The Best Things that Happened to A Long Pour this Year:
In no particular order, here are the best things that happened to A Long Pour this year, some of which has already appeared on ALP. … Continue Reading
Fly-over country. I had never heard the term until a winemaker I met used it in a conversation last year. It went something like: “they like good wine in fly-over country too, in Iowa, and Ohio, and other places.”
The term “fly-over country” means exactly what it sounds like, those stretches of the Country we have all flown over to get somewhere else, say New York (or Los Angeles if you come the other way). It is a sad phrase, but an accurate description of many Americans’ traveling patterns. For many of us, we have “seen” the Midwest only from 30,000′ at 500pmh. Sorry Iowa, I do like those giant green blocks your State is made up of though.
But California has its own “fly-over” wine regions too, except here we drive by them at 80mph. None of these areas stand out to me more than Monterey County. While Lodi or even the Sierra Foothills can claim their own right to the designation “drive-by wine region” (particularly the Sierra Foothills), no place seems more fitting to me than Monterey. … Continue Reading
So as promised, the best of 52 Weeks with California wine. In most cases, it was hard to select winners. I had so many great experiences over the year that it was hard to say the what is listed below were the best. But you have to pick someone. And the winners are… … Continue Reading
An unavoidable consequence of making available great volumes of both written and verbal opinion is that you are bound to win both allies and enemies. It is then no surprise that Randall Grahm has acquired both. He has been both a pioneer and innovator for wine, which has endeared him to many. He has railed against or championed for any number of controversial matters (screw caps, wine critics, the dumbing down of wine) and this has won him his fair share of scorn and Anti-Grahm Fans.
In Bonny Doon – Slaying the Beast (you can read that here), I wanted to present the story of how Bonny Doon came to be, how they lost their way, and how they have dedicated themselves to correcting their errors. In reality, the topics addressed in that article were only a short part of the hour and a half conversation I shared with Grahm. The topics varied, from bio-dynamics to Twitter, the paradox of wine critics to his daughter’s Mandarin lessons (Wǒ juéde tā xuéxi Zhōngwen shì fēichánghǎo Randall. Zhōngwen kěyǐ bāngzhù tā. Anyone know PinYin?). … Continue Reading
The Birth of Bonny Doon – aka Randall Grahm and the Temple of Doon, Part I
The fantastic Mr. Grahm. The champion of the unsung vitis vinifera and decrier of the long over hailed vitis elieitist. The ever witty prolifcator of the written word, the masterfully poetic advocate of the unorthodox. The wild haired, be-spectacled, trail blazing, Rhône Ranging, entertaining, pontificating, elaborating, and stimulating, fantastic Mr. Grahm.
Randall Grahm is many things. An author (Been Doon So Long), a restaurateur (The Cellar Door), a trendsetter (Rhône wines, screw caps, comic book ads), a provocateur (see items previously listed), a marketer, a father, and of course, a winemaker. He is the name behind Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz and the original Rhône Ranger. … Continue Reading
We have grown rather accustomed to long trips for short stays, so much so that a 500 mile weekend is not such a big deal anymore. There are a lot of events we are invited to and we can only attend a few of them. But when Randall Graham asks you to attend, you attend. […]
A few weeks ago I posted the “Secret Project” with some shots of a friend’s new winery taking shape. At the time, the space was still in a raw state, holes in the ground, bare walls, cut concrete. In terms of photographing a new winery, one might say there was not much to see, no […]