In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Academy Award-winning film “Sideways,” Hitching Post Wines has partnered with Searchlight Pictures to showcase the wine label’s Highliner Pinot Noir, which also had a starring role in the movie.
Hulu will stream “Sideways” sometime this fall.
The celebratory wine is from the 2021 vintage.
To further celebrate two decades of the movie, Buellton’s Hitching Post 2 and Hitching Post Wines will launch a series of special wine dinners this fall on the Central Coast, in Los Angeles and in Napa.
The dates and locations for the Hitching Post + Sideways Winemaker events are:
- Sunday, Sept. 15: Hitching Post 2, 406 E. Highway 246, Buellton, 5 p.m. Reception followed by dinner featuring a signature menu from the restaurant paired with special pinot noir vintages celebrating the movie. Cost: $150 per person. Reservations: OpenTable.
- Tuesday, Sept. 24: La Paloma Café, 702 Anacapa St., Santa Barbara, 6 p.m. Reception followed by communal dinner (menu and wines same as Sept. 15 event). Cost: $110 per person. Reservations: Resy.
- Sunday, Sept. 29: In conjunction with Taste of the Santa Ynez Valley. Again at the Hitching Post 2 in Buellton, this dinner will feature bites from the restaurant as well as those from other eateries, along with Sta. Rita Hills and Buellton wine and beer, as well as live music. Actress Virginia Madsen, who played Maya, will be on hand. Tickets to this festival include tickets to the “Sideways” screening at the Solvang Festival Theater that evening. Festival: noon to 3 p.m.; screening: 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Cost: $150 per person. Reservations: visitsyv.com/taste-of-the-santa-ynez-valley/.
- Saturday, Oct. 12: CIA at Copia (Culinary Institute of America), 500 First St., Napa. Screening of “Sideways” followed by a Q&A panel with director Alexander Payne and Madsen, with special guest winemaker/chef Frank Ostini. Pricing and tickets to be announced.
- Tuesday, Oct. 29: Jar, 8225 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. Chef/owner Suzanne Tracht will host Ostini and Gray Hartley for another anniversary dinner (menu same as the Sept. 15 and Sept. 24 dinners). Cost: $200 per person plus tax and gratuity. Reservations: OpenTable.
The Hitching Post 2 steakhouse was established in 1986 and is owned by Frank and Jami Ostini. Frank Ostini oversees both his kitchen and the wine label he shares with longtime partner Gray Hartley. Many of the restaurant’s employees have more than 25 years of service, which contributes to its family-style atmosphere.
Searchlight Pictures is a global specialty film and television company that develops, produces, finances and acquires motion pictures and series for both worldwide theatrical and streaming releases.
Taste of the Santa Ynez Valley Offers “Sideways” Celebration, More
Tickets remain on sale for the annual Taste of the Santa Ynez Valley, the four-day, six-town celebration of the bounty offered to those lucky enough to call this region “home.”
Taking place from Thursday, Sept. 26 through Sunday, Sept. 29, the event will include big props to the 20th anniversary of the cult-film “Sideways.”
Produced of the West’s most respected travel brands — Visit the Santa Ynez Valley and Sunset Magazine — the event showcases the region’s food, wine and great outdoors.
For four days, Taste the Santa Ynez Valley offers a series of events designed to give attendees an up-close view of what has made the Santa Ynez Valley the wine-country gem of California’s Central Coast.
More than 100 restaurants, wineries, tasting rooms, breweries and distilleries will collaborate for more than a dozen main and ancillary events set in and around the distinct communities that make up the Santa Ynez Valley — Ballard, Buellton, Los Alamos, Los Olivos, Santa Ynez and Solvang.
“Taste of the Santa Ynez Valley has grown into a can’t-miss event that offers an unrivaled, intimate view of what has made this region one of West’s most beloved wine country destinations,” said Shelby Sim, president/CEO of Visit the Santa Ynez Valley. “Adding a celebration of ‘Sideways,’ a film that is inextricably part of the Santa Ynez Valley, will only make the experience even richer.”
Virginia Madsen fondly recalls her time spent filming “Sideways” in the Santa Ynez Valley.
“Being part of this beautiful work of art, which transformed my life and impacted modern wine culture, has been an unparalleled pleasure and privilege,” she said.
Taste of the Santa Ynez Valley explores specific communities each day, beginning with a day in Los Alamos, the region’s haven for foodies, on Thursday, Sept. 26, and will end with a movie-themed food, wine and beer festival plus a screening of the film in Solvang on Sunday, Sept. 28.
All official Taste of the Santa Ynez Valley events are ticketed and must be purchased in advance, and range in price from $30 for an olive oil tasting to $180 for a long-table, communal Main Street dinner in either Los Alamos or Los Olivos. Tickets: visitsyv.com/taste-of-the-santa-ynez-valley/.
In addition, 5% of all ticket sales for every Taste of the Santa Ynez Valley event will benefit local charities.
Paso Robles’ Booker Vineyard & Winery Expands Into Adjacent Vineyard
Booker Vineyard & Winery has announced an expansion of its original estate into a contiguous 27-acre vineyard that shares the same limestone-rich terroir in the Willow Creek District of Paso Robles.
The vineyard was acquired from the neighboring Caliza Winery. Like the original Booker estate, this site is predominantly planted to Rhône varieties, including grenache, syrah, mourvèdre and viognier. The steep slopes, limestone soils and marine-influenced climate are in many ways a natural extension of the founding terroir, producing both a quality and a character that are worthy of the Booker name.
“We know this site well, having shared a fence line with it for so many years,” said Eric Jensen, farmer/winemaker and the founder of Booker Vineyard in 2001. “We’re excited for that fence to come down and to bring this incredible vineyard into the Booker fold with the blessing from our friends at Caliza.”
Carl Bowker, Caliza’s founder/winemakers, said, “We are pleased to entrust this jewel of a vineyard to our longtime friends and neighbors at Booker, especially because we know that they will do right by the land. We have an agreement to continue sourcing fruit from this site, allowing us to maintain the consistent character of Caliza wines.”
Jensen planted the original Booker estate vineyard in 2001 and launched Booker wines starting with the 2005 vintage. Booker is today known for producing some of California’s most respected Rhône-style wines.