© Wine-Searcher

Sideways author Rex Pickett faces the music at the World of Merlot festival in Washington's Walla Walla Valley.

The man who single-handedly slaughtered the great grape's reputation fronts up to growers and says sorry.

Imagine the Vatican holding a conference on morality and inviting Satan as the keynote speaker. Walla Walla, Washington pulled off the vinous equivalent last weekend.

Walla Walla hosted a weekend festival celebrating Merlot. For its headliner, the powers that be chose Rex Pickett, author of the novel "Sideways." A single line in the 2004 film version – "I am not drinking any fucking Merlot!" – immediately made the primary grape of Bordeaux the most uncool variety in the world.

Pickett is always welcome in Pinot Noir-loving Oregon, "and in Burgundy, they roll out the red carpet," he said. He had never been to eastern Washington, where Merlot is the second-most planted grape.

"I learned something right off the plane: don't announce that you wrote the novel 'Sideways', because you're immediately tantamount to Lucifer," he told the audience.

A panel of international Merlot growers discussed the negative impact of "Sideways" on the Merlot market.

"Merlot was 9 percent of a $38.5 billion American wine market," said Ashley Trout, owner of Vital Wines. "It dropped $77 million dollars in a year. We all had to figure out what to do as an industry with $77 million less revenue. We all had to sit there as experts and watch everybody get it wrong because of one line in one movie. I saw a lot of my neighbors make 'blends' that were 85 percent Merlot."

Moreover, most vignerons said that even 14 years after the film's release, it is still uncool.

"I told my dad: 'We gotta get out of Merlot'," said Jeff Bundschu, president of Gundlach Bundschu in Sonoma Valley. "My dad said: 'It's gonna come back. Good wine always comes back.' A decade later it still hasn't come back. We'll never abandon Merlot because it does so well at our site, but we have shifted our program to focus a little more on Cabernet."

Pickett was contrite. He said he wrote the line in the first draft of his novel because at his wine tasting group in Santa Monica: "If you liked Merlot, they wouldn't talk to you." His editor took the line out of the book, but director Alexander Payne had seen the first draft and kept it in the movie, where it always gets a laugh.

"I didn't set out to destroy the Merlot industry," Pickett said, in front of a crowd that was about one-third winemakers and grapegrowers. "I need some exoneration here."

But he also pointed out that when the film came out, cheap Merlot was omnipresent and not very good because it was being grown in the wrong areas.

Now the roles of Pinot Noir and Merlot are reversed. Merlot is actually the site-specific, sensitive grape that Sideways' protagonist Miles claimed Pinot Noir is.

"Merlot is very sensitive with many things," said Emmanuelle D'Aligny-Fulchi, winemaker at Château Angélus and Château Bellevue in Saint-Emilion. "It doesn't like too much water. It is very sensitive with high temperature in summer. If we have very high temperature and missing rain, everything will stop. The Merlot can give a lot of alcohol. If we pick too late it is bad for aging. It is more difficult to find the right time for picking, more with Merlot than with other varieties."

And Pinot Noir's popularity has brought problems of its own: it is now planted in many places that are less than ideal, just as Merlot used to be.

"The most disappointing wine for me, pound for pound, is Pinot Noir," Pickett said. "You drop $50 and say: 'What the fuck is this? It tastes like nail polish.'"

Asked about Meiomi, which has become the most popular Pinot Noir in the US, Pickett said: "To me, that's just blasphemy. Wine should be a pure expression of the soil and the climate and whatever. But not pulling certain phenolics out and adding sweetness. Now we're getting into Coca-Cola. It's just industrial waste. Is that what wine is going to be? Wine that is manipulated for the lowest common denominator palate? I'm appalled."

At that point, somebody yelled from the audience, "We forgive you Rex."

Actually, the audience might not want to be too hasty to offer absolution.

Pickett sold the film rights to "Sideways" for just $5000 and Hollywood accounting has prevented him from seeing any additional money despite his contract giving him a percentage of the net. In fact, he said that a tasting room manager who had just two lines in the movie gets a residual check every time the film shows on HBO or anywhere else, whereas Pickett hasn't seen a check since the first one.

To try to cash in, Pickett has written two sequels, neither of which has been made into a movie. He wrote a stage version, which had 50 performances at La Jolla Playhouse. And, with Japanese backing, he is working on "Sideways the Musical," which he hopes will go to Broadway.

The highlight song, Pickett told the audience, has the chorus, "No matter how low we go/no fucking Merlot."

My three favorite Merlots from The World of Merlot:

2014 Leonetti Cellar Walla Walla Valley Merlot Marvelous texture; this wine is such a delight to have in the mouth. Nice restrained dark cherry fruit; great balance and length. I couldn't get enough of this wine.

2015 Pride Mountain Vineyards Napa/Sonoma Merlot Formidable and yet generous, this wine has plenty of structure and ripe fruit, yet also excellent balance. Pride's estate vineyard on Spring Mountain sits on both sides of the Napa/Sonoma County line, hence the unusual appellation.

2015 Pepper Bridge Walla Walla Valley Merlot Terrific freshness and delightful fruit makes drinking this wine an ongoing pleasure. Swiss winemaker Jean-François Pellet has made an easy bottle to finish.