Dr Vino's wine blog

On Sunday, Sideways won the Golden Globe for Best Film (Comedy or Musical) and Best Screenplay (Comedy or Musical). As well as being hailed by numerous critics as the Best Movie of the Year and receiving a composite score of 94 on Metacritic (harder than a Parker 94) it is likely to be on the short list for the Oscars. All this led A.O. Scott of the NY Times to call it the most “overrated” movie of the year.

I liked the movie but am surprised that it has found such praise among critics (though it has only about a tenth the box office take as the horribly reviewed Meet the Fockers $230 million).

Anecdotal reports thus far show that the movie is having an impact on wine choices. At wine shops that I have visited recently, staff members have told me that requests for Pinot Noir, the object of one movie character’s infatuation, are way up. There is hope that wine consumption more generally may benefit although with such a relatively weak box office, the impact may only “energize the base” in political parlance. Only 12% of the population drinks 86% of the wine in America and movies like Sideways make wine enthusiasts want to taste a flight of Santa Barbara’s Pinots.

But the wine country where the movie was filmed has experienced a boom with demand for tables at featured restaurants and featured wines outstripping capacity. Even the French wines featured are feeling the effect with one bottle of 1961 Cheval Blanc going for $750 on the wine auction site winebid.com. The rising tide lifts all boats? We can but hope wine in America gets a lift upward (not sideways!) from this film.