Dirty Dancing with Wine at The Crescent
- Tony Elvin
- Jun 8
- 6 min read
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Dirty Dancing event on Sunday afternoon. We had a fantastic time and hope you did too.
The Kellerman's selection of Summer Wines
As promised, here are the stars of the show, our five Summer Wines:
Not just any Prosecco, this is still produced using the traditional Glera grape, but its grown on the steep slopes of Valdobbiadene, a province of the Veneto, famous for the very best Prosecco. This has aromas of golden apples, acacia and honey with a delicate off-dry palate, fresh citrus flavours and fine bubbles.
On the Northern tip of the South Island, the most famous Sauvginon Blanc region in New Zealand, but this is 100% Riesling. Riesling's home is in Alsace, eastern France, but in New Zealand this typically steely fresh wine is fruiter with apricot and mandarin notes and a hint of ginger. A zesty sherbet finish keeps you coming back.
Winemaking in the Loire goes back to Roman times. Famous for Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc, this is from the village of Vouvray and made from 100% Chenin Blanc.
A versatile grape that can make delicious dry, medium or even sweet dessert wines. The fruit is picked early morning and fermented in stainless steel to retain freshness. Peach and citrus on the palate.
Delicate, copper coloured Rosato. Pinot Grigio makes white wine, so how is this pink? This is 100% Pinot Grigio but instead of having a pure green skin, it is mottled with pink, helping to colour the wine. Vallagarina Valley’s continental climate and calcium soils help to produce this elegantly fresh and crisp rosato.
Floral and peachy notes on the nose, orchard fruits, redcurrant and zesty citrus on the palate with a deliciously fresh finish.
Wine 5 - Oliver Dubois Pinot Noir, Touraine, Loire Valley, France - Majestic £11 (£9 in mixed case of six)
We're back in the Loire, this time to the village of Touraine.
Pinot Noir from Burgundy is expensive but from the Loire Valley, its a steal at the price.
On the nose cherry, raspberry, cranberry, smoke and spice. Redcurrant and cherry on the palate.
The Kellerman's Vacation Gallery
Our Kellerman's Dirty Dancing Trivia
Vestron execs thought the movie would fail, it did bad in test screenings and they planned to show it for a weekend before sending to home video. Lucky they didn’t as it ended up making £170 mill worldwide in that first run.
Dirty Dancing was the first film to sell a million copies on home video, and was the top hire in 1988.
Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes sang the iconic Time of My Life but Medley originally refused to do it as the movie sounded like a ‘bad porno’. Song went on to win an Oscar, Golden Globe & Grammy.
The name of the film actually came before the movie was written. Producer Linda Gottileb sat down with the writer Eleanor Bergstein and the writer said ‘I don’t really have a story but it should involve Latin Dancing. I grew up in Brooklyn, my father was a doctor, I was one of those kids who used to go across the tracks to go dirty dancing.” Immediately, Gottlieb replied, “That’s a million-dollar title! Now we’ll figure out the story.’
Baby was based on Bergstein’s experiences as she took part in “Dirty Dancing” competitions when her family spent the summers in the Catskills. Baby was a nickname.
Filming started in early September but weather was so bad filming continued into Winter, leaves needed to be painted green and the lake scene nearly gave them hypothermia it was so cold. Filmed over and over.
Swayze hated the line, nobody puts baby in the corner, asked for it to be taken out of the movie but when seeing it in the final movie loved it.
Most people don’t recognise Jennifer Grey as playing Baby anymore as she had a nose job.
Jennifer Grey was so scared by 'the lift' that they did it once in the audition and once on film, she never wanted to do it again.
When we watch the movie and see characters fall in love we don’t think the love could stop when the cameras stop rolling .. but it does, they couldn’t stand each other. Patrick Swayze said 'We did have a few moments of friction when we were tired or after a long day of shooting. She seemed particularly emotional, sometimes bursting into tears if someone criticized her. Other times, she slipped into silly moods, forcing us to do scenes over and over again when she’d start laughing.”
They had actually had a history of falling out and had done so already during filming for 1984’s Red Dawn. Swayze had to convince Grey to be in Dirty Dancing. They patched it up and delivered great screen tests but then their relationship deteriorated again to the point where they were facing off against each other before each scene. The producer sat them down made and them watch the screen tests to reinvigorate the chemistry for love scenes, it worked and they knew what they needed to do.
There are some big differences in age between the actors and their on screen personas, Johnny should be 24, he was actually 34, and Baby is supposed to be 18 but was actually 26. During Jennifer Grey's audition she had five minuntes to prove that she could play a teenager and actually dance.
Johnny supposed to be a dark and brooding Italian played by Billy Zane but his dancing wasn’t good enough so Patrick was cast.
Filming started in early September with a heatwave of 41 degrees, ten people passed out but filming continued into Winter, dropping to 4 degrees. Leaves needed to be painted green and the lake scene nearly gave them hypothermia it was so cold, especially as it was filmed over and over.
Patrick insisted on doing own stunts. During the log scene, he kept on falling off the log and injured his knee so badly he had to have fluid drained from the swelling. Whilst Jennifer Grey did most of her own dancing, she did have a body double for the log.
Jennifer Grey actually stripped naked in the Cry to Me love scene, but test audiences didn't like it .. and it didn't make the deleted scenes either!
Patrick Swayze was offered $6 million to asppear in a sequal but he wasn't a fan of sequels and turned it down.
When asked why Dirty Dancing has endured for so long, Patrick had this to say "It's got so much heart, to me,", "It's not about the sensuality; it's really about people trying to find themselves, this young dance instructor feeling like he's nothing but a product, and this young girl trying to find out who she is in a society of restrictions when she has such an amazing take on things."
Fancy a Dirty Dancing holiday? The resort is not actually in New York State's Catskill Mountains but in the South at the The Pembroke in Mountain Lake resort, Virginia.
They host three Dirty Dancing weekends a year, with dinners, a sock hop, a screening of the movie, a watermelon toss, group dance lessons, and a scavenger hunt.
The property now features a Dirty Dancing gift shop and displays the guest registry page with Patrick Swayze's signature for Room 232. A replica "Room 232" guest key is for sale in the gift shop.
Do you remember Point Break with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze? In Dirty Dancing Patrick drives a 57 Chevy, and in Point Break he tells Keanu that his surfboard looks like a 57 Chevy he once owned.
The cast and crew stayed at the Lodge (Kellerman's) as it was in a very remote location.
Rehearsals quickly became parties involving nearly every cast member, even non-dancers such as Jack Weston. The dancing and drinking was almost non-stop, actors and actresses began identifying with their characters. Eleanor Bergstein built upon this, encouraging the actors and actresses to improvise in their scenes but said no matter how intimate or "grinding" the dancing, no more physical contact allowed. It all helped to create a fantastic tension and vibe on screen.
We hope you had an amazing time and look forward seeing you again soon at one of our upcoming events.
Tony, Baby, Johnny and the Kellerman's Crew
PS Here is a quick couple of videos for you, Rosana by Toto, the one I was talking about featuring Johnny and Penny! And .. a quick reminder of tonight’s fun.
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