauty performed on cue, “leading us to believe that they may have had acting careers in their past,” Campione said.
This year’s contest came during a difficult year, and the Campiones wanted to show viewers that “Wine provides an important social reprieve where good times can be had and shared, even if from a distance … that your penciled-in French mustache doesn’t have to be perfect when you are having fun.” The Campiones’ Grand Prize includes two full weekend passes to Wine Spectator’s New York Wine Experience in 2021, where the video will be screened for more than 1,000 attendees.
This year’s second-place winner, “New Normal,” from Stoller Wine Group, focused on how wine and technology have brought us closer together during the pandemic. The video gives viewers a glimpse of the isolation, uncertainty and negativity that the pandemic has created through the lens of a young woman’s experience, but offers a hopeful message about wine’s power to transport us, and that our wine-tasting friends are virtually just a click away.
“We felt that it was important to capture the ways we have all been communicating, coming together and ultimately escaping, if only briefly, by showing how wine can whisk you away to another world,” Stoller marketing director Jenna LaCroix told Wine Spectator.
This year’s third-place winner, “2020: A Year to Shred,” takes viewers on a skateboard ride, delivering wine to friends around the city in a safe manner. The short video was created by Thai filmmaker Tina Termsomket, who also won the Video Contest in 2013. With special effects, a touch of humor and a skateboard primarily made out of a wine barrel, Termsomket shows viewers how “Wine at Home” can still be safely enjoyed and shared.
Catch the rest of the inspiring 2020 Video Contest finalists, and find your own favorite among our winners, finalists and honorable mentions.