Sideways, the new film from Alexander Payne, won several Golden Globes last night. I’ll leave the artistic judgments to more qualified voices, but allow me to point out how well this film markets wine, and specifically Santa Barbara County wineries like Firestone, Foxen, Fess Parker and Kalyra.
Actually, the lead character Miles, an ornery oenophile, disdains Fess Parker, but he adores the others.
Fox Searchlight does a seamless job of integrated marketing, making a map to all the locations in the film available for download from the studio’s site.
For me, it calls to mind Jay McInerney’s 1980s novel, Bright Lights Big City, and how fans of the book would frequent the bars of lower Manhattan looking to live the written experience for themselves. Of course, McInerney’s publisher did not provide a map, but that was then. If the book was coming out today, they well might.
I sure hope none of those wineries are producing lots of merlot, otherwise they won’t be able to even give it away to someone who learns about wine watching Sideways.
Great movie, and did anyone else think it felt like it could’ve been a sequel to “Swingers” –15 years later in the life of Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn’s characters?
Good call on the Swingers reference.
The film offers a pretty ugly, but honest, look at how guys too often relate (or don’t relate) to women.
As for merlot, I think it’ll be fine. Wine snobs be damned.