G,
Hope you had fun in Chi-town.
QOTD: I was mad at sideways because I thought there would be more about wine and less about infidelity.

QOTD: Loved the movie regardless. I love the irony of Miles being an expert at wine and terrible with women. Jack is skilled with women and knows nothing of wine. Both continually try to impart their wisdoms in these areas to each other to no avail.

QOTD: Mad at Sideways? Nah, gets people excited about a varietal I’m happy to see a lot of focus on. Mad at you for outing Elke? Maybe, we thought that was our little secret and now > one hundred billion vayniaks > know about it. If Elke goes up in price now, I’m sending you a bill! 🙂

Maybe we’ll follow your request to drink a fantastic bottle of wine this weekend by opening the ’01 Elke Pinot…

Hmmmm Sideways. Angry how it raised the prices on Pinot Noir. Don’t forget, however, it may have lowered to price on some excellent merlots at the same time!

QOTD. Sideways allowed me to go out and try many pinot’s all over the price range, which allowed me to conclude, it is a dramatically overpriced and hyped grape!! Lots of good vino, but way more average tasting stuff, and hell there’s a whole lot better value out there.

I loved Sideways, but it spawned a jillion cheap $20.00 and under pinots. Now I don’t even know what pinot is really supposed to taste like. Waterered down cherry juice is the most frequent version I see.

QOTD: Ok. “Sideways”: Good movie (not spectacular, but pretty good), and I think Paul Giamatti is an extremely talented actor. HOWEVER, I’m a little upset about how it has changed the wine market. I was not a huge wine fan before the movie, but it wasn’t the movie that turned me on to wine. I’m upset that it is impossible to find a decent Pinot Noir (regardless of where it is produced) in the U.S. in the $10-$12 range since the popularity of that movie, and what ticks me off even more is that even the Pinots in the low teens from CA can be rediculously over-rated. What’s MORE is that the varietal is being made (mostly in CA) completely out of character, being more of a fruit bomb than the elegant wine that Pinot should be.

BUT what pisses me off the most is that there are more people now than ever in the US that think they know so much about wine after seeing the movie, and think that they are connosseirs just because they order a Pinot. Obviously I’m talking about my customers at the restaurant, but it’s annoying. The worst thing is probably that so many of these Pinot-loving connoisseurs turn their nose up at Merlot with no reason to back it up. Honestly- I’m not a huge Merlot fan, mostly because there are a lot of watery, seemingly tanninless Merlots made from CA these days. BUT I’ve also had a few really good Merlots and Cab-Merlot blends that have a great balance of fruit and tannin structure with that great chocolate undercurrent.

I guess that overall I’m glad that some people have become more interested in wine after watching the movie, but I’m upset that the U.S. market has been thrown off kilter because of it.

Fix up, look sharp!

QOTD: It was such a funny movie. A grown man throws a fit in a parking lot because he might be served merlot. It’s not like he’s being forced to eat at Casa Bonita (Colorado reference). And if his childish ouburst is not enough indication to the audience that the whole thing is just funny, the guy also steals from his mother to be there in the first place. Comic gold with little didactic tendency. Who takes that guy’s advice? (A lot of people, I suppose.)

Yeah Gary lookin’ sharp with the haircut and fancy threads. Nice surprise for a Friday Ep. Gary I can’t tell anymore if you’re parody’ing yourself relative to the Vayniac vids! 1992 Macdonald’s fries before they changed the formula combined with the smell of a hundred pushups? Campbell’s chicken soup broth with fingernails? I half-expected to hear you pulling out the pickles and cat pee smells for Pinot next. And wow pretty racy with the Christina comment! QOTD: Not angry, but it is a drag when prices go up because people became aware of this exciting “new” discovery Pinot Noir, and prices were already challenging for the fickle varietal before that. Chehalem is a prime example, and I can say this because I lived in Portland for a few years and we drank a ton of Pinot while there. Is it a nicely made Pinot with great mouthfeel? Yes. But most places it’s 40 bones and I just don’t see it as a worthwhile QPR. I’d rather buy the Elke at 25 (based on your description) or even two bottles of grenache and/or shiraz at half the price that have the same score and overall are more satisfying.

Great show, Gary (I’m playing major catch-up on your shows this weekend). 1992 McDonald’s french fries?

QOTD: Loved the movie, not for its wine-stuff, but for its story and characters. Was drinking PN before the film, but not angry with the increased PN popularity–seems we have more Pinots to pick from these days!

