The Gentleman Season 2's "corked wine" scene has caught the attention of many for its secret deeper meaning. Wine has been a centerpiece of Netflix's The Gentleman from the beginning, as the Guy Ritchie series features many expensive bottles to showcase the elite status and extreme wealth of its main characters. Funnily enough, the Horniman family's large wine collection proved critical to the series' very beginnings, as Theo James' Eddie Horniman sold their alcohol accumulation to pay off his brother Freddy's immense, life-threatening debts.
During The Gentleman Season 2, Episode 1, "The Road To Kingdom," a rather tense conversation takes place between Cico Maldini, Lady Sabrina, and Eddie Horniman. After finishing his glass of red wine, the Italian Cico exclaims "wine, wine, wine" before he is poured a glass of a French wine, not his home nation's that he was previously drinking, leading to a major reveal about his ego:
Cico: "Wine. Wine, wine, wine."
Mr. Lawrence: "Can I offer you a new glass? It's a new wine. We're onto the Mouton."
Cico: "What happened to the Masseto?"
Mr. Lawrence: "I’m afraid it’s finished. It’s a 1989."
Cico: "Ah."
Lady Sabrina tells Cico that the French wine is "not at all musty" before he draws the attention and silence of the entire table by rapidly guzzling it and slowly letting it spill out of his mouth and back into his glass. Cico is the one to break the silence in announcing that "the wine is corked," a form of spoiling that often creates a musty aroma, placing his perspective in constrast to Lady Sabrina:
Lady Sabrina: "Yes. It’s not at all musty, if that’s what you’re worried about."
Cico: *Chugs wine and slowly rejects it back into glass* "The wine is corked."
Upon catching a whif and tasting the red wine himself, Eddie admits to Cico, "You're right, the wine is corked" (it actually wasn't; that was seemingly all part of a guise to remove the Italian antagonist from the room for a one-on-one chat).
For those unaware, a corked wine often develops a musty, damp aroma and presents a dull, flat taste, losing much of its fruity flavor, although it sometimes lacks any distinct smell. Contamination occurs when wine comes into contact with the compound TCA, formed when certain chlorine-based compounds used in cleaning or manufacturing interact with the natural molds in cork bark.
The bottle of wine in question is a Château Mouton Rothschild 1989, which typically sells for around $850 today. The 37-year-old vintage just so happens to be French, and that is seemingly Cico's true problem with the wine on offer.
The Gentleman is one of the biggest Netflix original shows returning in 2026, and its popularity has already brought an early Season 3 renewal. The show acts a spin-off and spiritual successor to Guy Ritchie's 2019 hit The Gentleman.
What 'The Wine Is Corked' Really Means In Netflix's The Gentlemen Season 2
Having conceded to Cico that the wine is, in fact, corked, Eddie takes him elsewhere in the high-class household to "select another." It's there that Cico's real issue becomes clear: he criticizes Eddie, saying, "there's no Italian wine here," with almost everything on offer seemingly French.
That all leads to a dispute between Eddie and Cico, as the Englishman boldly states that "French wine is generally superior to Italian." The debate over which of the two European nations' wine offerings is better has continued for upwards of 800 years, and it's clear that the Italian Cico has a strong stance:
Cico: "You don’t like Italian wine, huh?"
Eddie: "On the contrary. I thought the Masseto held its own."
Cico: "But you pulled your face just then when you said 'rich.' It’s like Italian wine isn’t as good as French or something like that."
Eddie: "French wine is generally superior to Italian. Italians attempt to ape what the French have been doing superbly for the last 800 years."
Cico: "'Ape'? Like a monkey? So, you think Barola Riserva is a monkey wine?"
Eddie: "Well, I didn’t say that."
Cico shares an excess of anti-French sentiment, citing how "Italians invented the wine" (untrue; it came from the Caucasus region and what is now Georgia) and that the French "would be drinking their own piss if it wasn’t for [Italians]:"
"All I’m saying is, Italians invented the wine. The French were sucking off their donkeys when the Romans came and taught them the process of winemaking. The French would be drinking their own piss if it wasn’t for us."
Despite Cico's initial assertion that the wine, Eddie later attests in private that "the wine wasn't corked" and was, in fact, "the best wine of the evening."
In retort, Cico attempts to make various claims that he can "trace [his Italian] bloodline back until the time of Michelangelo," one of history's most infamous artists, who painted the Sistine Chapel Ceiling in the early 1500s.
Cico: "If I say it’s corked, then it’s corked. I’m Italian, and I can trace my bloodline back until the time of Michelangelo. So again, are you questioning my judgment?"
Eddie: "Your judgment’s hardly watertight. You bought your girlfriend a pet tiger for her birthday. And I wouldn’t play the antiquity of the bloodline game if I were you."
Cico: "And now I have the blood of a peasant?"
Cico may have asserted that his bloodline lies in Italian aristocracy, but Eddie points out that he is actually "the witless son of a used car dealer:"
Eddie: "Oh, Cico, if you were a peasant or an aristocrat, you’d be something, but you’re neither. You were born out of the morass of mediocrity. You are the witless son of a used car dealer who made his money selling Fiat 500s in suburban Turin."
Cico: "[in Italian] Fuck you and all your ancestors."
As such, one could conclude that Cico's earlier claim about the wine being corked was not just wrong, but an intentionally false statement that came from his ego. The Italian criminal wasn't just looking to insult the French wine due to his Italian pride and preference for his home nation's product, but he was looking to appear high-class (when that is not his birth) and above his fellow guests by claiming to have a higher understanding and palette for wine and its flavor profile.
This only becomes clearer given that, just before Cico's wine-induced outburst, Lady Sabrina mentions that one of the guests, Nanny, is "the King of England's right-hand man." It appears that may have sparked some jealousy in Cico's ego, making him feel the need to prove his own importance or "aristocracy."
Notably, Cico is played by Michele Morrone, an Italian actor and model who just recently began filming his next project, The Housemaid's Secret. He will reunite with Euphoria's Sydney Sweeney for a larger role as Enzo in The Housemaid sequel, coming to theaters on December 17, 2027.
