RANDALL GRAHM

Founder, Bonny Doon Vineyard

Randall Grahm is a notoriously irreverent and imaginative winemaker who has spent most of his adult life rooting for underdog varieties, shattering traditional notions of wine marketing, and tirelessly seeking terroir in California wines.

Randall attended the University of California at Santa Cruz and later found himself working at the Wine Merchant in Beverly Hills sweeping floors while a fanatic love of wine grew. He returned to the University of California at Davis to complete a degree in Plant Sciences in 1979.

He purchased property in the Santa Cruz Mountains in an area known as Bonny Doon intent on producing the Great American Pinot Noir. Although the perfect Pinot proved elusive, he was encouraged by experimental batches of Rhône varieties and eventually planted the property to syrah, roussanne, marsanne and viognier. Ever curious and clever, Grahm planted Bonny Doon's Ca' del Solo vineyard in Monterey County to an expanding roster of Italianate varieties including nebbiolo, barbera, pinot grigio, dolcetto and freisa.

In 1992, Ted Bowell of the Lowell Observatory named the "Rhoneranger" asteroid in Grahm’s honor. He has received numerous traditional honors including being named Wine and Spirits Professional of the Year by the James Beard Foundation in 1994, and Bon Appétit’s Wine and Spirits Professional of the Year in 1999.

He once staged a Funeral For The Cork, ushering in screwcaps as his new BFF. He’s produced a 24-page Enquirer parody titled the Vinquirer and wrote and produced a 2004 rock opera ode to all things ridiculous about the wine business. His idiosyncratic newsletters are often reproduced, but never replicated.

Randall lives in Santa Cruz with his muse Chinshu, their daughter Amélie and his thesaurus.