Pass the pinot

It looks like the Oscar-nominated movie Sideways, which features a character obsessed with pinot noir, has led to a spike in sales of the red wine, according to ACNielsen (which is a distant relative of AdFreak). Though pinot has been growing in popularity, the release of the movie last fall caused an abrupt boost in sales, which rose by close to 16 percent, or 370,000 cases, for the three months ending Jan. 15. We like the fact that none of pinot noir’s Sideways success has come through a strategic product-placement deal, giving us hope that not all of our purchasing decisions will be driven in future by money that changed hands in the name of marketing.