Time to settle the ‘Sideways’ score

After the film Sideways, word reached all the way to Australia that winemakers in the US were having a hard time shifting Merlot sales. Conversely around the same time as the film’s release, Pinot Noir sales surged.

I am now in California working at Hawkes’ tasting room in Sonoma and thoughts drift to the 2004 film.  It’s come up in conversation a couple of times with patrons and even though the two lead characters, Miles and Jack, didn’t reach this far north in their wine travels (they travelled Santa Barbara wine region), the running thread of ‘Pinot is good, Merlot is bad’ still sticks nearly 10 years from the film’s release.

“So, why did he have such an aversion to Merlot?” I ask my tasting room partner Douglas, a Sonoma local.

The he I’m referring to of course is wine-aficionado, Miles, who has a bordering on neurotic dislike of Merlot.

Let me segue to the Merlot we’re serving in Hawkes’ tasting room.  Our merlot grapes are grown on clay and shale, and make the best tasting grape possible.  The current release 2008 Merlot we’re serving in the tasting room is a superb drop.  I bought a bottle after my inaugural Hawkes’ tasting and selfishly enjoyed this by myself one weekend at my friend’s cute little art deco apartment in the Marina District I rented from her while she herself was at a bunch of wineries.

Douglas had a good theory.

“Well, for a long time, everyone was drinking Merlot. And it’s an easy grape to grow, so there was a lot of Merlot produced in California.  But not all Merlot produced tasted good. In fact, a large percentage of it was pretty bad.  So people, discerning as they are, were turned off.”

An irony in the film however, and the last laugh with Merlot, is that the red wine Miles so coveted and drank after the wedding of his best pal, is (I hear) a Merlot blend.

Photo - scene from the film Sideways.