The Auswine Forum

On an indifferent weather day in Melbourne I took the missus to see an advanced screening of Sideways at the Rivoli cinema in Camberwell. For the uninitiated Sideways is a story about two men doing a wine tour in California before one of them gets married. Forumites who enjoy a carefree comedy will appreciate this film as much as their most cherished wine in the cellar. The story line is risque, the wine references relatable and funny with hilarious situational scenes in cellar doors and restaurants about tasting and appreciating wine.

Great acting by Paul Giamatti in the lead role make this a must see entertainment for wine lovers. Film rating: outstanding

Camberwell has small but thriving food precinct directly opposite the world famous Rivoli cinema so we headed to Orsini restaurant to enjoy a meal and open a bottle of Rufus Stone 2000 Heathcote Shiraz.

I first opened the wine about lunchtime and had a couple of glasses with a light meal to make sure it was ok, it was very average, lots of menthol, extremely alcoholic, hot with no fruit. I tossed over whether to ditch it then and there or let it ride until 7.00pm and hope it picked up, I went for the later. Walking to the restaurant I gave the bottle a good swirl to try and improve things. It had improved somewhat with the typical Heathcote type aromas starting to show through, powerful nose of spice and dense fruit but still characterised by alcohol. The colour was good with rich purple on the edge and dense in the middle. On the palate the heat had dropped enough to allow some spice and stewed fruit flavours to develop but there was still a warmness that was driven by the alcohol. Not sure further time in the cellar will help this one too much. Rating: good

Restaurant rating: excellent

Colin

Sideways has been wining awards left and right. I've posted on it before somewhere on the forum. The web site (with trailer) is here (check out the top of the page for added titbits). The Yahoo Movie page has the trailer and 7 clips, including the famous "I'm not drinking any merlot" line. The Amazon CD page has clips from the music.

All you need to do now is go see the movie!!!

Mike

Mike
I did see the movie, thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't see your original posting but I hope forumites go and see it now it is about to be released in Aus on Jan 26th. Colin

Although I enjoyed this movie in whole, certain parts were completely unbelievable. The comedy is well written and certainly shockingly candid in some ways, but unfortunately the love story was fluff, and I wasn't impressed with the Miles character any more then the Maya character.
I give Maya more credit just for her scene where she describes why she loves wine. That was beautiful. Miles was a putz, and in real life would've never had a snowballs hope in hell with Maya.
I blame the writing rather then the acting though, obviously not in the characters souls, rather a mid-life-wino-man-fluff-movie
Mostly I did enjoy it though , it was quite fun and the scenery was beautiful.
I wouldn't give it an Oscar, but I hate the Oscars.
Cheers,
Mishy