The Hitching Post to release two Merlots

The Hitching Post restaurant was brought international fame from the 2004 movie Sideways. The restaurant is used in several scenes in the movie and one of the main characters is an employee at the restaurant. The owner of the restaurant, Frank Ostini, is also co-owner of the Hartley Ostini Hitching Post Winery which supplies the wines for the restaurant. The wineries focus has been to work with the California Central Coast’s best vineyards to produce Pinot Noirs, a couple syrahs and a cab-franc blend. Now they are adding two new Merlots to their list. The reason why this is even news worthy is the fact that in the movie, Miles makes a comment outside the restaurant before meeting two young ladies for dinner. His comment that has forever changed the image of Merlot was

Jack says: “If they want to drink Merlot, we’re drinking Merlot”

Miles says: “No, if anyone orders Merlot, I’m leaving. I am NOT drinking any f***ing Merlot!”

This single comment was thought to kill the vitality Merlot, but it is still in the top three American varietals in sales. It did drop off some, but Merlot still maintains 15% of the market share. But another affect of this movie, Pinot Noirs popularity shot up drastically! The Hitching Post is known for their Pinot’s and that is one of the reasons why Miles is drawn to this restaurant in the movie, but now they are branching out and creating two new Merlot vintages. Ostini, realizes the irony of all of this but feels it was time to expand their options and Merlots were the most cost effective. The two new releases are 2004 from Westerly Vineyard and a 2005 from Alisos Vineyards. So maybe now Miles will actually drink a f***ing Merlot!