Randall Grahm

Randall Grahm is a California winemaker and the founder of Bonny Doon Vineyard. He is perhaps best known for his pioneering work with Rhone varieties in California and for popularizing the use of screw caps on premium wines. He was an early proponent of transparent ingredient labeling on bottled wines, and has been a prominent advocate of terroir wines and biodynamic practice.

Biography

Randall was born in Los Angeles in 1953 and attended UC Santa Cruz where he was "a permanent Liberal Arts major." He eventually began working at the Wine Merchant in Beverly Hills sweeping floors. There he had the opportunity to taste great French wines and the experience turned him into "a complete and insufferable wine fanatic."

In 1991 Randall was added to the Who's Who of Cooking in America by Cook's Illustrated magazine, and in the same year Ted Bowell of the Lowell Observatory in northern Arizona named the "4934 Rhôneranger" asteroid in his honor. He was proclaimed Wine and Spirits Professional of the Year by the James Beard Foundation in 1994.

Randall lectures frequently to wine societies and technical groups, and occasionally contributes "quixotically sincere" articles to wine journals. In 2010 The Culinary Institute of America inducted him into the Vintner's Hall of Fame. He currently lives in Santa Cruz with his partner Chinshu and their daughter, Amélie.

Randall's current commercial wine endeavour is with a winery called The Language of Yes, with vineyards based in Santa Maria.