Impact of "Sideways" movie shows on 10th anniversary


It has been ten years since the release of the Movie "Sideways" which was the story of two guys who on a wine tour of the central coast propagated a theme of down playing the merits of Merlot and the wonders of Pinot Noir. It also played on the joys and pitfalls of over doing wine tasting.

This movie proved to be a real vine shaking event not only for the central coast but national sales of Pinot Noir.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the Sideways movie many of the communities in the region from Oxnard where the wine adventure opens to Santa Maria where it ends are featuring showing of the movie as well as promotions by many wineries and restaurants.

We have a DVD of the movie and actually dusted it off and looked at it again. Frankly we were not particularly impressed with the film on first viewing it and the rerun viewing in our den did nothing to change that original opinion.

However we were impressed on how well "Sideways" promoted not only the Pinot Noir varietal but also the wine industry as a whole. And the 10th anniversary promotions show the impact still exists.

In Solvang restaurants still get visitors who want to see for themselves the places where the film was taken and in some cases the actual tables where the actors sat. One museum has an exhibit of photos taken as the movie was being made on location.

Oxnard is using the movie as a promotion on how much the City has changed in a single decade with local wineries, restaurants and hotels involved with special pricing of wines, lodging and restaurant fare.

Many of the central coast wineries are using their wine clubs for special "Sideways" promotions.

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