I was gifted with the Sideways book and movie, and I whole-heartedly agree with #104: If you enjoyed the movie, you will likely LOVE the book. And if you hated the movie, I really feel that you will still enjoy the book. The book is well-written, and it provides a lot more details about the store wine tasting experiences that one can have/witness/be a part of (Gary: Here’s a good QOD for you–What’s the CRAZIEST behavior or thing that you ever saw (or did! 🙂 when you attended a wine tasting? :-). When you get a clutch of folks around a table of free wine, especially when those wines are expensive, some strange stuff can happen. I know that here in St. Louis when we still had a Brown Derby wine store, there was a guy who would come in to the wine store, get a Riedel glass off the shelf, purchase it at the counter, and then go to the tasting table, taste his free wines, and leave his paid-for Riedel glass behind! Every single time!

In closing: You should “seek out” Sideways: A Novel.
Get it at the library so that you don’t have to pay anything. Here are some reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/Sideways-Novel-Rex-Pickett/dp/0312342519/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/102-6791406-6666569?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177249015&sr=8-2

Also, for people who were offended by the 2 main characters–if we never see movies that contain characters whom we don’t like, and if we never read any literature that makes us sometimes violently disagree with the author, then where will this eventually lead us? To me, this would be utter boredom. In real life, I wouldn’t be befriending Miles and his best friend, but on the other hand it is true that there really are guys out there who are acting just like each of those 2 characters.

I love California pinot, esp Russian River Valley, Sonoma Coast, Santa Lucia Highlands, and Santa Rita Hills. I also love Merlot. I love red Burgundies, but hate the rip-off pricing.

I hated Sideways not because of anything it did or did not do to the wine market, but because it was such a dreadfully horrible movie. I could only get about 45 minutes into it before having to switch to the BASS Pro Shopping Network or something similar that was far more entertaining.

QOTD: OK, how can I be angry at a movie? I rather liked Sideways when I saw it. I mean, come on. Virginia Madsen is rather alluring, don’t you think? Do I like that Sideways made Pinot Noir the hot varietal and hurt Merlot sales? Well, no. But I am not angry at a movie. That’s just irrational.

Opened a special bottle this weekend after all, not the 1973 MadDog 20/20. Actually opened two great wines, Viking Vouvray Cuvee Aurelie 2002, great white, out of this world, highly recommended if you like intense, heavy honey toned whites. Supposed to be Chenin Blanc, but you can never tell with the French. The other bottle just blew me away, 2004 El Nido Clio, WOW! Go find it, for $34 there is nothing like it. That has to be one of the most enjoyable wines I had in years. The bouquet is so good, that you just want to sit there just smelling the glass for a while, and is followed throughout the taste, mid-palate and finish.

QOTD: “Sideways” was a bit too depressing for me. Kind of a bad dream and I wanted to wake up. Cheval-Blanc from a paper cup, spooky! Enjoyed all the wine references, however, especially his monologue on what Pinot means to him. That was the “changing the wine world” moment.

There is no question it had an effect on the wine world. One winery was VERY happy that they had just purchased a huge Monterrey Pinot vineyard, and they are taking advantage of the opportunity big time.

Remember that Pinot was already pretty pricy before the movie. You were lucky to get a decent representative below $20. Now there are more choices on the market, and some great Central Coast producers from Santa Barbara County and Paso are finally getting some of the recognition they deserve. Check out graperadio.com and their archive for Pinot Days a couple of months ago.

Merlot needed a gut-check. Too many people were producing something red in a bottle and labeling it Merlot because they knew it would sell. It was giving a bad name to the most excellent CA producers, like Pride and Duckhorn.

Gary, Mooooocho Thanks for a Pinot Noir
(my favorite since da mid 80’s) Episode!!
I slobbered allover myself watchin’ ya
down dose gems!!

QOTD: I was in a panic at first when Sideways
came out. But all-in-all it hasn’t affected
my Pinot allocation/consumption as I thought
it might.

How could anyone get mad at Paul Giamatti???
“If anyone orders merlot I’m leaving. I am not drinking any F$@*ing merlot!”

Check him out in Cinderella Man and The Illusionist.

QOTD: I love “Sideways”, for all reasons: one because it was a great movie, two because it got me thinking about wine in a way I never had before. It increased my interest and my curiosity; not just for pinot, but for all wine, and especially for exploring more of the beautiful state in which I live (CA, peeps..!) and I have learned and experienced so much since then. Sure, it’s Hollywood, but how could it possibly have ruined anything for anybody?? I thought we were here to CHANGE THE WINE WORLD! Aren’t we?!?! It’s my way of thinking that to say the movie ruined pinot noir is to maintain an elitist attitude about wine. No way, man. If you love it, you love it. Period! There’s room for everyone. Thanks for doing this episode, Gary. 🙂

