Bonny Doon

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A Letter from Bonny Doon in California:

In these challenging economic times, one finds oneself deeply contemplative; what is concrete (other than a few of our fermenters), what can we and should we keep, and what must go?  Indeed, our company itself faces this very challenge.  It is quite evident that we must maintain our commitment to quality, to innovation and to making the most soulful wines we can possibly muster. Certainly, in these very difficult times, it is important that we seek to nourish our friends and our families, as we seek sustenance from them. 

It is a problematic time, but also one ripe with possibility.  I have recently nattered on at some length about  the profundity of the sea-change that has occurred within Bonny Doon Vineyard and in myself personally these last few years.  To put matters very plainly:  It is no longer an option to simply continue to produce well made “interesting” wines, wines of good or even impeccable value, well packaged with an amusing back-story.  Been there, doon that.  We must really essay to challenge ourselves, to dare to work toward the elaboration of truly original wine – not through winemaking legerdemain ¹,  but through being truly present with our terroir, and at least vis-à-vis the vines, learning how, in the parlance of Casteneda’s Don Juan, to see.

We employ biodynamic practice in our own vineyard in the Salinas Valley of Monterey County and have encouraged our growers to follow us.  (Approximately two thirds of our growers are either now or will rather soon be Demeter® certified Biodynamic.)®  Biodynamic practice is certainly not the only path toward the elaboration of terroir, but I now suspect that it is the most efficient and deliberate way.   Its explicit aim is to allow the intelligence and character of a site to be expressed without the heavy-handed intervention of human beings and their notions of “improvement”.  By using the biodynamic preparations as virtually a form of viticultural homeopathy, one can gently coax the vine into a sort of greater awareness (not wishing to be overly anthropomorphic) of its environment, so that it can do “what comes naturally.”   Biodynamic practice is no substitute for a thoughtful selection of a well-favored vineyard site or as importantly, the felicity of the marriage of the grape varieties, rootstock and particular climat.  Needless to say, impeccable vineyard practice is crucial, no matter how cosmically connected one imagines oneself to be. 

I must confess to a certain degree of ambivalence in wearing the biodynamic credentials of the company so manifestly on my sleeve.  The essence of the biodynamic sensibility is a very quiet, personal relationship that a grower might enjoy with his land.  When biodynamics so visibly serves commerce, its essence is largely lost.   We trumpet our virtue for now in the aim that it will soon no longer be an absolute commercial necessity; it is my hope that the qualities of the wines themselves will soon speak with an eloquence that will require minimum amplification and elaboration.

For the nonce, the wines of our own biodynamic Estate vineyard, Ca’ del Solo, exhibit how much we have grown to esteem “frank,” untricked up wines, ones more closely linked to the vineyards from which they derive ².  The new vintage (’08) of all of the wines from the Ca’ del Solo Estate show that our work in the vineyard has deepened in meaning, as the wines themselves demonstrate.  The twin virtues of soulfulness and transparency are what I am seeking most assiduously to render in our wines and it appears that some progress has been made. 

We are very keen - this does not even begin to do justice to the ardor I feel - to purchase a new Estate property, where we might contrive to produce some very original wines, and are currently in a state of rather tortuous negotiations to purchase an extraordinary property not too far from Santa Cruz, one I’ve long dreamt of. It will certainly be a while before we see any fruit from this Estate - assuming we can get the purchase details nailed down relatively soon before they are nailing my coffin shut ³.

What else can I offer as a modest counterweight to the dependably steady drumbeat of bummers du jour?   I have observed an increasing number of people with the sincere desire to consume only the most wholesome, life-giving produce they can find and are very keen on provenance – this is a particularly useful and heartening trend, especially in these challenging times.  There now seems to be an awakened interest in the individual, the particular artisanal product; the standard issue, as reliable as it might be, just no longer satisfies.  It is not just heirloom tomatoes that are returning with a vengeance (how’s that for an image?), but there is now interest in the quirky, oddball indigenous grapes of exotic climes, wines made in amphorae, wines made with no sulfur at all.  As dominant as the trend towards globalization and standardization has been, surely there is as lively a counter-current toward diversity and the truly particular, and this greatly cheers my heart.  We do need to find produce that fortifies us not just nutritionally but aesthetically and spiritually; we have to stay healthy in body and in spirit to weather this inclemency. 

With very best wishes,

Randall Grahm

 
  1. Winemaking tricks are for kids.
  2. There are now rather explicit guidelines from Demeter that address exactly what constitutes “hands-off” winemaking; these would prominently include the use of indigenous yeast, limits on levels of sulfur dioxide, the eschewal of chaptalization, acidulation and other practices that lead to a more standardized, industrial product. 
  3. The protracted period for the consummation of the real estate deal and certainly the duration of the development period is approaching the gestation period of Rabelais’ Gargantua, with potentially analogous results. Even a “modern” vineyard (which ours emphatically will not be) would take five-ish years to bear fruit upon planting.  This vineyard will be developed at a much slower, leisurely pace – viz. establishing rootstock with deep enough roots to dry-farm before field-budding.  This sort of development is state of the art for a vineyard planted in the 19th century, but that is indeed what must needs be doon, if this vineyard is to live into the 22nd.