Continuing
with Wine Weekend, aka rounding up any excess points, I watched Sideways, starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas
Haden Church, Sandra Oh, and Virginia Madsen.
Since I started working as a pourer, I’ve had tons of people ask if I
had seen this movie (even though a good deal of them didn’t really seem to care
for it), so I finally found some time to see what it was all about.
The
film is set in the Santa Barbara region of California, located in the
South-Central Coast. The story begins
with two men, Miles and Jack traveling from San Diego into some of California’s
wineries. Miles, a rather unsuccessful
aspiring writer, shows up to take his good friend Jack on a bachelor party week
of wine tastings, golf, and dinners, but all Jack can think about his having
sex with someone else before tying the knot with his fiancée, Christine. Coming off a rough divorce, Miles is going
through a difficult time in his life, but despite this, he’s trying to make
Jack’s bachelor party week memorable.
However, to Miles’ dismay, the excitement of wine tastings and vineyard
tours is completely lost on Jack, who has extremely limited knowledge of wine,
and frankly, he doesn’t seem to care much about them at all, except for their
intoxicating properties. Conversely,
Miles has come to appreciate all the nuances and efforts that go into the
production of wine, something that he and his ex-wife were able to share
together. Because of this, their wine
tours are somewhat overshadowed by Miles’ emotional baggage and his memories of
the time spent with his ex-wife in the South Central Coast wine regions.
Despite
Jack’s apathy toward the experience, Miles can’t help but educate Jack on his
favorite elements relating to wine.
These scenes, albeit brief, were what I found most interesting about,
although they were fairly basic facts and they happened relatively quickly. For example, Miles relates some facts about
his favorite grape, Pinot Noir, as Jack pours a white Pinot Noir in the car. Completely ignorant, Jack asks, “Pinot Noir?
How come it’s white?” to which Miles indignantly begins to explain the grapes’
free run without the skins. This seemed
to me to be fairly basic knowledge, and for that I think this film would be
best as an introduction to wine. The
problem I encountered throughout the film was that this part of the scene (and
many others) seemed only an afterthought to the actual plot or to what was
truly important to the characters.
Following this was one of the better scenes, in which Miles explains the
production of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in Santa Barbara; Miles describes to
Jack how he likes all varietals, but some of the California vineyards
manipulate Chardonnay wines with too much time spent in oak or in secondary
Malolactic fermentation, which for Miles masks the flavors he wants from the
wine. Miles also touches on the region,
discussing how the Pinot Noir grape is thin-skinned, and sensitive to the
elements, and thrives in Santa Barbara because the cool air coming off the
Pacific Ocean at night lightly cools the grapes. Once again though, these facts seemed to
provide more of a character background of Miles as a wine aficionado than
particularly relevant to the plot or the vibe of the film.
 |
Pinot Noir Grape
|
The
first half of the film seemed to have the most information on wine. Upon arriving to their first tasting (where
Miles seems to be recognized as a regular customer), Miles goes through the
wine tasting basics, taking Jack through examining the color of the wine as
well as taking in the different aromas present.
As is typical of his character, Jack just wants to drink the wine and
move on to find loose women. Things
begin to deteriorate between the two characters the next morning, where Jack
informs Miles that he plans to get laid before his wedding at all costs, and
Miles should know not to mess it up.
Miles is completely uncomfortable with the situation, knowing that
infidelity wouldn’t be good for Christine or Jack. Additionally, Miles is beginning to realize
that Jack has almost no interest in the wines at all. However, upon meeting Stephanie, a young
pourer at one of California’s wineries, Jack suddenly starts liking all of the
wines, even though Miles is unimpressed with most of them.
 |
| Miles educates a clueless Jack about the proper tasting technique |
 |
Stephanie makes a good impression on Jack,
while the wines make a bad impression with Miles |
Miles
becomes attracted to a waitress named Maya that he had met on one of his many
sojourns to Santa Barbara, and she is all the more attractive because she has
an extensive knowledge of wines that she picked up from her ex-husband. Both newly single, Miles and Maya begin an
awkward attempt at a double date with Jack and the sexualized pourer
Stephanie. Miles’ personal emotional
troubles threaten to derail the entire evening, but Jack attempts to put him in
place before they enter the restaurant; although Miles agrees to calm down, he
is vociferous about leaving if anyone should be so ignorant as to order
Merlot. This very brief part of the
scene highlights the wine drinking trends around the time of the film; clearly
Merlot was viewed as the go-to wine for oblivious or novice wine drinkers,
something that Miles wants no part in. His snobby attitude evaporates later when he sees Stephanie's modest, but decadent wine collection.
The
most prominent scene relating to wine occurs between Miles and Maya on the back
porch of Stephanie’s house. Miles, who
is clearly having trouble talking to women after his divorce, describes to Maya
the details of Pinot Noir production, which Maya interprets as a loose metaphor
for the care and attention Miles would give the right woman. Miles explains that the thin-skinned,
temperamental Pinot Noir grape is much harder to cultivate than most other
grapes, requiring constant care and attention as well as patience and
nurturing. Miles feels that this care is
what makes the wines so much better than others, and Maya is clearly responsive
to his enthusiasm about wine. Upon hearing
that he has a 1961 Cheval Blanc, she encourages him to open it rather than wait
for a special occasion, because the celebration is opening the bottle itself.
 |
| Maya is awed by Miles' extensive wine knowledge |
 |
Miles misses an opportunity, but this was, in
my opinion, the best scene for those interested in wine. |
I
found this to be more of a superficial wine film than I expected. There was a clear plot and wine seemed to be
a background element to that; although there was some decent background
knowledge available, they were mostly quick comments at the end of scenes or
brief cuts. There were a few cuts of the
vines and pickings as well as some barrels of grapes, but those scenes didn’t seem
to affect the plot in a major way or influence the overall vibe of the movie. For example, Miles, Jack, Maya, and Stephanie
all go out to dinner and there are a bunch of wine bottles in the background,
but the discussion of wine is very limited, and the scene is much more about
Paul’s emotional distress than the clove flavor in the wine he’s tasting. The group attends a lecture on the Pinot Noir
grape, but they leave before hearing any real facts. Additionally, Jack berates Miles for bringing
up Vouvray, but there is no further discussion on what it is or why it is
significant.
I
would have appreciated this movie a lot differently if I hadn’t seen Bottle Shock first, because I definitely
compared the two for their wine information.
I felt like Sideways had much
more novice information, where as Bottle
Shock, having been based on a true story, had some more detailed
information about the production of wine, the new world vs. old world styles,
and wine flaws. I would be remiss not to include that I thought the characters were awful (the acting was fine, though); Miles was kind of a pathetic guy and Jack was a total dirtbag. That being said, I would certainly
recommend Sideways as a movie to
watch much earlier in the semester, or for those just beginning to become interested in wines, because it covers more of the novice
aspects of wine tasting while incorporating an engrossing story. However, to those who expect a comedy, I
found almost nothing funny about this film at all, despite it being advertised
as such. It was actually a pretty
depressing film, although Miles’ enthusiasm for wine did encourage me to think
about my favorite wine that I’ve tried this semester, and I plan to go buy a
bottle or two to open one of these days.
 |
Mmm...spit bucket wine. One of my coworkers saw someone
drink from one of these as a bet once. |
.jpg)
