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Default Bonny Doon and Randall Graham

I attended a Bonny Doon wine tasting last weekend and got a chance to
talk briefly with Randall Graham. Randall Graham is California's
original Rhone Ranger, an innovative wine maker who is always trying
new things, and the producer of the most original packaging of any
winery in California.

Bonny Doon has switched almost entirely to screw caps. Randall Graham
said that he tried plastic corks, but found that they seal more poorly
than real corks and that wine ages faster with plastic corks. Randall
also said that there are two different kinds of screw caps. One kind
seals very tightly, which slows down wine aging. The other lets a
little air in, similar to a real cork. Bonny Doon apparently uses both
kinds of screw caps, depending on the type of wine.

Randall Graham complained about the quality of the grapes he has been
getting lately in California. He said he felt that the growers that
Bonny Doon has contracts with are not working very hard any more to
produce the best quality fruit and that the quality of grapes he is
getting has declined over recent vintages. I thought this was a rather
surprising thing for a wine maker to say. Perhaps Randall is not a
marketing person. In the latest copy of the Wine Advocate that just
arrived, Parker says that the quality at Bonny Doon has declined from
the mid 80s, but Parker suggests it is because of the production, now
almost 400,000 cases a year.

Bonny Doon is now making a number of wines in Italy. The wine is made
and bottled in Italy and then imported to the US to be sold by Bonny
Doon. Randall Graham goes over to Italy to supervise much of the wine
making. He had just gotten back from Italy.

Randall talked about his latest crazy idea. He is thinking about
planting a vineyard from seed. All grape vineyards are planted by
grafting from existing vineyards onto root stock. This gives vines that
are genetically identical to the vines the grafts came from. He said,
if you plant from seed, then you would get random genetic variations.
Many of the seeds may be sterile. Some of the vines might not produce
any grapes, but he would like to try it and see what happens. He was
thinking of taking a vineyard planted to a mix of Rhone varieties, so
that the different varieties would cross pollinate, and then take the
seeds from the grapes and plant vines from those seeds. This would
produce some totally new type of grapes. He would like to try it, even
though it might well produce mediocre or terrible wine. He just wanted
to try it once and see what happens.

Interesting Randall Graham fact: he drives an old Citroen because it is
cigar shaped.

These wines were available for tasting. I didn't really have time to
rate them:

2003 Big House White, $8
Blend of all kinds of whites, but tasted like a Sauvignon Blanc. Good
value.

2004 Ca del Solo Malavashia Bianca, $10
Some Italian grapes I had never heard of, but good, and a good value.

2004 Cigare Volant Blanc, $16
Made from white Rhone grapes. Very interesting and different. I liked
it.

2004 Vin Gris De Cigare, $10
Basically made from the free run juices of the Cigare Volant. Nice
summer sipping wine.

2003 Cardinal Zinfandel, $15
Ok Zin. Not overripe like many California Zins nowdays.

2001 Old Telegram, $25
Made from Mourv=E8dre. My favorite of the tasting.

2002 Cigare Volant, $25
Rhone mix. I was disappointed. Some other tasters said they thought the
2001 was better.

2003 Montepulciano, $9
Some Italian grape. Interesting. Needs some time.

2003 Ruche, $14
Another Italian grape. More ready to drink.

2001 Uva di Troia, $10
Yet another Italian wine. Interesting, ready to drink.

2004 Muscat Vin de Glacier, $14
Muscat desert wine. Ok.

Framboise, $9
This is raspberry wine, and tastes like you are drinking raspberry jam.
Not my cup of tea.

Boutielle Call, $17
This is a port made from the Framboise, sort of a raspberry port. I
thought it tasted better than the Framboise, but still not something I
would buy.

------------------------------------
Mike's Wine Blog
http://mikeswinecellar.blogspot.com

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On 13 Jul 2005 23:53:51 -0700, "
> wrote:

>I attended a Bonny Doon wine tasting last weekend and got a chance to
>talk briefly with Randall Graham. Randall Graham is California's
>original Rhone Ranger, an innovative wine maker who is always trying
>new things, and the producer of the most original packaging of any
>winery in California.


