Sideways, a buddy, road trip movie with notes of sophistication and self-doubt, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. It follows Jack(Thomas Hayden Church) and Miles (Paul Giamatti) as they tool around the Santa Ynez Valley in a wine-colored Saab before Jack has to tie the knot.
In this week's edition of In The Weeds, Frank Ostini looks back at the last two decades of the legendary California wine region.
Winemakers Frank Ostini (left) and Gray Hartley have been practicing their craft in the Santa Ynez Valley for 40 years. Photo by Suzanne Lanza.
As the chef and winemaker of the Hitching Post restaurant and Hitching Posts Wines in Buellton, California, Ostini resisted going into the family business. He was lured back to the area by his brother, Bill, and fell in love with the wine.
Around 1986, Ostini recalls an author, Rex Pickett, with a crush on a waitress at the bar, planned to write a few of the staff into his latest book. Thinking it wouldn't go anywhere, Pickett returned a year later saying he had sold the idea as a screenplay and Alexander Payne would be directing. It wasn't until 2003 that location scouts descended, not knowing that Payne had already been living in the Santa Ynez Valley and had chosen all of his locations, including the Hitching Post. The crew spent three days filming at the restaurant and the American debut of the movie took place at the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara, where vintners from the region were invited.
Recalling the 2,000-person crowd that was rolling in the aisles at the closing of the New York Film Festival, Ostini says, "That's when I knew." The film won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and Ostini's business grew by 40% in the following months. Anxious about his newfound success, Ostini says he went back to basics and relied on his parents' standards — high-quality food, good value, and real hospitality.
In honor of Sideways' 20th anniversary, you can stream the movie on Hulu, or head to the Hitching Post, which is hosting celebratory events through the fall.