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Uncorked: Vintner enjoys uncorking the quirky

Sushi in the bottle? Puns on the labels? Waggish wit Randall Grahm puts fun into fermentation. But staying trendy is serious business too.

By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published February 23, 2005

[Labels courtesy of Bonny Doon]

What's next is a common question for curious wine fans.

It's a logical but dangerous query, especially when put to Randall Grahm, the founder of Bonny Doon winery and the clown prince of American wine.

Logical, because Grahm has always worked so far out on the edge of the vineyard that he succeeds long before others catch on to the trend. He was one of the first California winemakers to tire of cabernet and chardonnay, to glory instead in old zinfandel and to go exploring among Rhone varietals and rieslings.

He followed that trail deep into the south of France and across Italy for more grapes. He helped promote the now booming Central Coast vineyards of California. He put screw caps on most of his wines, even $30 reds. And, most famously, as an erudite punster, he started the Ministry of Silly Labels.

That's one reason the question is also dangerous. Wines called Cardinal Zin, Critique of Pure Riesling, Big House Red and White (and now Pink) and the Pacific Rim label, through which you can see sushi floating in the wine, are small clues about the mind at work here. Try untangling the wild fancies on the back of the labels or the inspiration for the art. (The Il Circo labels that look like sideshow posters are by the artist who illustrated Canadian writer Robertson Davies' psychologically complex novels.)

Then there is the fanciful Web site (www.bonnydoonvineyard.com) or, if you have Joycean reading tastes, sign up for his newsletters.

The label on his flagship wine, Le Cigare Volant, features a flying saucer hovering over a 19th century French vineyard. He has published a 24-page National Vinquirer, headlined Marsanne Attacks! with a squadron of cigares targeting the Mondavi campanile.

In short, the mind behind the narrow spectacles and under the chestnut ponytail moves as quickly and unpredictably as Robin Williams'. By the end of an hour visit on a recent swing through Tampa, there's not a cliche left standing.

As to what's next, Grahm has a thousand answers, and perhaps ultimately one, a free-thinking commitment to the origins of wine: the taste of the soil, with the grapes planted and wine made in accord with biodynamic rhythms.

He has continued looking far beyond the Rhone to forgotten corners of Europe for ancient and neglected wines and brought them back.

"My favorite wine," he begins an old saw before twisting it, "is the one I've never tried before." And now he gives American drinkers the same pleasure: black madiran from the southwest of France, ruche, erbaluce and uve di troia from Italy. Because of these grapes, not the famous nebbiolo, he calls the Piedmont region "the Garden of Eden."

In some cases he imports bottles from foreign makers; other grapes he tries to grow in his Santa Cruz vineyards or attempts to persuade local growers to raise. He admits some don't like the risk as much as he does.

Next? "I guess things have come full cycle. I'd really like to try making pinot noir again . . ."

". . . in the south of England, maybe Sussex."

Yes, England makes wine, but France's finest? Well, Grahm sees far enough back in geologic time to when the soils of Burgundy were much closer to England's. And both have inhospitable weather.

If you just laugh, you miss the joke. Behind Grahm's wildest ideas, the thinking is profound, and the wines are seriously good, from delightful to grand; just try a glass of Cigare, somehow both lofty and earthy.

His own vineyards outside the prison at Soledad aren't special, but they're the right place for his Noah's ark of odd grapes. Some work, some don't, but he doesn't give up quickly.

With Grahm steering the magic bus, he's bound to find them, grow them and blend them. Any wine drinker with curiosity will treasure the ride.

Chris Sherman, who writes about food and wine for the St. Petersburg Times, is the author of "The Buzz on Wine" Lebhar-Friedman Books, $16.95. He can be reached at (727) 893-8585 or sherman@sptimes.com

[Last modified February 22, 2005, 14:44:54]