White Collar, Syrah, and The Sideways Effect

WINE TALK
1

My wife and I have been watching the USA Network show “White Collar”. The Season 1 episode “Bottlenecked” dealt with a fictionalization of a forger who may have created some Thomas Jefferson bottles. In that episode the the suspected forger asks the stodgy FBI agent Peter, “do you even know anything about wine?” Peter responds, “I like an occasional Pinot.” The forger says, “ah, you’ve seen Sideways!”

Last week’s episode “Unfinished Business” has Neal’s friend Mozzie hanging out at his apartment drinking his wine. “Why are you still here?” “You have a better wine collection than me. I was looking for a very specific Syrah and I can’t find it.” “Mozzie, I drank the syrah. Just have the pinot. It’s not bad…”

…which I thought was hilarious, but it went over my wife’s head. I sounds to me like the writers were trying to give the Sideways effect boost to Syrah sales. Good inside joke.

2

I think it will take a bit more.
Best, Jim

3

There was also a funny trailer with the ‘White Collar’ main character and a professional wrestler from an episode of ‘Royal Pains’. They talk about Romanée-Conti and Petrus, pronounced exactly correctly. One of the staff writers must be a wine geek.

4

I haven’t seen any of the episodes, but I can tell you that EVERYTHING stops at my house when an ad comes on for the show - that leading man has what it takes to attract women of all ages! flirtysmile