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Sideways: Tracing the Route of the Academy Award-Winning Film through the Santa Barbara Wine Country By George Medovoy, Editor (Pictured above, from left, Stephanie (Sandra Oh), Jack (Thomas Haden Church), Maya (Virginia Madsen) and Miles (Paul Giamatti) enjoy a picnic in the Academy Award-winning movie, Sideways. In the home page photo, Stephanie and Jack are seen enjoying dinner and several exquisite bottles of wine. Photos by Merie W. Wallace. TM & C 2004 Twentieth Century Fox. Not for sale or duplication) First there was Sideways the Academy Award-winning film directed by Alexander Payne about two friends who set out on an amusing adventure through the little towns and back roads of the Santa Barbara wine country. Now, thanks to the marketing skills of the Santa Barbara Conference & Visitors Bureau and Film Commission, there is Sideways THE MAP, a self-guided tour featuring 18 of the locations from the film, including wineries and restaurants. (For a copy of the map, call (800) 676-1266, or visit www.santabarbaraCA.com). With
a copy, you can retrace the path taken by Miles and Jack on their wine tasting
adventure to mark Jack's final days as a bachelor.
At that point, I couldn't resist -- I would take the trip myself and revisit my own favorite scenes from the film.
(In a scene from Sideways, Miles teaches Jack the basics of wine tasting, in which Miles recognizes the faintest soupcon of asparagus and just a flutter of a nutty edam cheese. Photo by Merie W. Wallace. TM & C 2004 Twentieth Century Fox. Not for sale or duplication) By now, the torrential Southern California rains had stopped, so I could enjoy classic Santa Barbara weather - sunny, clear skies and warm temperatures. And with orange bird of paradise flowers adorning Santa Barbara's landscape, I could also return, for a brief moment in time, to the colors of my youth in the "Southland." (Colorful bird of paradise flowers adorn the sunny Santa Barbara landscape)
From State Street, Santa Barbara's trendy shopping district, it took me about 40 minutes to drive across the Santa Ynez Mountains, via scenic Highway 154, to the wine country. This relatively young viticulture area, which fancies itself as the competitor to Napa and Sonoma Counties, is undergoing a wine pilgrimage of almost religious proportions, thanks to the popularity of the Academy Award-winning film. My son-in-law Eric joined me on this trip, but since he hadn't seen the movie yet, I had to keep most of the story to myself…as hard as that was to do. Thanks to the recent rains, our ride was picture-perfect, with dark green hillsides punctuated by the valley's trademark horse ranches and wineries. On our route, Eric reminded me that this was where Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong trained, since the ups and downs of Highway 154 are similar to the terrain that Armstrong and his team maneuvered with such finesse in their most recent win. (Our route took us along Highway 154, below, used by Lance Armstrong to train for his wins in the Tour de France competition)
About 20 miles from the San Marcos Pass exit, we passed Lake Cachuma, a prime Santa Ynez Valley recreation area, where the Cachuma Reservoir provides water for Santa Barbara. Our first stop was Kalyra Winery on Highway 246, a bucolic stretch of road, which took us right up to the winery's sprawling vineyards. My son-in-law called it "a bar in the middle of nowhere," which I agreed was a rather appropriate description. At the winery, I spotted two flags flying from the small veranda of the tasting room - the Stars and Stripes and the Australian colors.
Of course… Winemaker Mike Brown, who received an enology degree from UC Davis in 1979, is an Australian who hails from Adelaide. The name Kalyra is an aboriginal phrase meaning "wild and pleasant place."
On the day of our visit, the Kalyra tasting room was just that sort of place, with dozens of visitors crowding around the bar. Indeed, on one recent Saturday, the winery had served over 800 visitors drawn to the spot where Miles and Jack meet Stephanie, the flirtatious wine server. Brown,
whose brother Patrick teaches plant physiology at UC Davis, spent a lot of time
in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, but wanted to be "closer to the coast and
the new, upcoming wine area." (Each year during harvest time, members of the Kalyra Winery's club participate in an old-fashioned wine crush...with their feet!)
Brown produces a variety of wines at Kalyra, including Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet, Shiraz and Sirah, plus some dessert wines. His Tawny Port has won gold medals at the Orange County Fair. In Australia, Brown also produces Shiraz and Riesling, which he sells in the U.S. as M. Brown wines. Director Alexander Payne liked the view across the vineyards so much that he offered Brown a deal he couldn't refuse: in exchange for the right to film at the winery, he would complete the new tasting room.
"They completely finished it in four days," a grateful Brown remembered, "painting, artwork, lights, display, everything." After tasting some lovely wines, Eric and I headed for the Los Olivos Café and Wine Merchant, where the two couples in the movie enjoyed dinner together. Los Olivos is a sleepy little town of 1,000 residents, where an American flag in the center of Grand Avenue, the main street, waved from a tall pole reaching up into a cloudless sky.
