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Contributors
Doug Gamble- Contributor
Doug
Gamble is a former writer for President Ronald Reagan and
resides
in Carmel. [go to Gamble index]
 The
Side Effects of "Sideways"
The
wine surge…
[Doug Gamble] 3/2/05
Although “Sideways” did not win an Academy Award
for best movie at Sunday night’s Oscar ceremonies, it’s
a champion as far as California’s Santa Ynez Valley winegrowers
and the region’s tourism industry are concerned.
Filmed in the area
about 40 miles north of Santa Barbara, the movie has allowed
Santa Ynez to say, “Take that” to
the state’s more famous wine-growing regions such as Napa
Valley, and has made a star of Southern California pinot noir.
The wine is center stage in the adventures of two buddies out
for a good time before one of them gets married.
So many tourists
are either pouring into Santa Barbara County or plan to, to
follow in the footsteps of the film’s characters,
Miles and Jack, the Santa Barbara Conference and Visitors Bureau
has published a map showing how to retrace their movements. Ten
thousand “Sideways” maps were snapped up within a
month of their availability and 30,000 more were printed. There
have been more than 5,000 downloads of the map from the Bureau’s
web site.
The movie has also
had a profound impact on a Buellton locale, the Hitching Post
restaurant, featured prominently in the film.
Requests for reservations are said to have tripled since the
film’s release last October, and a three-year supply of
the restaurant’s napkins, 50,000 in all, have been snagged
by souvenir-hungry diners over the last four months. Nearby Solvang
is also seeing a movie-fueled tourism boost.
Thousands of “Sideways” fans are expected to be
attracted to the April 9 Santa Barbara County Vintner’s
Festival near the Firestone Vineyard, whose barrel room is shown
in the movie. And in another display of Hollywood’s ability
to influence cultural trends, sales of pinot noir are reported
to have increased nationwide since the movie’s release,
while sales of merlot, disparaged in the film in profane terms,
have dropped.
One thing most drinking
movies have in common, beyond an abundance of Academy Award
nominations, is the stark reality of alcoholism.
But “Sideways” marks a change in the way Hollywood
has traditionally portrayed alcohol consumption, shifting from
hard stuff to wine and tragic to trendy.
Whereas most of the
famous drinking movies such as “The
Lost Weekend,” “The Days of Wine and Roses,” and “Leaving
Las Vegas” -- with six Oscars among them -- plunge their
stars into a dark, booze-soaked abyss, “Sideways” lets
the sun in and showcases wine appreciation as an art. Instead
of giving us characters we pity or view with contempt for their
self-destructive elbow-bending, Hollywood this time serves up
characters for whom alcohol is a bond rather than a crutch, with
wine a metaphor for life.
I suspect the movie has also done a favor for wine snobs. While
someone in real life spouting the esoteric qualities of a particular
vintage is often obnoxious, it is easier to take, even endearing,
coming from the sympathetic character Miles, mired in depression
over his personal and professional life.
As a wine drinker
known to commit such faux pas as sniffing a twist cap, I found
myself envying his knowledge of wine. Next
time I encounter a connoisseur who describes a wine’s taste
as a soupcon of asparagus with just a flutter of nutty Edam cheese,
I’ll be less inclined to be put off and more likely to
think of that person as just like Niles.
But while California
pinot noir is surfing the crest of “Sideways’” popularity,
the movie itself rode in on a wave of increased demand for U.S.
wines in general, with recently released figures showing 2004
wine exports 28 percent above the previous year. Ninety five
percent of exports came from California vineyards, where a gradual
increase in average temperatures over the years has caused grapes
to accumulate more sugar, resulting in higher alcohol content.
The number one overseas
market for California wine is the United Kingdom with one in
seven bottles consumed there coming from
this state. If the French soon start complaining that their wine
sales are going sideways, it’s only sour grapes. tRO
California-based Doug Gamble contributed speech material to
Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and writes a twice-monthly
column for the Orange County Register and CaliforniaRepublic.org.
Copyright
2004 Doug Gamble
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