When Rex Pickett got the word that Alexander Payne, fresh off the box-office success of Election, was optioning his unpublished novel for his next film, he’d just had his credit card declined for a $6.50 charge at Baja Fresh in Santa Monica. The manuscript about two friends floundering through wine country that landed on Payne’s desk would become Sideways. Like Miles Raymond, the main character in the book and film, Pickett was an unpublished author living in L.A. and spending time in Santa Ynez Valley—a regular at the Hitching Post, staying at the Windmill Inn (now called the Sideways Inn) and a devoted disciple of Pinot (which he spent hours talking about with Richard Sanford). And before you ask: No, he wasn’t drinking any Merlot.
You May Also Like: Director Alexander Payne on ‘Sideways,’ 20 Years Later
What is it like when you go to the Hitching Post—a central location for both the book and movie—now? How different is it?
Pickett: Totally, radically different. They give me the “A” table right by the grill, and it’s crowded. The bar is two to three people deep … When I go down there now, it’s a zoo, but [in the ’90s] there was nobody there.
Sideways was an appreciation of wine, certainly, and Santa Ynez as a place, coupled with an element of the parody of wine snobbery. But how has the series developed, now that you’ve written three more books— most recently Sideways: New Zealand—about Miles’ adventures?
Pickett: It’s
This Article was originally published on Wine Enthusiast
