The wine world has already started cashing in on the success of wine-geek film Sideways with winebid.com putting wines from the film up for auction.
The wines on offer, including the legendary 1961 Cheval-Blanc, ’88 Sassicaia and ‘95 Opus One, are either drunk in the multi-Golden Globe winner or directly mentioned by the protagonists.
Most wines seen or mentioned are covered by the auction – other gems include Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Richebourg, Dominique Laurent Pommard and a wide range of Santa Barbara wines.
The film tells the story of two middle-aged friends, Miles and Jack (above), on a stag week before Jack’s marriage. Miles, a divorced, Pinot Noir-loving depressive takes Jack, an over-sexed and washed-up actor, on a tour of California’s Central Coast wineries and golf courses.
Not all wines in the film are on offer, however. Gaston Huet’s Vouvray is mentioned in Jack’s berating of a drunken Miles in a restaurant scene but is not represented in winebid.com’s selection. Nor are any sparkling wines on offer – Jack opens a warm, 100% Pinot Noir ‘champagne’ in Miles’ car following this with the words ‘why’s it white?’
In a move that Miles would appreciate, no Californian Chardonnays are in the sale.
‘I do like Chardonnay,’ says Miles in the film, ‘I just don’t like the way they manipulate it in California. There’s too much oak and secondary malolactic fermentation.’
‘No California oak trees were harmed in the making of this film,’ says one of the rolling end credits.
Sideways will be on general release in the UK on 28 January
Written by Oliver Styles
