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Hey, spoiler specials listeners, Dana Stevens here.

If you haven't heard the Slate podcast Decoder Ring yet, I urge you to check it out.

Hosted by our friend Willa Paskin, each episode cracks a different cultural mystery by examining its history and why it still matters today.

In their new season, they look at how men's razors went

from one to two to five blades. They explore how method acting became so misunderstood. There's more to it

than just Jared Leto behaving badly. And now we present their latest, which I loved. It follows the

unlikely path of a 2004 indie film from director Alexander Payne, off the screen and onto our restaurant menus.

Decades later, the American wine industry is still under the influence of The Sideways Effect.

Make sure to subscribe to Decoder Ring, wherever you listen.

And I hope you enjoy this episode.

Hi, just a heads up before we begin.

This episode contains adult language.

In October 2004, the movie Sideways was released in theaters.

It's about two guys who go on a bachelor's week to Wine Country.

One of them is a cad who's about to get married.

The other, played by Paul Giamatti, is Miles, a hardcore wine lover.

We're going to drink a lot of good wine.

We're going to play some golf.

We're going to eat some great food and enjoy the scenery, and we're going to send you off and style over.

Sideways is a small, mellow movie, but it got big. It grossed $110 million worldwide and

received five Oscar nominations. It also upended the wine industry. Famously, it is said to have done this with one line of dialogue. It arrives about a third of the way in as the guys are preparing to meet up with two women.

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