{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "the-sideways-effect",
 "type": "story",
 "names": {
  "name": "One film, measured"
 },
 "region": [
  "santa-barbara",
  "california"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "kind": "essay"
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "In October 2004 a comedy about two men on a road trip through Santa Barbara County put a speech about pinot noir into cinemas, and the American wine trade could see it in the sales figures within months."
 },
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "sta-rita-hills",
   "as": "Where much of it was filmed.",
   "rel": "region"
  },
  {
   "to": "pinot-noir",
   "as": "The variety it sold.",
   "rel": "variety"
  },
  {
   "to": "santa-maria-valley",
   "as": "Half an hour north of the film's route, and a beneficiary.",
   "rel": "region"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:wp-sideways",
  "s:wp-sta-rita-hills-ava"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  "fields": {
   "sections[1].text": {
    "tier": "inference"
   }
  }
 },
 "sections": [
  {
   "h": "The numbers",
   "text": "In the months after release, merlot sales fell 2% and pinot noir sales rose 16% in the western United States. A 2009 Sonoma State University study found the film slowed merlot's growth and pushed its price down, but concluded that its main effect was a rise in pinot noir's volume and price, and in wine consumption overall."
  },
  {
   "h": "What it did to a county",
   "text": "The road trip runs through the Santa Ynez Valley and the Sta. Rita Hills, and the tasting rooms it passed got a decade of visitors out of it. *Inference —* the timing helped: the Sta. Rita Hills AVA had been established in 2001, so a region with a new name on the label got a national advertisement for free, three years in."
  },
  {
   "h": "What it did not do",
   "text": "It did not teach anyone what pinot noir tastes like, and it did not change a single thing in a vineyard. The vines that carried the increase were already in the ground — planted by people who had spent the 1980s and 1990s being told the variety was a dead end."
  }
 ],
 "confidence": "high",
 "updated": "2026-09-16",
 "blurb": "In October 2004 a comedy about two men on a road trip through Santa Barbara County put a speech about pinot noir into cinemas, and the American wine trade could see it in the sales figures within months.",
 "region_terms": [
  {
   "key": "santa-barbara",
   "name": "Santa Barbara County",
   "country": "United States",
   "note": "the transverse ranges turn the valleys east-west and let the ocean in"
  },
  {
   "key": "california",
   "name": "California",
   "country": "United States",
   "note": "from Anderson Valley to the Santa Maria bench, wherever fog reaches"
  }
 ],
 "kin_out": [
  {
   "to": "sta-rita-hills",
   "type": "region",
   "name": "Sta. Rita Hills",
   "as": "Where much of it was filmed.",
   "rel": "region"
  },
  {
   "to": "pinot-noir",
   "type": "variety",
   "name": "Pinot noir",
   "as": "The variety it sold.",
   "rel": "variety"
  },
  {
   "to": "santa-maria-valley",
   "type": "region",
   "name": "Santa Maria Valley",
   "as": "Half an hour north of the film's route, and a beneficiary.",
   "rel": "region"
  }
 ],
 "source_list": [
  {
   "id": "s:wp-sideways",
   "kind": "encyclopaedia",
   "title": "Sideways",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?curid=1144172",
   "permalink": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1370534473",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "licence": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-sta-rita-hills-ava",
   "kind": "encyclopaedia",
   "title": "Sta. Rita Hills AVA",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?curid=15415082",
   "permalink": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1370033962",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "licence": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  }
 ],
 "tiers": {
  "text.what": {
   "tier": "cited"
  }
 },
 "primary_image": null,
 "tag_facts": [],
 "recognition_facts": [],
 "acclaim": 0,
 "kin_in": []
}