Plus, I did that scene from “Sideways” [between Miles and Maya] in my acting class… and it was AWESOME. [Patting myself on the back…] Ha ha ha!! And, ps I didn’t read any of the other comments before I posted, but yeah, I guess if it drove the prices up then yes, that would be a reason it ruined pinot… but pinot is so gooooood… isn’t it worth it? Besides, everything costs more these days. I just paid $3.45 a gallon for gasoline…. disgusting! Pinot is much more useful. 🙂

Gary,

Two quick questions:

1)Could you stop abusing the wines? Watching you use $50+ wine to wash your glass hurts me. Some of us po’ folk use water to rinse our glasses. Your flippant wasting of great juice makes me wonder: are there Vayniaks who hangout outside your store to get the “crumbs” left after the episode?

2)What’s up with your scoring system? In recent epsiode, you described a wine as “boring” and “average,” yet gave it 86 points?! Shouldn’t average, much less boring, get around 75 points? You seem to have a disproportionate number of scores from 86-91 points.

3) WHY would you leave pinot open for nine hours??? Syrah, I get, but Pinot?

Regardless, you have the best blog on the net and EVERY episode is fun, education, and entertaining. Our entire research lab now gathers at lunch to watch each day’s episode at my computer. Congratulations on a great show. We love it!

QOTD: Sideways will always be tainted by the scene of the LARGE NAKED MAN running down the street.

This episode was so timely as we are headed to Willamette Valley tomorrow and Chehalem is on our list of places to go. Somewhat hard to follow the smell comment of old fingernails and Cyndi Lauper though I have some idea of what Chrisitina Aguillera smells like but don’t know why.

Sideways was a fun movie except for trashing Merlot that can be a great wine (inlcuding his horded Cheval Blanc) and pushing the price up on Pinot Noir and forcing the producers to make wine that violates what he espouses of a delicate wine.

Nice…well…Pinot’s are my favorite. In fact, if I had to only drink one kind of wine for the rest of my life, it would be Burgundy. As for the movie, I thought it was entertaining, and when I saw it, I knew right away that PN was going to become bigger and Merlots were going to slump. But that’s just what happens with movies.

So, I guess you could say I just expected that to happen, and so I wasn’t really mad. I didn’t LOVE the movie, it was alright. But, my wife used to love Merlot, and after that movie she has a stigma about it. It’s kind of funny.

OK…enjoy Chicago while you’re here. Go to Weiner Circle and get yourself a hot dog with everything on it–they go great with Vega Sicilia “Unico”, and then go to Lou Malnatti’s and get some deep dish pizza.

OK…see you later,
Go BEARS!!
T

I’m actually a big fan of Sideways, because as a new comer (who now works in a retail store selling wine), I found the movie to be great, because it made me feel closer to the wine world, but now that I know what I’m talking about (for the most part)in my store, I find it disturbing that my favorite piont noirs are going up out of my price range. We had to pass on some great Pinot Noir this year, like Carr, because of the price increase. This is really upsetting, because I just started experiencing Pinot Noirs that are huge in tannins and greatly balanced and full bodied! Pinot Noirs are not my favorite, but they could be, if I could experiment with them more often.
I’m actually a huge hipocryte, because I don’t mind paying $35 for a good Cabernet, but I DO mind paying $35 for the best Pinot Noir.

Hmmmmmmmmmm, I’ll have to think about this… good question of the day!

Photo Joe

Gary, Good episode today. Iâ??ve always been curious; why are Pinot Noir bottles the shape that hey are? It really doesnâ??t bother me but some people I know hate the shape because it make the wine hard to store.

QOTD: Iâ??m really not all that mad at Sideways. I wasnâ??t a big PN drinker before Sideways and Iâ??m still not. I guess the price bump is a little aggravating. I probably would have been more upset if the focus was on Rhone varietals such as Grenache & Syrah. However, I do like what Sideways did to the demand for Merlot. Iâ??m a Merlot fan as long as it is well made â?? Washington, Right Bank, etc. People that think Merlot sucks havenâ??t had good Merlot.

Hi Ken,

The bottle shape is pretty much just marketing following French tradition. It used to be that big Bordeaux wines threw tannins and tartrates as a sediment to the side or bottom of the bottle, and you needed the high shoulder to catch the sediment when you decanted. Burgundy wines, on the other hand, tended not to throw a sediment as often, so they wanted every drop of the wine to slide out easily from the bottle. Nowadays it doesn’t really matter, but wine geeks like me are quick to think a Pinot looks odd in a Bordeaux bottle, like the New Zealand Pinot Gary just tasted.

I agree that the fat-bottomed bottles are a pain in the rack. But those heavy glass bottles do help with market perception on higher-end wines.