The guy is a kick in the butt. At last July's Rhone Rangers dinner I
found myself sitting around a table with Randall (Grahm, not "Graham,"
btw) and Harry Alhadeff and Brian Carter of Apex. All great guys who
make some excellent wines, and share a flair for innovative marketing.
They were asking me for *my* opinion. Yipes...

>Bonny Doon has switched almost entirely to screw caps.


I see some of the 2002 Cigare Volant at wine-searcher.com is listed as
having screw caps. That surprises me. I've always thought of CG as
pretty much their top end wine, and I figured they'd hold onto cork
for it. Was the bottle you tasted a screw cap?

>Randall Graham complained about the quality of the grapes he has been
>getting lately in California.


I don't find this too surprising. It seems like everybody wants to
make wine these days, which implies the better grapes are perhaps
being siphoned off to make mid and upper range wines. The rest are
filling the plonk bottles at Bronco. (I suppose you've heard of
Franzia's new $3.99 adventure.) So, maybe he just can't get the kind
of quality out of growers who know they can always make a buck by
turning their juice into Two Buck Chuck.

>Parker says that the quality at Bonny Doon has declined from
>the mid 80s, but Parker suggests it is because of the production, now
>almost 400,000 cases a year.


Consider the source. 400,000 cases isn't all that much when you figure
how many different wines Bonny Doon is producing. You tasted 13, for
instance, and I know of many more. Plus, as you noted, he's importing.
Now, if he was making 400K cases of Cigare Volant, Cardinal Zin, Sirah
Syrah or Madiran Heart of Darkness, I'd be worried. I'll concede that
bigger doesn't always mean better, and 20 years ago Bonny Doon was a
substantially smaller operation. But I'm not sure that, in this case
anyway, size has much to do with it.

>Interesting Randall Graham fact: he drives an old Citroen because it is
>cigar shaped.


Spell it "Citron" and it means lemon. Pretty good desciption of that
car, if you ask me. LOL! (Ever watch one of those things boot up? The
rear end is raised to operating height by some sort of hydraulic drive
pump.)

>2002 Cigare Volant, $25
>Rhone mix. I was disappointed. Some other tasters said they thought the
>2001 was better.


Lots of 2001 still out there. But woo-hoo -- $25? That's what I used
to pay for it nine years ago. Lately it's been impossible to find in
the Seattle area for under $35. Guess I'll have to start buying
direct.

Randall will most likely be in town again for the Rhone Rangers
Northwest Tasting on August. 6th. I'm looking forward to that.

JJ
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D. Gerasimatos
 
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I used to really like Bonny Doon, but I am now over both them and their
wines. It does not help that I got in an argument with the tasting room
employees over the availability of a wine that I had. (They claim it
wasn't produced in years and that I must have been mistaken, but I later
found it on the shelf at a wine shop.) They were also rude and conceited
in other ways and the wine just wasn't worth it. I belive entirely that
they are having trouble getting good grapes, but I guess that happens
when you need enough to make 400,000 cases of wine. My personal suggestion
(for which I demand a share of the profit) is that they spin off a
premium label and go back to what made them famous using that label. If
they can only get 10 tons of great grapes, then use those and market them
(and charge for them) appropriately. It might also behoove them to grow
more of their own fruit, so that they can maintain control. It sounds like
they have already considered that option.


Dimitri

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> >Bonny Doon has switched almost entirely to screw caps.
>
> I see some of the 2002 Cigare Volant at wine-searcher.com is listed as
> having screw caps. That surprises me. I've always thought of CG as
> pretty much their top end wine, and I figured they'd hold onto cork
> for it. Was the bottle you tasted a screw cap?


Yes, it was screw cap. I think only the port and some of the Italian
wines had corks.

------------------------------------
Mike's Wine Blog
http://mikeswinecellar.blogspo t.com

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