The other day I was lying in the sun and thinking about the effect Pop Culture has on the choices we make. More specifically the choices we make when it comes to wine. You are probably wondering why I was lying around contemplating Pop Culture and more importantly, where did I manage to find the Sun. Miami Beach. South Beach to be more specific. As you sit back and take in some extraordinary people watching you realize that it is possible you have landed in the vortex of where Pop Culture meets the Lemming Mentality.
This became very apparent as we were strolling through the Grand Tasting tent at the South Beach Food and Wine Festival. A couple standing next to us had just sampled a red wine from a well-known Chateau in Saint-Émilion, a region of Bordeaux on the Right Bank, (the region is naturally divided by the Gironde River into a Left Bank and a Right Bank). While wine making styles vary, as a general rule the Left Bank is predominately more Cabernet Sauvignon based with the Right Bank more Merlot based. They thought the wine was fantastic.
The Saint-Émilion that the couple really liked was indeed a Merlot based wine. The same Chateau had an entry level wine that was created for the U.S. Market simply labeled Merlot. When asked if they would like to try this wine the couple declined saying; “until the movie “Sideways” we really didn’t realize that we are not fans of Merlot.” I was thinking to myself, exactly what does that mean? That you tried Merlot and liked it until some guy in a fictional movie bashed the varietal and then it was no longer drinkable? When they turned around and I saw their faces it all became clear. They were Lemmings. Slaves to Pop Culture, incapable of letting their senses make their wine choices.
So when did it all go sideways for Merlot? It was a simple line in the movie “Sideways”. Paul Giamatti’s character Miles blurts out, “No, if anyone orders Merlot, I’m leaving. I am NOT drinking any #@*%ing Merlot”. In fact Miles denigrates Merlot throughout the movie. This led to what many in the media dubbed as “The Sideways Effect”. A drop in the sales and popularity of Merlot among US wine consumers.
There are scenes in the film in which Pinot Noir is discussed with great emotion as passion. The varietal is elevated to regal status. After the film was released Pinot Noir sales increased by more than 20% from the previous year. All of this because of the effect of a single film on American Pop Culture.
The movie was not about Merlot or Pinot Noir, it was about the character Miles and his relationship to the women in his life. He didn’t drink Merlot because that is what he and his ex-wife drank when they were together. When he met Maya, (played by Virginia Madsen), he began to drink Pinot Noir. Not because he thought one varietal was better than the other, but because of the association of each of the wines to women.
In the wedding scene at the end of the film Miles runs into his ex-wife. She tells him that she is pregnant. It is at this point that Miles realizes there is no chance for reconciliation. He goes and gets his most prized bottle of wine, puts it in a brown paper bag and drinks it with a hamburger, thus letting go of his past relationship.
Miles’ most prized bottle of wine, you ask? A 1961 Château Cheval Blanc, which is a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc, another grape Miles disparaged. Miles loved Merlot, but because the viewing public thought he detested Merlot they followed like lemmings away from this varietal and just like that a new pop phenomenon was born. That is how it all went sideways.
Windee Smith is the proprietor of the Valley Wine Shack, 535 West Napa Street in Sonoma.
