Bonny Doon's Randall Grahm, a winemaker with a sense of humour
Nellie Ming Lee
There are many personalities in the wine industry but few make as much of an impression as American Randall Grahm.
In his quest to replicate the perfect burgundy he started growing pinot noir at Bonny Doon, in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He then experimented with Rhone grapes and found the results more encouraging. His first vintage was released in 1984 - Le Cigare Volant ("the flying cigar"), a Chateauneuf-du-Pape-style wine.
Grahm is also an innovator. He was one of the first to swap cork stoppers for stelvins (screw caps), and to list every ingredient used in making his wines on the label.
Since 2004, all of his vineyards have followed biodynamic practices: an integrated, holistic method of agriculture that is linked to terroir and the daily cycles of the sun and moon.
One of Grahm's firm beliefs is that there is an important distinction between a - a wine that has a sense of place - and a , a wine that shows the preferences of the winemaker (such as using lots of oak).
New World wines usually follow in the path of , where each vintage is consistent in style (think New Zealand sauvignon blanc).
So what, exactly, is a to Grahm? It involves using natural yeasts which are stirred on the lees; cold soaking the grapes, to encourage the yeasts; doing a (where some grapes are harvested before they're ripe, and crushed, traditionally by foot); and the use of wild yeasts in the grapes, to start the fermentation process.
All of Grahm's wines have quirky names, with a play on words that makes them easy to remember. Cardinal Zin is a pure old-vine zinfandel that is dry farmed (no irrigation), while Le Pousseur ("the poser") is his all-syrah tribute to Marlon Brando, and so is fittingly wild and brooding.
His Contra is a field blend - an old style of making wines that sees different grapes grown in the same vineyard, harvested and vinified together (like a one-pot meal). Grahm has also, surprisingly, started making a Bordeaux-style wine called A Proper Claret, a blend of classic Bordeaux grapes with some rarer ones, such as petit verdot and tannat. It's a retro wine that is not too high in alcohol.
But perhaps my favourite of his wine names is Thanks, Semillon. This white wine reminds me to be thankful not only for his talent but also his sense of humour.
