EDIBLE: Tracking the movie in Santa Barbara wine country.

Part of the problem with re-enacting the movie Sideways: Someone has to chug the spit bucket.

So our wine-tasting team took another tack, trying to honor Santa Ynez Valley wine country – a true protagonist of the movie – by visiting as many of the film’s wineries and venues as an overnighter allows. We discovered still-underappreciated territory three hours from Monterey County by car.

Strategically enough, the Santa Barbara Vintners Festival in Buellton April 23 offered a bunch of brands from the movie, Andrew Murray among them. We tasted through some good Sauv Blancs and interesting white blends but it was Whitcraft’s single vineyard Pinots, Foxen’s John Sebastiano Santa Rita Hills Pinot and Fiddlehead’s ethereal estate Pinot that revealed why the movie had to be set in a place like SB wine country.

The 50-mile east-west stretch of the Santa Ynez and San Rafael Mountains creates the longest coastal range of its kind on North or South America, pulling in marine elements that cool grapes and allow long hang times, and the resulting complexity born of acid, layered fruit flavors and tannins, perfect for Pinot. PS: I’d like to take this opportunity to make the first official request Santa Lucia Highlands’ own Pinot Noir heaven host a sequel.

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At the landmark Hitching Post II, they do the Texas quail flash-grilled with Wild Turkey sweet potatoes, the ribs dry-rubbed and roasted over red oak, the mushrooms sauteed in red wine. But they didn’t really want to do the movie, wondering, as iconic owner Frank Ostini says, “Would they treat the HP and all my friends’ wines with honor and respect?”

Rex Pickett wrote the novel that inspired the movie, and would hang out at the same Hitching Post bar where Maya (Virginia Madsen) meets struggling writer Miles (Paul Giamatti).

There we swirled heavenly Hitching Post Highliner Pinot. A toast seemed in order: A decade since Sideways we can see even more clearly what it’s done for an ever-growing industry – namely, make Merlot less cool, give Pinot swagger and take mainstream the kind of lines that thrilled wine nerds andearned a big shiny Oscar for best adapted screenplay for Pickett and director Alexander Payne.

Like this Miles moment: “It tastes like the back of a L.A. school bus. Now they probably didn’t de-stem, hoping for some semblance of concentration, crushed it up with leaves and mice, and wound up with rancid tar-and-turpentine bullshit.”

To which his pal and wine beginner Jack (Thomas Haden Church) replies, “Tastes pretty good to me.”

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One of the tastier discoveries of Santa Barbara wine turf is that it includes so many wine trails and walks, nine total. A day-two trek took us on a ramble through oak-dotted grasslands and ag fields and the attendant vistas, watchful hawks, “Emu Egg” signs, ranch windmills and roadside cherry vendors. We went Foxen Canyon trail because, Sideways.

Firestone Vineyard served as the site of the winery tour the film’s leads ditch to walk through the soaring barrel room. The tasting area’s even prettier, where a Sauvignon Blanc earned a purchase for its bright and clean citrus character and a Gewürztraminer impressed with a wildly floral rosewater nose.

But our purpose was Pinot, so thankfully they broke out a 2014 reserve Pinot to compare to a 2013 Santa Rita Hills number. Both were excellent, the former a lesson in soft tannins, the latter a deal at $25, everything Miles might’ve wanted in his glass when he uncorks a Pinot soliloquy on Maya. The speech feels both autobiographical – he’s talking about himself too! – and, for Pinot Noir fans, universal.

“It’s thin-skinned, temperamental, ripens early… Pinot needs constant care and attention. You know? It can only grow in these really specific, little, tucked away corners of the world. Only somebody who really takes the time to understand Pinot’s potential can coax it into its fullest expression. Then, I mean, oh its flavors, they’re the most haunting and brilliant and thrilling and subtle and… ancient on the planet.”

It felt fitting to find an in-depth Pinot session just a mile up the road. The destination had some fate to it: Fess Parker is one of the area’s flagship wineries, and the scene of Sideways’ most memorable moment, when Miles is so wound up about his book’s rejection and a server who won’t fill his glass fast enough, he slams the bucket of discarded vino.

Founded by the eponymous actor who played Daniel Boone (and inspires the coonskin-hat emblem), the Fess winery is simply beautiful. For vintners weekend it conducted a special tasting of small-plot Pinots by decorated winemaker Blair Fox.

The Pinot Rosé, Bien Nacido Pinot and Pommard Clone Pinot reveal how they each earned multiple 90-point scores. They conjure the kind of depth Maya channels with her own reverie about why she loves wine – “It’s a living thing! I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were growing.” But the Parker West single-vineyard Pinot stands out with a kaleidoscope of subtle mineral, herbal and dark-fruit elements. Its vineyard sits in the westernmost section of the Santa Rita Hills, which reinforced the maritime magic of the west-east coastal range.

We tacked on a final stop at Los Olivos Wine Merchant Cafe, where the Sideways couples double date, Miles gets tanked and “drink and dials” his ex-wife.

Encyclopedic local wines and food from the cafe’s own 3-acre Cafe Farm provided tasty punctuation to the trip, as did a walk around adorable Los Olivos itself – think seven varieties of marinated olives, beets piled with burrata, ricotta-arugula pizza and skirt steak Cobb. That and a thought overheard from a nearby server: “Yea, wine. It’s kinda what we do.”

~ QUICKBITES ~

• Carmel Belle (624-1600) introduces a gamechanger concept to Carmel April 28 for the special event space at Seventh and Dolores. Get the details on their fresh market-wine bar on the blog.
• Barnyard spot Lafayette Bakery’s second spot, Lafayette Kitchen & Cafe (no phone), in the former Em Le’s on Dolores in Carmel, is cute as a kitten in a mitten, with crépes and croques and salted savory French toast. More on the blog.
• Mountain Mike’s (899-7900) soft-opens as this issue hits streets, in the Seaside City Center where Me ‘N’ Ed’s once lived (next to Dickey’s Barbecueat Broadway and Fremont).
• Brophy’s Tavern (624-2476) reopened April 25. Get photos, menu items and more on the blog.
• Lokal in Carmel Valley (659-5886) relaunches Thursday, April 28, with Cachagua General Store all-stars joining pioneering Chef Brendan Jones in bringing the progressive spot back to life from a sale reportedly bungled by the buyer. Chesebro dry cider and brick-oven pizzas help the celebration.
• On the other side of Ocean on Dolores in Carmel, Le St. Tropez Restaurant has closed its doors. Its closure will allow some much-deserved rest for hands-on owner-operators Jean and Mary Hubert.
• Half-price pizzas from Melville Tavern (643-9525) and its brick oven on Wednesdays; $5 wine and $3 beers 4-6:30pm weekdays too.
• Christopher’s Restaurant (626-8000) pours a free glass of wine with an entree for those who wish them a happy 13th birthday. The soft-shell crabs come soon.
• MYO’s dynasty celebrates seven years of glorious DIY froyo and seemingly limitless toppings with free schwag and 50 percent off yogurt Thursday, April 28.
• Marina-based Ginger People just met with Fiji’s minister of agriculture and natural disaster management to discuss the future of Fiji ginger, including the expansion of organically certified ginger farms.
• Come 3-8pm Saturday, April 30, Baum & Blume’s “beer garden” (659-0400) is back for the summer season. More on p. 36.
• Epicurus: “Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.”