Bonny Doon Vineyard's - Magically Delicious Vinos !

Bonny Doon is one of my favorite vineyard's in California. It has a certain underground quality and his owner Randall Grahm sure does have a reputation for wackiness, but his wines are dead serious. You may get distracted by a Bonny Doon label which sure is not your usual gold-edged, flanged and waxed grocery store fare. Tattooed ladies, flying saucers, and monkeys in fezzes. Every label practically giggles; Buy me or don’t--I don’t care! I’ll have a good time without you. Randall Grahm had a funeral procession for the cork, when his winery went all screwcap. He has Fear and Loathing, Las Vegas artist Ralph Stedman which designs half of Bonny Doon's labels. This guy can actually make a Madiran and label it "Heart of Darkness". Randall is this guy that runs with the big boys but really remains the little guy. He describes Bonny Doon Vineyard's as the ones championing the strange, esoteric, ugly-duckling grape varieties of the world. All of this may be a little over the top, except for one thing; Bonny Doon produces magically delicious wines which usually come at real bargain prices! Also they have switched to biodynamically grown grapes in their own vineyards. You need to keep looking out for these wines. They feature all sorts of stuff that you wont find by anybody else. At this point I'd like to introduce you to two of Bonny Doon's bottles--one being a stellar Sryah for $16 a bottle and secondly a Dessert Framboise that comes below $20 a bottle and is amongst the best pairing bottles for anything chocolate!


The 2004 Syrah "Le Pousseur" Bonny Doon is a true stunner and at $16 a steal as well. This is a very serious and authentic syrah. One strongly senses that the Northern Rhône is not terroir incognito to this wine. This wine is endowed with rich tannins, smoky meatiness and a clear ping of wintergreen. The use of only coastal, cooler climate grapes preserves the nuance and complexity of this Syrah, which allows one to daydream without guilt of sexy, well proportioned, and sophisticated côtes blondes et brunettes.


The Bonny Doon Framboise is a true singular sensory frequency potion. It is all about raspberry and in order to adequately describe this genious Framboise we must find news ways of expressing what lies beyond the lashings of raspberry, the explosions of raspberry flavor and the eruptions of raspberry zest that come in this little bottle of dessert wine. Pour a nice glass of this concentrate and have it with some flourless chocolate cake and know what it is to sit under a banyan tree and contemplate new found enlightenment. Anything chocolate really!