Comments on: Randall Grahm on Bonny Doon

By: John

John — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:54:52 +0000

Great show guys. I met Randall in Minneapolis Monday night and he is entertaining and a great guy. I got to try a few of the Cigare Volant exclusive wines and they were great.

Love the show and keep them coming.

John Glas

By: Wineontheway.com

Wineontheway.com — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:57:54 +0000

Boony Doon is one of our favorite California Wines. Their 2007 Pinot noir is to die for and thier 2005 Cabernet was one of the all time greats!

By: John A. Martelly

John A. Martelly — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:42:34 +0000

Well there goes my chance of landing my flying saucer in the vineyard. Damn those French. Anyway, loved the show. To make a point, I take issue with what Randall said about Bonny Doon not being special enough. Mr. Grahm, your wine was a major contributor in getting my girlfriend to enjoy wine. Because of your skills(and awesome label) your riesling started a snowball effect that has amassed some great experiences and memories. Therefore, proving that your wine was special.

As for the BD farming. Something doesn’t make sence to me. Wouldn’t BD farming be cheaper in the long run? I mean, why would you spend money on sprays and fertilizers if you can go without? What point am I missing? My Uncle owed a farm and he never spent money on something he didn’t really need or he could make himself.

As always great show.

By: Hello Vino

Hello Vino — Tue, 04 May 2010 14:43:18 +0000

Good listen guys.

To your point about the amount of choices…Wow, 40K wineries in Germany alone.

So many labels to choose from, and I agree that a lot of people are image driven, or they see the shelf-talkers with a sale price that automatically determines their consideration set for purchase. I do think mobile can assist here (offer quick recommendations, short reviews, and a label image for easy identification on the shelf).

We try to help the people you speak of in the supermarket aisle, so I loved to hear that you see people are dying to be told “this is the one you want.”

Cheers,
Hello Vino

P.S. I’m a fan of Grenache as well : )

By: Doug Smith

Doug Smith — Mon, 03 May 2010 20:03:15 +0000

Well, there’s a lot to agree with that Grahm says. He’s an effective and articulate spokesperson, always interesting to hear.

But just to mention the same issues as with the Lapostolle interview: Grahm says that BD “cannot be defended scientifically” but nonetheless that it “works”. (Around 34:50). This is tendentious. The scientific literature with which I am familiar shows that the “mystical” stuff with which Jay took objection in fact does not or cannot work. What does work is the organic farming, high quality organic mulching, and the like.

Brian did make one point that echoed something we said in one of our papers on BD: it may well be that the mere fact of having people working the fields longer may make a difference to a BD farmed field. But if so, that isn’t because of the “mystical” stuff. It’s because the fields are simply being more carefully tended.

Correlation isn’t necessarily causation.