(Bike riders out for a ride on a sunny Santa Barbara County day prepare to stop for lunch, perhaps at Los Olivos Cafe & Wine Merchant)
Crowds
of visitors stood outside the café, including a Japanese tourist holding
a copy of the ubiquitous Sideways map.
(You have the choice of eating outdoors in a patio setting or inside at Los Olivos Cafe & Wine Merchant. The popularity of the movie has brought throngs of visitors to the cafe)
Owner
Sam Marmorstein, a transplant from the Bronx, New York, moved to the Santa Ynez
Valley 13 years ago. The former stockbroker decided to try his hand at the restaurant
business and purchased a local deli, which he remodeled into the present café. "No one expected the movie to be this big," he said. "It took everyone by surprise, including the director, I think." That was certainly the view of our waitress, Tina, who surprisingly still hadn't seen the movie. When the crew was shooting the restaurant scene, she was working behind the bar and recalled that the director had asked her if she wanted to be in a background scene. The waitress didn't think the movie would amount to much and declined the offer.
(The interior of the Los Olivos Cafe & Wine Merchant)
"Now my teen-age son wants my head," she chuckled. One of the secondary effects of the movie, according to Marmorstein, has been the popularity of Santa Ynez Valley Pinot Noir. Sales of this wine have skyrocketed, thanks to all the attention bestowed upon it by Miles, Sideways' wine aficionado. But there's a down side to this untamed love: most of the valley's Pinot Noir is being drunk before its time, something wine devotees obviously bemoan. From Los Olivos, Eric and I headed down Ballard Canyon to the site of one of the funniest scenes in the movie, Ostrich Land, where Jack meets the pesky animals in less-than-ideal circumstances. (Ostrich Land is where Jack gets into a rather "difficult" situation with the pesky critters. It's a lot safer to see them from behind the barrier, though they will still try to peck at you)
A sign outside the company store advertised "The Healthy Red Meat," and a viewing stand at one end of a wide pasture allowed visitors to come up close to the long-necked birds, which, true to the movie, only seemed interested in pecking at their human visitors. We
decided to skip the pecking and took to the road again for our final stop, the
Danish-themed town of Solvang, where Jack and Miles sat down for breakfast at
the Solvang Restaurant. (A windmill and the Danish flag and architecture give Solvang the feel of Denmark, only this is Santa Barbara County, of course)
The town's restaurants offer many tasty Danish foods, including classic frikadeller (meat balls), rodkaal (red cabbage), and of course, aebleskiver, jam-draped Danish pancake balls dusted with powdered sugar. August
to October is also a nice time to visit Solvang because it's also apple harvest
time, and roadside stands sell fresh apples.
(You can buy wines in a Danish-themed wine shop, the Vinhus, in quaint Solvang)
Whatever
movie scene you plan to relive, with a Sideways map in your hands, the
celluloid world of Miles, Jack, Maya and Stephanie takes on a whole new sense,
where wine, good food, and the alluring landscape of the Santa Ynez Valley are
yours for real. For a free copy of the Sideways map, call the Santa Barbara Conference and Visitors Bureau and Film Commission at (800) 676-1266, or visit www.santabarabaraCA.com. Other information resources: Kalyra Winery, 343 N. Refugio Road, Santa Ynez, (805) 693-8864 (www.kalyrawinery.com) Los Olivos Café and Wine Merchant, 2879 Grand Avenue, Los Olivos, (888) 946-3748 (www.losolivoscafe.com) Ostrich Land, 610 E. Highway 246, between Buellton and Solvang, (805) 686-9696 (www.ostrichland.com) Solvang Conference and Visitors Bureau, (805) 688-6144 (www.solvangusa.com) Santa Ynez Valley Visitors Association (800) 742-2843 (www.syvva.com) Santa Barbara Conference & Visitors Bureau and Film Commission, (800) 676-1266 (www.santabarbaraCA.com) Santa Barbara County Vintners' Association (www.sbcountywines.com) GUIDED TOURS Wine
Edventures (805) 965-9463 (www.welovewines.com) Sideways was set and filmed in Santa Barbara County's wine country. It was directed by Alexander Payne (Election, About Schmidt), who wrote the screenplay with his longtime screenwriting partner, Jim Taylor, based on the novel of the same name by Rex Pickett. For Searchlight Pictures visit www.foxsearchlight.com. (Find out about a 5-day/4-night Santa Barbara walk through the heady terrain of California's Santa Ynez Valley wine country, by clicking here). (Click below for more travel).
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