Bonny Doon Vineyard, founded by Randall Grahm in the 1980s, is an iconic and innovative Californian winery and one of the first to popularise Rhone grape varietals in California. Whilst working at the Wine Merchant in Beverly Hills, Randall Grahm had the opportunity to sample many great French wines and devoted himself to replicating these in the States. He soon found success working with Rhone varieties in California’s Central Coast and has been labelled as one of the original ‘Rhone Ranger’ winemakers.

Vin de terroir wines are ones that express a sense of place and this is typical of Old World wines, whilst vin d’effort wines aim to express the winemaker’s stylistic intentions and is a more common characteristic of New World Wines.

Bonny Doon aim to showcase ‘terroir’, as is more typical of Old World wines. In order to achieve this, Bonny Doon make wines with as little intervention as possible with the aim to show respect to the vineyard soils. Since 2004, their grapes have been grown biodynamically.