When director Alexander Payne set out to create the 2004 film “Sideways,” based on the then-unpublished novel by Rex Pickett about two friends’ wine-fueled visit to the Santa Ynez Valley, his intention was just to make a funny film. To commemorate the film’s anniversary, the Hitching Post 2 released a limited-edition “Sideways”-labeled 2021 Highliner Pinot Noir, the wine featured in …
A couple of years ago my wife and I visited the Bonny Doon Vineyard near Santa Cruz to sample the offerings of winemaking savant Randall Grahm. “About 25 years ago I started to see substantially less fog, and in the last 20 years, less and less,” said Grahm, and that’s starting to affect California wine. This is a humanity problem.” …
