As the film Sideways, which praises the Pinot grape, celebrates its 20th anniversary, the Mail visits the ‘hipster’ hotspot in California where the film is set – and finds that wine tourism there is in excellent health

The film Sideways is 20 years old this year, but still as fresh as a chilled glass of Chablis. In it, anti-heroes Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church) go on a midlife break to California’s wine country and end up in a psychodrama of bars and hookups.

Although the film was associated with San Francisco’s better-known Napa Valley, it was actually set in the funkier Santa Ynez Valley, closer to Los Angeles.

The three-hour climb to Santa Ynez from LA reveals a glorious landscape of rolling hills and sagebrush.

My ears pop as we pass Montecito – near Harry and Meghan’s lair – and 10,000 feet above the LA smog I turn into The Inn At Mattei’s Tavern.

A century ago, canvas-covered carts were parked outside this bar – now it’s all about artisan food and wine. I warm up with a glass of pinot noir from the local Strange Family Vineyards – pinot was a Sideways favorite.

Oliver Bennett travels to California’s Santa Ynez Valley, where the film Sideways was set 20 years ago

Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church) enjoy a drink at Sideways

If Napa is a grande dame, Santa Ynez is a hipster winery run by LA exiles. It now has more than 170 vineyards and farmers markets in chi-chi villages.

Take Los Olivos, a few hundred yards from Mattei’s. It’s where Miles and Jack went drinking at Sideways and it’s now a town of no fewer than 30 wineries offering every varietal.

I remember Miles’ advice about wine: ‘Put your nose in it. Don’t be shy, really stick your nose in’ – and get started. Consider it done.

I look around at the other sights in the area. Solvang is a Danish-American attraction with folksy windmills and candy stores, Los Alamos is like stepping into a Sergio Leone movie and time seems to stand still in Santa Ynez.

Solvang (above) in Santa Ynez is a “Danish-American curiosity with folksy windmills and candy stores”

In good taste: The endless vineyards of the Napa Valley – a grande dame according to Oliver

Oliver visits Inglenook, Napa’s most famous winery, founded in 1879 and purchased with profits from wine enthusiast director Francis Ford Coppola’s film The Godfather

But Napa beckons, via a short flight to San Francisco.

An hour after landing, I meet local guide Mike Ward in a white limousine – reg license plate WINE 82 – who reminds me that two devastating fires, in 2017 and 2020, knocked Napa, well, sideways. But this is California, where problems become opportunities.

Stanly Ranch Resort opened two years ago – part Paltrow, part Wild West with double denim bellboys and a meditation cushion in every room. I’ll soon be drinking Pride Mountain merlot and listening to the croaking of tree frogs.

Driving along Napa’s Highway 29, I arrive at Inglenook, the region’s most famous winery, founded in 1879 and purchased with profits from the film The Godfather by wine-lover-director Francis Ford Coppola. Its reputation has gone downhill over the years, but it’s still a must in Napa, and a glass later I’m in the spa town of Calistoga, with the holy Napa trinity of mud, water and wine. Both Napa and Santa Ynez prove that wine tourism is in excellent health.

As Dean Martin’s chorus goes in Little Ole Wine Drinker Me: “I pray for rain in California, so the grapes can grow and they can make more wine.”

I agree with you, Deano.