Maybe you’ve been distracted by a Bonny Doon label before, not your usual gold-edged, flanged and waxed grocery store trash. They are……cool. Wha? In this business? Tattooed ladies, flying saucers, and monkeys in fezes. Every label practically giggles, Buy me or don’t. I don’t care. I’ll have a good time without your ass.

These are the guys who had a funeral procession for the cork, when the winery went all screwcap, complete with a Jancis Robinson eulogy. These are the guys who have Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas artist Ralph Stedman design half of their labels. These are the guys who ACTUALLY MAKE a Madiran and tag it Heart of Darkness. These are the guys who sent me a cigar box with aliens and shit all over it. Inside the box was a bottle of Cigare Volant*–first vintage in screwcap–a ray gun, a mood ring, a vile of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (the compound that makes a wine “corked’) and a vile of patchouli. Fuckin patchouli! These are the guys who run with the big boys but are really the little guys, and I qouth: “We believe we should champion the strange, esoteric, ugly-duckling grape varieties of the world.”

All of this might be a little too much, except for one thing. Bonny Doon makes delicious wine. And if some people can’t take them seriously…..well… Hello! Did you not read paragraph 2? They don’t care, because they are having a hell of a time without you, seriously.

I went to a Cali tasting recently, and below are some of the Doon wines on show. See, Ravi, it’s not that I don’t like California, I just forget to invite her to all of my parties. You know, we never had any classes together, and she was always kinda stuck up.

Pacific Rim Chenin Blanc - ($10-$12) Lush, but not tooooo lush, like a ripe pear…poached in wine! It has a great tongue-coating quality and still finishes dry.

Syrah “Le Pousseur” - ($15-$17) This wine was a spicy red fruit assault–raspberry and pomegranate to name a few. It drifted through my palatte like a hydroplaning kitten. And had people talking.

Clos de Gilroy - ($13-$15) In a room of thick-necked cousins, this wine sure has a purty mouth, with a nose to match. All grenache–black fruits, soft spice, and a bit a pepper.



Malvasia Bianca - ($10-$12) OK, this wine wasn’t there, but I had it yesterday. I am deeply captivated by Southern Italian whites. Doon’s take on this grape is downright flirty–a little hint of blossoms, spring, exotic fruit on a dry wine that’s waited all year for my tomatoes to ripen.

Boutielle Call - ($17-$20) Think of a port-style wine, made from Syrah, and then infused with a little Framboise. It works, there’s an added tanginess to the rich, dark fruit that keeps it from being too much. I’d have this with a not so sweet chocolate dessert.

THE BEST PART about visiting the Bonny Doon table is their propoganda. No, it’s not just free swag. It’s the little missives, rewritten song lyrics, and epic poems that spring from the mind behind it all, Randall Grahm. This was one of my favorites by far. A rewrite of a hefty bit of Dante, repackaged as Da Vino Commedia Argentus Quercus, for the Latin impaired, means “Silver Oak.” I, too, would put that in the lower levels of Hell, right next to Jaba the Critic. Bless you, Mr. Grahm. You remind us that none of this matters, if you’re not having a blast.

Go to Bonny Doon Vineyard Wines and check out their particular bent for yourself.

  ((*named after the absurd French law that says no UFOs may land in the vineyards of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, the region in France known for its gorgeous Grenache-based vin.))