Paul Giamatti is a funny guy. If you haven’t seen Sideways, don’t worry, I won’t ruin it for you (I can’t stand when people do that to me :-).

 

Here’s a bare bones summary: two men go on a wine tour through Napa Valley, Giamatti as Miles and Thomas Haden Church as Jack.

 

Giamatti’s character is a neurotic writer anxiously awaiting news from a publisher. He’s so preoccupied that he flips out when asked to drink Merlot. He gives a pretty memorable rant as to why.

 

At any rate, Sideways exposed the fineries of California wineries (!) to the general public. People saw the movie because it got great reviews, and they walked away knowing just enough about wine to realize they didn’t know anything about it at all. People who had never dabbled in wine culture began to try their hand at it.

 

And guess what.

 

They didn’t drink Merlot.

 

According to one wine shop owner, sales of Merlot fell as much as twenty percent after the movie got popular. Seasoned oenophiles turned up their proverbial noses at this previously popular wine. It became the “faux pas” of the wine world.

 

On the one hand, people fresh out of the theaters were afraid to make a mistake. And the “experts” insisted that they had given up Merlot months ago. But the end was the same: a drastic drop in sales.

 

I’ve got two observations about this situation. Often, first-time customers new to a particular industry (especially one as stuffy and proper as wine) try hard not to make beginner mistakes.

 

To hear an expert say that he’s leaving the table if anyone orders Merlot is very influential. For the new customers, it’s better to err on the safe side and order a glass of chardonnay.

 

On the other hand, at any time your product can, for reasons impossible to predict, become extremely “uncool.” Some wineries had made killings for years selling Merlot, only to have their business snatched out from under them by a couple words from a fussy fictional writer.

 

If your business is overly dependent on one product, you’d better get a backup plan.

 

I’ve never tried merlot, and I’m not about to start now.

 

How about you?