On Wine: 'Sideways' has intoxicating effect on pinot noir sales, some say

In 1991, a "60 Minutes" story titled "The French Paradox" suggested that the reason the French can eat their notoriously rich foods with seeming impunity to cardiovascular disease is because they wash it down with lots of red wine. The effect of the story and the succeeding research supporting its thesis was so profound that its airing was considered a watershed moment for the wine industry, ranking right up there with the ratification of the 21st Amendment.

These days everyone seems to be speculating on how the wildly successful, best-picture-nominated road movie "Sideways," with its strong focus on wine, will affect our wine-drinking habits. Stories are buzzing, especially in Southern California -- the setting for the film -- about how sales of pinot noir, which was highly touted in the film, are skyrocketing while sales of merlot, which was singled out for particular ridicule, are plummeting.

As for how the movie has affected wine sales in the Northwest, the jury is still out, or perhaps just confused.

"I'm flabbergasted that a movie could have that kind of impact on wine sales," enthuses Dan McCarthy of the McCarthy and Schiering wine shop on Queen Anne, which has recorded an uptick in pinot noir sales.

But Michael Teer of the Pike and Western wine shop in Pike Place Market takes another view: "Our sales of pinot noir were already up before the movie came out," he says flatly.

Others, such as Andre Gipson, owner of Sapphire Kitchen and Bar on Queen Anne, don't quite know what to make of it all. Since the film was released, his sales of pinot noir are up from about one case per week to more than two. "But truthfully I really don't know why," he shrugs. "The movie is the only thing I can think of to attribute it to."

The movie, which has won or been nominated for numerous industry accolades and is up for several Academy Awards, is about two friends -- one wallowing in depression and despair, the other conflicted over his approaching marriage -- who take a bachelor party road trip through the Santa Barbara wine country to explore the fruits of the land.

Miles, the protagonist, is rather narrow in his enological scope, which is pretty much limited to wines made from the pinot noir grape. He does, however, take the time to give the merlot grape a vitriolic rant that is perhaps the funniest scene in the film.

If we're still trying to sort out the impact of the movie locally, there is no question how the film affected Santa Barbara wine country. "It's easy to measure," says Jim Fiolek, executive director of the Santa Barbara Vintners Association. "There are just more people visiting" local wineries.

"The traffic we've had in January and February is at the level we only expect in late spring and summer."

He also noted that these early crowds are different than the usual wine tourists. Besides being a younger crowd, Fiolek says, "These are not experienced tourists -- they're rookies and novices and they come here without pretense."

In Seattle, David Coyle, head sommelier for the Metropolitan Grill, says that, on average, he gets two or three customers mentioning the movie each night. "They make comments about the movie; they want to know if I've seen it," he says. "Before ordering a merlot, they'll say, 'I know I'm not supposed to ...' " But all the "Sideways" chatter hasn't affected sales at the Metropolitan, where Coyle reports pinot sales have barely budged and merlot sales are as strong as ever.

Not so for McCarthy. "People come in and ask, 'Where are your pinots?' " he says. "I've doubled my volume, including the $75 to $100 level." "And merlot sales are really soft," he adds.

Like Fiolek in Santa Barbara, McCarthy thinks the film has inspired new pinot drinkers. "Traditionally, my pinot customer has been highly specialized. But now many of them haven't really drunk pinots before."

In Oregon, the genesis of the U.S. pinot noir industry, Bill Hatcher of A-Z Winery sees no dramatic change in his pinot noir sales with the exception of the New York area, where his business has doubled. Hatcher doesn't think the film on its own has enough clout to move the pinot market. "I think if you counted how many people saw the movie and ... now drink pinot noir, you'd find that it's really not that many," he concludes.

So far the evidence has been mostly anecdotal with little data to back it up. But A.C. Nielsen, the consumer-information firm whose sister company brings us our TV ratings, finds that pinot noir sales have climbed 16 percent over the previous year for the period of October 2004, when the movie was released, to January '05. They also found that despite the thrashing it got in the film, merlot sales are also up and it remains the country's uber-red grape.

It's hard to imagine that a film of this popularity hasn't affected the sale of wines in this country. The movie has been analyzed and scrutinized not only for its effect on wine sales but for the way it portrays the culture of wine, including its visceral as well as intellectual appeal.

The film also draws attention to the elephants in the living room many of us choose to ignore, including drinking and driving, wine snobbery and over-consumption. For at least making us think about these things, the wine industry should give the movie its equivalent of an Oscar.

However, at the end of the day, we should realize that it's only a movie we're talking about -- and it's only wine.