Randall Grahm: More Than A Rhone Ranger

When Randall Grahm walks in for our interview on the patio of Park lane Hotel in Hong Kong on Wednesday, I thought he came straight from a Tim Burton movie set. Bearing some resemblance to Burton’s usual movie protagonist – the frizzy hair and quirky spectacles (Think Edward Scissorhands or Tim Burton himself), Randall, as a matter of fact, is a bona fide maverick in the US winemaking industry.

The whimsical Californian winemaker just arrived in Hong Kong after a trip to Macau where he managed to strike a new distribution deal for his wines, produced from his Bonny Doon Winery. “How is Macau?” I greeted him before we start the interview. “It was like Las Vegas on steroids,” the 62-year-old winemaker replied, flashing a smile. 

Not particularly a fan of travelling or a fan of Las Vegas in that regard, the winemaker admitted he felt more at home at his vineyard in Santa Cruz, which he calls a source of his happiness. “It nourishes me,” he said in a soothing voice.

At a young age in his early 20s, Randall was given the opportunity to taste some of the greatest wines of the world including first-growth Bordeaux and Burgundies. “And I think to myself, ‘ oh, my God. I could really get used to these wines’” he said, thus beginning a lifetime of winemaking.

In early 1980s, what he started out as his great experiment with pinot noir failed tragically, but by accident, it turned out to be his greatest creation ever – mixing Rhone grape varieties to create distinctive wines in California. “I’ve been working with Rhone grapes since 1982 with grenache, and in ’83, I made some syrah. Then in ‘84, we made our first blend of Cigar Volante, which is our own blend (of grenache, syrah and morvedre), kind of an homage to Chateauneuf du Pape,” he said. “It was niche; it was the first wine of its type. It worked most of the time, and I kept doing it.”

His pioneering venture was monumental at the time. Wine Spectator put him on the cover of their 1989’s April issue and called him, The Rhone Ranger, a moniker that followed him for the rest of his life.

Today, the winemaker said he has outgrown the name, and is exploring new ways to make sustainable and distinctive wines unique to California. “I am happy to work with Rhone grapes, but ultimately I don’t wanna be seem as a copycat, Rhone wanna-be or any kind of wanna-be, whether for burgundy or Bordeaux. We have to think about what we do here in California is truly distinctive and different. It’s a deep question, and I stay up night thinking about it,” he said. 

And the key, it seems to be, is to make wine that can reflect the characteristics of California’s terroir. “My biggest obsession, whether I succeed or not, I don’t know. I love the idea of a wine that can reflect the sense of place. This is my obsession. This is what I most wish to achieve in this lifetime,” said the self-claimed terroirist.

“It’s a very ambitious goal in the new world to achieve in a short time. It often takes generations to figure it out. But this is what obsesses me, and I am really gonna give it my best effort,” he assured.

You can also watch Randall talk in details about his wine, how he got into the wine business, what the economic recession after 2008 meant for Bonny Doon, and his venture into the Asian wine market below.