Sideways has long been one of my favourite films, the hugely enjoyable bittersweet tale of two ill-matched old friends, Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church), enjoying a celebratory trip road trip to the vineyards of the Santa Ynez Valley in California the week before Jack’s wedding.
Miles is a Pinot Noir-obsessed writer weighed down by his broken marriage and broken dreams and Jack is an over-sexed former soap star looking for a “last taste of freedom”. Miles is on a quest to find that elusive, perfect Pinot, whilst Jack will drink (and go to bed with) anything. Much wine is drunk and much merriment and much mayhem ensues.
Miles’s fixation is all too believable, because of all the grape varieties Pinot Noir is the most unreliable and frustrating, for both producers and consumers alike. Not for nothing is it known as the heartbreak grape.
“It’s a hard grape to grow,” says Miles in the movie.
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