October / November 2025 - The Somm Journal The Effervescence of Spain

My first column ("Going Sideways") in The SOMM Journal. Digital edition, p. 18. Analog edition coming soon. sommjournal.com/october-nove...

If you're in Napa, come to #Vintner'sCollective. I'm there most afternoons selling SIDEWAYS hardcovers, the book that became the movie that transformed the wine world #sideways

I just signed on. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Not posting enough. If you have any advice, please share.

I Celebrated the 20th Anniversary of ‘Sideways.’ It Did Not Go As Expected. A wild weekend toasting a complicated movie.

Great article on Sideways 20 anniversary by Dave Holmes in Esquire Magazine:

www.esquire.com/food-drink/a...

The Aftertaste of ‘Sideways’ Alexander Payne’s Oscar-winning movie about two wine-soaked buddies on a road trip turns 20 this year. Rex Pickett, who wrote the novel it’s based on, can’t stop writing sequels.

By far one of the best profiles of me and my trials and tribulations with the writing of #Sideways in altaonline: www.altaonline.com/dispatches/a... #rexpickettbooks

Thank you for your kind words. It never gets old. Always appreciated.

Writing tip for aspiring writers: No criticism is above criticism itself; just because somebody says it doesn't make it so. Self-coined when my ex-wife told me to burn #Sideways after reading it. And I almost did. rexpickettbooks.com Fans at #VintnersCollective in Downtown Napa. 20 years later

And here they all are in Westwood. How many 20 year-old films get a red carpet premiere? Unprecedented. Astonishing. To be remembered after all these years for a novel, faithfully adapted, where I bared my soul for all to see. Personal, autobiographical, staring into the abyss of failure.

The 20 Year Anniversary screening of Sideways two weeks ago in LA was incredible. Everyone — and I mean EVERYone — was there. The film, in a new 4K restoration, looked gorgeous and, dare I say, has — pun alert — aged like a fine wine. On Bluesky now, thank God. #rexpickettbooks