Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/26650
THE MESSAGE Sex and the Single Grape Seed of Bonny Doon Vineyard, you know the banter will be anything but banal. In fact, our conversation was downright sexual. W Grape vines are propagated by taking dormant shoots pruned off vines. Cuttings are planted in gar- den soil and grown for a year. The following year, they are planted in a vineyard. This is asexual propagation. Grahm has another approach: he’s growing grapes from seeds. What a concept. “Sexual propagation— it hasn’t been done in centuries. Vines haven’t had sex in years,” he comments. Randall Grahm. The seeds are germinated in petri dishes and planted in pea pots. When they become three-inch plants, they are planted in the ground. “It requires more patience,” Grahm notes, “and the gamble is, what does a vineyard of 10,000 individuals give you? A level of complexity? A new diversity?” Grahm calls this new sexuality for vitis vinifera “frac- tal”—that is, something that can be split into parts, each of which is a reduced-size copy of the whole, a property called self-similarity. However, in the case of germinating a Grenache seed, for example, Grahm points out that the resulting plant, while he believes it would possess the ability to create greater beauty in fi nished wines, would also be unique. “It would not necessarily grow into a Grenache vine,” he notes. The seeds may be a combination of the original vine and the nearby pollinating vines. —Meridith May hen one sits down for a one-on-one interview with legendary wine producer Randall Grahm Mezcal Moment Gemini Spirits & Wine brought the line of Del Maguey mescals into its portfolio (see the announcement on page 10). Pictured left to right: David Grapshi, Tequila National Sales Manager, Gemini Spirits & Wine; Steve Wyant, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Sazerac; Ron Cooper, Founder of Del Maguey; and Mark Brown, President, Sazerac. 20 / the tasting panel / march 201 1 PHOTO COURTESY OF BONNY DOON WINERY