Sideways author Rex Pickett returns to the Anderson Valley 20 years after the release of the iconic film
It’s not hyperbole to say that Rex Pickett single-handedly put pinot noir on the map.
It is an actual quantifiable fact, according to research done at Sonoma State University. The phenomenon even has a name: “The Sideways Effect.” In the nearly 20 years since the release of Sideways, the movie based on Pickett’s novel of the same name, pinot noir production in the United States has soared from 1% of the red wine market to well over 10%.
In the Anderson Valley, pinot production has followed a similar trajectory. Pre-2004 less than 10% of grapes grown in the valley were pinot, but by 2018 the figure was a whopping 69%. Although the movie naturally had a profound effect on the valley, the region’s terroir, climate and elevation also happen to be ideal for pinot.
Last May Pickett attended the annual Pinot Noir Festival in the Anderson Valley as a special guest, where he signed copies of Sideways (which is newly out in hardcover—see sidebar on page 8), and moderated a panel during the technical portion of the conference.
Here he shares in his own words what he’s been writing post-Sideways, thoughts on the wines and winemakers of Anderson Valley, his impressions of the festival, and why pinot noir is, and always will be, his favorite grape.
– The Editor
It had been several decades since I last visited Mendocino County. I remember a tortuous road through a wooded landscape winding through tiny, sleepy towns. I remember the sublime pulchritude of the bluffside town of Mendocino with its white-capped acned ocean and arts and crafts vibe. I remember stopping to taste wine at a few random wineries reachable by dirt switchbacks. It was bucolic, quiet. Hidden within were some world-class restaurants and charming hotels.
I recently returned from New Zealand where I spent six months researching and writing Sideways New Zealand, my fourth novel in the Sideways series, the first in nearly a decade. I have lived, and enjoyed, a burgeoning fan base from the Alexander Payne movie adapted from my Sideways novel no one wanted (my Oscar-winning ex-wife advised me to “burn it”) that seems unabated and I reasoned, after diverting off to write a mystery titled The Archivist, it was time to return to my alter-ego Miles (Paul Giamatti in the film) and his best friend Jack. Because I write from personal, lived-in experience my characters, like me, like all of us, age.
The six months in New Zealand brought me a novel that took a lot out of me. (The novel will be released by my publisher Blackstone Publishing in January of 2024.) I needed a break. Through a circuitous series of connections I found my way to the city of Napa. My publisher decided to come out with a hardcover of the original Sideways. It had never been issued in hardcover. They also decided to come out with my Sideways Chile in hardcover. With hardcovers in hand I started getting asked to do events, tell Sideways stories, autograph and inscribe these beautiful new editions. And how rewarding it was, and has been, to meet the fans of the movie, many who had seen it double-digit times.
As the events piled up, I was drawn to the Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival. After all, my alter-ego Miles adores pinot. He rhapsodizes about in the novel, and that rhapsodizing found its way into the movie, and one memorable monologue in particular was delivered by Giamatti with such heart and soul that it made many race to their local wine merchant and purchase a grape variety that was only one-percent of the red wine market when the film was released (today it’s well over ten percent).
One thing led to another and I was on the road (again) to Mendocino County. Before checking into my hotel I stopped at Brashley Vineyards for a welcome reception for the participating wineries. And what a reception it was! A gorgeous day, inside Brashley’s tasting room I was greeted by dozens of bottles of mostly pinot noir, but also chardonnay and sparkling wines. It was a casual, free-pour event—no parsimonious tasting room manager meting out one-ounce pours. I couldn’t believe the line-up. I came face-to-face with: Schug, Cobb, Littorai, Williams-Seylem, Goldeneye, Lula, Twomey, Domaine Anderson, Maggy Hawk (love that name), Walt … the list was staggering in its representation of Anderson Valley. Terrific pinot noirs from both inside and just outside Anderson Valley-grown grapes. Where the pinots of Sonoma can be fleshier, the ones from Mendocino County, cultivated closer to a cold ocean, have a tendency more toward blackberry and cassis, but still with those distinctive pinot noir aromatics. What a lovely start to a three-day festival celebrating Anderson Valley, but within that also celebrating my favorite grape variety, back in the late nineties when I wrote my novel Sideways and still to this day. The countries and regions of origin have changed, but I’ve stayed faithful.
I drove north to Mendocino and checked into the Little River Inn. Not much had changed since I had bivouacked there two decades ago. I opened the windows and the sound of the surf filled me with elation. I’ve always lived close to the ocean, so the polite clapping of waves at the rocky shore soothed me.
The following day, feeling a little panicky, I moderated a panel of American representatives of French oak barrel makers (“The Role of Barrel Aging in Anderson Valley pinot noir”). This was Domaine Anderson winemaker Darrin Low’s brainstorm. I had to do a ton of research on barriques, and I didn’t realize how little I knew about cooperages and coopers and how incredibly important to winemaking the choice of barrels were. I did my best to keep the panel lively with a packed house of oenophiles.
Saturday was the Grand Tasting at Scharffenberger Cellars’s extraordinary winery property. A gorgeous, spring day, inland just enough to avoid the May Gray syndrome that blankets the coast with a low-hanging marine layer common to California. Windy, puffy white clouds scudded across an otherwise immaculately blue sky. I’ve never felt so at peace in all my life. I set up my booth, complete with retractable banners, and piled my Sideways books on the table of my designated stall. I was the only one there with books. Everyone else was, of course, pouring wines. It occurred to me: what other book, adapted into an Oscar-winning movie, could have had such an impact on the world of wine that I would be invited to sell it amidst some of the finest winemakers in all of California? As the patrons became aware of my presence, I gladly, and thankfully, answered questions—the most oft-asked being “Do you really hate merlot?” I autographed books, talked about how Sideways stood the test of time because its characters were timeless, its themes, I guess, at the risk of immodesty, universal. The book/movie is about many things—mid-life crises; a comedic jaunt through a little-known (then!) wine region—but over the years I’ve come to believe its popularity is due to the first person narrator’s soul-baring look into the abyss of failure, and how everyone can relate to that conundrum of life.
The next day there was a going-away party for the folks at The Bewildered Pig, a celebrated restaurant that was closing due to an acrimonious relationship between the landlords and the proprietors of the restaurant. The event was both festive and elegiac. I felt the same way about the Anderson Valley pinot noir fest. In theater, the tent goes up and then the tent comes down. Nothing lasts forever. Mendocino County was still the rustic area I remembered. There are more wineries and more tasting rooms, for sure. And I like to think my book, and the film adapted from it, had a little something to do with the explosive growth of pinot noir in this region, which has the perfect growing conditions for the viticulture and vinification of my still all-time favorite grape: pinot noir. And Anderson Valley is making some of the finest anywhere in the world.
I hope they ask me back. I hope they don’t ask me to moderate a panel on secondary malolactic fermentation.
Buy the Novels, Get the Merch
Almost 20 years after the worldwide success of Sideways the movie, the novel it was based on has been re-issued in a beautiful hardcover version by Blackstone Publishing. Fans can buy autographed, personally inscribed copies through Rex Pickett’s website, RexPickettBooks.com.
Inscribed copies of two of the three Sideways “successors”—Sideways Chile and the upcoming Sideways New Zealand—are also available to buy on his website (the latter as a pre-order). As their titles suggest, these follow-up novels feature Sideways’ main character, Miles (Pickett’s alter ego), in wine country adventures abroad. Additional merchandise available for sale on the website includes inscribed copies of Pickett’s novel The Archivist, inscribed Sideways DVDs, and “No Fucking Merlot” wine openers.
