GOING PLACES: The hit film 'Sideways', which is up for five Oscars tomorrow night, has brought thousands of visitors to the vineyards above Santa Barbara and sent US sales of Pinot Noir surging. Conor O'Clery follows the trail
Highway 101 winds up from the Pacific coast towards the vineyards of Santa Ynez Valley, high above the town of Santa Barbara. Just east of the junction with Route 246 is an AJ Spurs Saloon & Dining Hall, a big chalet-type restaurant featuring stuffed animals, with a stagecoach on the roof. This is the first stop for lovers of Sideways, the hit film about a wine-tasting road trip by two friends, which has been nominated for five Academy Awards, including best picture and best director, and has brought thousands of visitors flocking to the Los Padres mountains, in central California. AJ Spurs is where Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church) meet a waitress, Cammi (Missy Doty), who takes Jack home to her bed, with hilarious consequences when her husband turns up.
"People come from all over because of the movie," says Vincente Ernandes, an AJ Spurs manager, sitting at a table under the glass-eyed gaze of a massive hairy buffalo. "We had a couple of people that drove all the way from Quebec to do the Sideways tour. And some even come in here and ask if Cammi is on duty."
Invariably, he says, the tourists ask for a glass of local Pinot Noir, a wine few have tried and most know very little about. Anyone who has seen the film will appreciate why they insist on this wine. Miles, a balding, recently divorced failed writer who teaches English in San Diego, is passionate about Pinot Noir, a Burgundy variety that requires a huge amount of attention from the grower and a particular climate. The cool ocean breezes that flow over the ridge into Santa Ynez Valley help wine growers produce the ultimate dry red wine, and Miles often visits Santa Barbara wine country to taste the latest creations.
This time he has embarked on a week-long tour of the wineries with his unlikely best friend, Jack, a washed-up television actor who knows very little about wine - he drinks it while chewing gum - and wants nothing more than a final fling before getting married back in San Diego the following weekend. Miles and Jack are approaching middle age, and their lives fall apart and come together again in the course of the road trip.
Wine seeps into every frame of Sideways, serving as a metaphor for the personalities of the characters. The neurotic Miles is as fussy and as hard to like as the wine about which he rhapsodises. In a revealing scene, he is asked by Maya (Virginia Madsen), a waitress in a restaurant farther along Route 246 called The Hitching Post, who fancies him despite his crummy nature: "Why are you so into Pinot? It's like a thing with you."
When he replies, it is as if he is talking about himself. "I don't know," he says. "It's a hard grape to grow, as you know. It's thin skinned, temperamental, ripens early. It's not a survivor, like Cabernet, that can grow anywhere and thrive even when neglected. Pinot needs constant care and attention and in fact can only grow in specific little tucked-away corners of the world. And only the most patient and nurturing growers can do it, really, can tap into Pinot's most fragile, delicate qualities. Only when someone has taken the time to truly understand its potential can Pinot be coaxed into its truest expression. And when that happens the flavours are the most haunting and brilliant and subtle and thrilling and ancient on the planet."
We see Miles swill a Pinot Noir vigorously in tight circles and bury his nose in the glass to savour the aroma. "A little citrus," he ruminates. "Maybe some strawberry . . . passion fruit . . . and there's even a hint of, like, asparagus . . . or like a nutty Edam cheese." Not since the publication of The Heartbreak Grape: a California Winemaker's Search for the Perfect Pinot Noir, by Marq De Villiers, in the early 1990s, has Pinot Noir got such publicity.
What doesn't taste so good to the lovers of fine wines is common-or-garden Merlot. Miles is as contemptuous of Merlot as he is enthusiastic about Pinot Noir. He considers Merlot an insipid wine made from a mass-produced grape, lacking in depth and complexity, unsophisticated and extrovert - just like Jack. At one point, when about to join company in a restaurant, Miles tells Jack: "If anyone orders Merlot I'm leaving. I am not drinking any - Merlot! No going to the dark side."
Since Sideways first appeared on US cinema screens there has been a dizzying surge in sales of Pinot Noir and a slump in Merlot. Being as susceptible as any other cinema-goer, I played a small part. After picking up a bottle of Pinot Noir - not my usual wine - in the local wine store back in Manhattan, the owner said, expressionless: "So you've just seen Sideways, right?" Indeed I just had. He sighed happily. "People are coming in and straight off asking to be directed to the Pinot Noir," he said. "I have to keep restocking." What about your sales of Merlot, I asked. "They're down, and I suppose you won't touch it now," he replied, almost mockingly.
The fact that he was right is testimony to the advocacy power of this wonderful film. It has the effect of making one fear that there would be a horrified gasp from other customers, or a sneer of contempt from the wine waiter, if one ordered a glass of Merlot in a trendy restaurant.
The effect has been felt in off-licences across the US. Sales of Pinot Noir soared by 22 per cent in the four weeks ending January 15th, compared with the same period a year ago. Blackstone Pinot Noir, from California, did best, jumping 147 per cent in the 12 weeks after the film opened, on October 22nd. Constellation, the label's owner, planned to sell 25,000 cases in 2004 but instead sold 46,000. This Pinot frenzy couldn't come at a better time for US wine producers, who have been hurt by a grape surplus and competition from imports.
Merlot sales may have gone down because of the film, although this is not the case in Santa Barbara wine country itself. "The people here know their Merlots and like them," says Vincente Ernandes. The visitors like to sample not just Pinot Noir but also Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and even the lowly Merlot.
At Santa Barbara Region Chamber of Commerce, in the town of Santa Barbara, 40 minutes' drive to the south, Randy Reetz, a tourism officer, tells me that touring the vineyards to visit Sideways sites has become a small industry.
His office provides glossy copies of Sideways: The Map, a brochure showing the whereabouts of 18 locations from the film. These include the big wineries, the motel where Jack and Miles stay, the Los Olivos café where Miles slips away to call his uncaring wife (prompting Jack to scold him when he returns: "Did you drink and dial?") and the coffee shop in the picture-postcard village of Solvang, where Jack grumpily insists that Miles's gloominess must not thwart his attempts to get lucky before the wedding.
"Please write that the movie was shot when the countryside was dry and brown and that it is now all green and lush and gorgeous," says Reetz. "And say also that there are nicer motels than the one shown in Sideways." (He's right about that.)
Two tour companies now offer guided coach tours of the valley, stopping off at the restaurants and wineries and letting passengers scan the dining places for Cammi and Maya. And one of the best-selling books in the Borders store in Santa Barbara is Sideways: The Shooting Screenplay, by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, based on the novel by Rex Pickett.
For information about Santa Barbara wine country visit www.santabarbaraCA.com. For guided tours try visiting www.welovewines.com
GRAPE EXPECTATIONS
Pinot Noir is a dry red wine with, typically, aromasof baked cherry, plum and damp earth. It has a smooth, crisp finish and high acidity. It is produced in California, Oregon, France (Burgundy and Champagne), New Zealand and Australia. It accompanies lamb, pork, grilled salmon, game, beef stews and coq au vin. Because it requires a cool climate it is grown in smaller quantities than other varieties and is often expensive. In the right soil it yields many of the finest, most aristocratic wines. It is the major component of most champagnes.
Source: The Little Black Book of Wine, by Elizabeth Poyet