The quest to bring back Merlot got a boost this week from a delightful “Sideways Effect” piece by Willa Paskin for Slate: “For years, many believed that one tiny movie brainwashed American wine drinkers forever. The truth is weirder.”
All the biggest questions and juiciest details are in that article: Is it true that one movie wrecked Merlot’s rep…or are consumer tastes just destined to evolve and expand over time, no matter what? Has Merlot actually been steadily good throughout two decades of calumny and slander? Paskin retraces the long saga of the so-called “Sideways effect,” beginning with a video clip of Miles, the wine snob played to perfection by Paul Giamatti in the 2004 film.
Miles the Merlot Hater was always a cautionary tale, an ugly mirror for wine enthusiasts to see ourselves in. Miles, we are meant to understand, may be correct about junky California Merlot–but he is still a bad guy. He embodies the worst hazards of wine expertise: Lecturing, gatekeeping, creeping anhedonia. He’s uninterested in the future of wine, but also takes diminishing pleasure in the wines of his past. He loses friends and alienates people with his self-satisfied, smug little monologues.
But let’s face it: All wine lovers have a little Miles inside of us. We all have our own grumpy moments and unjustifiable, cobwebby opinions about our favorite beverage.
And now, here’s of one of mine: I really prefer it when wine comes in bottles. Or more pointedly, I’ve never been able to get excited about wine on tap.
So with the fear of sliding toward Miles-dom hanging over me, I decided to confront my reluctance head-on. I headed to the nearest Sixty Vines wine bar (the Dallas-based chain has 13 locations, mostly in the American South) where the wine flows miraculously from hoses hidden behind a wall.
The next #MerlotThursday was mere hours away, and so I surveyed the wine list for a Merlot. Not counting a lost-looking Saint-Émilion Bordeaux, there was just one candidate among the eponymous 60 taps: Martin Ray “Courtney’s Cuvée” Merlot from the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA.
As a Napa-themed restaurant specializing in California cuisine, Sixty Vines pours a lot of wines by well-respected wineries in the Golden State. Many are restaurant exclusives. From what I can tell, this Merlot is one of them: A special bottle-less bottling from Martin Ray Winery and winemaker Courtney Benham.
Like most of Sixty Vines’ wine options, it’s available in various sizes: A 2.5 ounce taster, 5-ounce glass, 8-ounce glass, or carafe. It was pricey…and there wasn’t even a label to read or a cork to fondle while I sipped it. But that’s not the wine’s fault, I guess. So let us stop yelling at clouds for a moment and get our noses in the glass.
A medium ruby color with a pink-ish cast. Aromas of wild strawberries, raspberry compote, and garden herbs: Lavender, mint, and oregano. Medium body, alcohol, and acidity–though the acid feels a little higher due to the freshness of the fruit. The (dry) palate adds blackberry and bramble, with subtle oak notes of vanilla, toast, caramel, and brandy. There’s a lean mineral finish, with light flavors of strawberry leaf and hibiscus tea, and some tannic grip that gives it staying power in the absence of huge fruit.
This Merlot is grown in the Santa Cruz Mountains with coastal and fog influences from the Pacific Ocean. It’s almost a rosé drinker’s Merlot–with gently ripened red berries and herbs and a lighter structure than the sweet, plummy Merlots that Miles from Sideways deplored. It’s a smart choice for the restaurant’s eclectic menu of spa cuisine, charcuterie, and hearty American staples.
The Merlot was refreshing on its own, but ended up being too slight for the Fresno chile- and fennel-laden sausage pizza that I ordered. It was a better match with Sixty Vines’ creative Caesar salad, studded with torn parsley leaves and radicchio and topped with bread-less Parmesan crisps.
Before I go on to complain more about wine on tap, I first have to concede that the glass arrived at the table in ideal condition. (Better than a random wine pick from a bar with 60 open bottles would be, for sure.) Wine kegs are really good for wine freshness, in my experience, dishing out fewer faulty pours than even those newfangled glass-front refrigerators with the bottle hoses.
Look: I’m sympathetic to the efficiency and ecology arguments for wine in kegs, plastic bladders, and boxes. But the biggest turnoff is the stickiness of bars’ and restaurants’ wine pricing.
Wine-biz people are always talking about how costly glass bottles are for the planet and for the wineries. It’s not hard to understand how adopting kegs would lower shipping/storage costs and reduce waste from spoilage in bars and restaurants.
So…why not pass some of those savings along to the consumer? Bulk packaging should make exploring wine lower-stakes and easier–placing the cost of entry closer to soft drinks and beer.
And yet, at least in the trendy, “no-glass-bottles” wine bars that pop up in cities and affluent suburbs, it’s often the opposite.
I’ve ragged on Sixty Vines before for not having any wine specials, ever. My location recently re-instated their weekday “Tappy Hour,” but it’s a measly $2 off only on certain (full) glasses of wine. Not even worth skipping out of work for. Add on the fact that many of the keg wines are specially produced for the restaurant chain, and it becomes really hard to figure out if you’re getting a good value on these little splashes of joy.
The trade magazine FSR wrote of Sixty Vines in 2024: “For the 20-somethings at the restaurant, the flight service can be a great option for developing more knowledge and understanding of wine with an inexpensive price tag.” Yeah, I don’t know any 20-somethings who would be comfortable running the taps at this joint.
Numbers? Sure. Even though it was far from the most premium option on the menu, my 8-ounce glass of Merlot cost $27 before tax and tip. So, $35.15, all told. It was shocking that one lunchtime beverage was two-thirds of the check, almost double the price of my $15 combo of a wood-fired pizza and side salad. (This is in a place with no state or local minimum-wage laws, by the way…before anyone starts blaming labor advocates for the out-of-control restaurant drink prices.) It’s true that I could’ve opted for the smaller 5-ounce glass (for $18)–but I wanted to have enough wine to both taste it attentively and to drink it with my meal.
That pricing is not attractive or sustainable. It discourages experimentation and spontaneity–exactly the opposite of what non-traditional packaging is supposed to accomplish. I can’t believe that anyone orders wine here without either an expense account or a lot of confidence in what they’re doing. (Yes, Sixty Vines’ servers will offer to bring you a wine sample before you order…but more often than not they’re too busy or they forget.)
Limited to one wine by midday duties and fiscal sense, I savored my delicate, red-fruited Merlot. (Ironically, I thought it could even be mistaken for one of the Santa Barbara Pinot Noirs so extolled in Sideways.) It’s a fine pour–but the packaging and pricing is still hard to swallow.
Bottle: Tap: Martin Ray “Courtney’s Cuvée” Santa Cruz Mountains AVA Merlot (2021) – California
(Another iffy thing about drinking at Sixty Vines is that vintages aren’t listed on the menu and few technical specs are available for the wines. I asked about the vintage for my notes and a manager checked on it, but I didn’t want to keep bothering them for the blend and ABV.)
Variety: Merlot
ABV: ?
Suggested retail: N/A
My rating: 8.6 (out of 10)
On Thursdays, we Merlot! Pour yourself a glass and join in. (You can view archived #MerlotThursday reviews here.)
Further reading:
Willa Paskin for Slate: The Sideways Effect
FSR Magazine: How Sixty Vines is Pioneering the Wine Bar of the Future
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