Randall Grahm here, reaching out to tell you about an extraordinary, potentially world-historical new project I’m undertaking at our enchanted and frankly, mystical farm, Popelouchum,[1] in San Juan Bautista, and to ask for your participation in whatever fashion you might manage. While I am very proud of the Bonny Doon Vineyard wines we have made over the years, it is now time for me to put together all of the eclectic bits I’ve gathered in my diverse experience and seek to achieve something on a very different level - to produce a truly distinctive “wine of place” in the New World, and to leave something of real value to the world when I’m gone.[2]
This is your opportunity to play an important role in helping to enable a new and radically different type of wine in the New World and to perhaps make history. The big idea is to achieve a “wine of place” in the New World, (a vin de terroir), that is to say, a wine of unprecedented complexity and harmony,[3] by taking the radical step of breeding 10,000 new grape varieties from disease-resistant progenitors, (each vine being genetically distinct from the other) and looking at the very complex wine they might produce as a suite, with the side benefit of potentially identifying one or more new “genius” grape varieties,[4], [5] In so doing, it is my hope that I will be able to produce wine from our Popelouchum Estate in San Juan Bautista reflective of the great quality of terroir I know it to possess.
Today we have launched a crowd-funding campaign to raise $350,000 to begin to make this idea a reality. You can find the details of this campaign HERE.
There are a number of cool rewards, including your shot at potential immortality through the naming of a new grape variety,[6] or the opportunity to participate in some very special events at the vineyard in San Juan Bautista. But most significantly, it is the opportunity to participate in the gradual unfolding of a great experiment, and to observe the genesis of a new way of thinking about “greatness” in wine. There are many ways to get involved. I welcome you to participate in this exciting initiative in any way you can. Thank you again for your support. Let our team know if you have any questions.
This is an especially opportune time. The wine world, especially our local corner of it, is congested with far too many wines, many of which taste more or less the same, but there is certainly always room for something that is startlingly original and soulful. To (slightly) paraphrase Brillat-Savarin, “The discovery of a new grand cru brings more happiness to humanity than the discovery of a new star.” This initiative has potentially a world-historical significance as it represents a paradigm shift in the way that grapes are grown; it could be a great model for true sustainability in light of the reality of global climate change. Lastly, our proposed breeding program creates a vast array of new germplasm not seen since perhaps the Middle Ages, and might well enable the New World to at long last emerge from the shadow of the Old.
“by taking the radical step of breeding 10,000 new grape varieties from disease-resistant progenitors, (each vine being genetically distinct from the other) and looking at the very complex wine they might produce as a suite, with the side benefit of potentially identifying one or more new “genius” grape varieties”
Can anyone with the understanding explain this to me? Is he talking about in a petri dish or out in the field? I just don’t understand the science of it.
I read a little about this project years ago. My vague impression was that he was just saving seeds and propagating them. Wine grapes don’t generally “grow true” from seed, so you’d get huge variation without effort. Even controlling the parentage, there’d be great variation in the offspring.
The question is how will they make sense of the results? With each vine different, will they select and propagate vines based on harvest time observations? Just make a single wine out of the mix of red, white and grey grapes? Or what?
He explains in the Site why he’s turned to crowd-funding. The sell-off of Ca del Solo and other projects netted him big $$'s, but he’s
been eating into that to support his basic BonnyDoon line.
Tom
I assume he chose crowdfunding because it comes with free and positive advertising.
However, I still think it’s an interesting project and would support it if it were in my backyard. In France we have INRA doing similar things with government money and lots of university projects.
I read in today s SF Chronicle that he closed off the funding at around $175,000…this is half of $350,000. At least that’s what Tom Hill says and he is a computational physicist.
No, Mel…a “simple little ole country computational physicist”…spoken in his best SamErvin drawl!!!
It’ll be interesting to see how this operation plays out. I think ole Randall is thinking about the legacy he leaves to the Calif
wine industry…and I think he’d like it to be a bit more than him dressed up in a LoneRanger or Cardinal’s costume.
He’s a bit late in the game to launch a program like this…but who knows??
Tom
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