I remember when Randall Grahm seemed to be in the press all the time, and Bonny Doon was in the forefront of innovation in California.
Aside from the occasional Old Telegram or Cigare Volant, I can’t recall tasting any of their wines in the last decade.
Does anyone here buy or drink them? I’m curious.
See here:
Thanks. I missed that thread.
But aside from Tom Hill’s interesting post, I don’t see much of any discussion of the wines – just Grahm’s personality. So I guess my question stands.
Well, I think Nate and I summed it up on that thread. They are soft mildly interesting wines that suffer from a lack of acid. A nice quaff priced far above the moderate pleasure they deliver. Not bad, not compelling.
They recently received some love from WS for some of their newly released syrahs, including a Bien Nacido bottling. I do believe Randall has a ‘re-found’ love for what he’s doing and the wines coming forth will be more ‘distinctive’ than his wines over the past decade. Tasted a few of his wines at a Rhone Rangers tasting and really dug his white rhone blend, for instance.
As he himself admits, though - once a reputation is ‘created’, it’s pretty difficult to get folks to change their views about it . . .
So I’m reserving judgement but keeping an open mind and a keen eye on what he’s doing - and tasting the wines for what they are now.
Cheers.
The Contra red I had recently had quite a bit of acidity. Haven’t had Le Cigar Volant in years.
These comments are inconsistent with the benefits Biodynamic farming supposed to provide.
Are you saying it provides great marketing for moderate interest wines?
In the same way that Robert Mondavi used to say he woke up every morning and thanked Gallo, Sebastiani and Martini for seeding the ground for wine, 90% of the Rhone Ranger clan owes Randall for decades of tireless ambassadorship…
My feelings are pretty much in agreement with TomHill’s excellent summary.
Regarding the wines, I’ve had some interesting ones over the years, particularly some vintages of Le Cigar Volant but Bonny Doon really went the direction of the mega conglomerate, producing mediocre wines by the caseload. It’s difficult to recover any kind of geek following from that. Meanwhile sending out newsletters blasting your competition for doing the exact same thing (except probably doing it better in most cases) will pretty effectively kill off whatever’s left. The final nail in the coffin for me was in their tasting room about 8 years ago, where they tried to sell me a different vintage Cigar Volant than they were pouring, telling me there was really no difference, and putting up a strong argument against refunding my money. I walked out and never looked back.
You’re met people who insist that New World wines will never measure up to their Old World counterparts - I believe this sums up one of RG’s core beliefs, and it shows in his wines and in some of his hair-brained ideas. However I see him as more a tragic figure, brilliant guy but completely lacking the ability to focus. It’s sad that he’s devoted his life to making wines which he will never believe can be better than 2nd rate. I have no idea what we’ll be saying about Ray Walker or Kevin Harvey in 20 years, but I can’t help but think that here are 2 examples of the kind of thing that I think Randall Grahm would like to have done, but whether it was timing or vision that prevented it, I don’t know.
Do we ultimately owe our gratitude to RG for starting the proliferation of Rhône grapes into California? I’m not completely convinced, but there was a time when I enjoyed the wines.
I think that if he made boutique-y wines under some other new label he could make some really good stuff.
I think what Pax Mahle has done going from Pax to Wind Gap is pretty cool. Not a good analogy in terms of style but an example of re-inventing oneself as a winemaker. One could do worse price and quality wise than having a cellar full of nothing but Wind Gap.
It seems to me that Robert Parker over the years has been very critical of Grahm, perhaps overly so, but I noticed a recent issue that was complimentary.
Phil Jones
I just had a Bonny Doon rose at the San Antonio airport moments ago, very nice
Yes, that’s one good consistency. His roses have always been good and he should get some credit for the recent surge of good dry roses we’re seeing. I’d also take his Albarinho over most CA whites at its price point.