MARYANN WOROBIEC: Randall Grahm Goes Doon a New Road

“Can I improve upon the basic randomness of nature itself?”Randall Grahm and I are catching up over lunch in Napa. It’s been ages since I’ve seen the vintner, but he’s still the same old Randall, including the long ponytail, the John Lennon-inspired glasses and the wry smile.

- MARYANN WOROBIEC

The iconoclast winemaker, who popularized screwcaps and Rhônestyle wines in California, is known for a colorful and irreverent approach to wine. He sold his ownership in Bonny Doon in 2020 and partnered with Gallo in 2021 in a new Central Coast wine label called The Language of Yes. But we’re here to talk about his latest project, which, like many of Grahm’s ventures, has philosophical questions at the root of it.

Grahm is in town to show off some of the first wines from Popelouchum, the 415-acre estate in San Juan Bautista (east of Santa Cruz, Calif., and sitting next to the San Andreas Fault) that he purchased in 2011 and turned into an ambitious vineyard and grape playground to see whether he can improve on the basic randomness of nature.

How? He’s both growing a selection of grapes conventionally and also hoping to propagate myriad new grape varieties. Eventually, he will home in on the grapes that do particularly well, with the idea of finding a new path toward understanding terroir.