Saying Yes to an Evening at Popelouchum 

October 4, 2021 – The invitation was quintessential Randall, announcing the release of the 2021 The Language of Yes wines, and the inaugural release of limited wines from the Popelouchum Estate, accompanied by a farm to table feast. It concluded with “Please say Yes. I look forward to seeing you soon.Yours in (Total) Sérinity.” There is little doubt that few exercise their brain’s deep thesaurus-like repository, retrieving synonyms, antonyms, and pun-fodder like Grahm—the Wine Wizard of Words. His vast and imaginative vocabulary makes dictionaries flee in fear. 

Having amassed such a deep cellar of witticism and repartee over lo, these many years, which happens to be one of my favorite Randallisms, wordsplay (with or without the imagery of swords) comes naturally to him, like the fog rolling over the San Juan Bautista hills and the inevitable flock of turkeys at harvest, Sérinity is of course a play on one of the grapes of the northern Rhone of which he is more than modestly fond. And perhaps a vague reference to the sincerity of being serene.  After lo, these many years, he has achieved such notoriety that he actually sat, serenely and composed, for photos with the gathered Doondom faithful and the Doonishly Curious. 

After gathering around the old oak tree with our glasses of sparkling Riesling to Live, as there is no such thing as a boring or mundane wine label in the Land of Grahm, he was introduced by Suzanne Denevan-Brown, senior manager of brand marketing at Maze Row Wine Merchant, as “a man who is in the Hall of Fame of Vintners, a man who has forever changed the way we think about wine and drink wine—and a man who is ever curious.”

“Ever curious,” echoed Grahm, with a whim of amusement. “Very curious, that! I indeed could be considered curious.” And then proceeded to update the throng on his ongoing experiments with grape-breeding, giving a nod to what works, meaning Grenache and Tibouren, and the espaliered fruit trees which have yielded crème de pêche and pear cider, one of his many long-pursued windmills. Of the rather well laden Grenache Blanc and Grenache Gris vines, at least as of last week. Everything at Popelouchum is subject to a smorgasbord of pestilence, featuring yellow jackets, deer, raccoons and turkeys, he explained, “They are grown in the old-fangled fashion of head trained vines. I don’t like wines and friends who are anything but. I prefer organic and natural.”

Grahm is clearly excited about Sirene, a grape related to Syrah that has both white and red parents. “Mendel was right,” he observed. “25% of the offspring are white, and these grapes are the bomb! We’re planting a half-acre of white and red Sirene. As we are fond of saying, ‘What could go wrong?’”

Well, for one thing, how about that dismally empty pond. “We built this big pond, but it leaked from the bottom.” 

Then he tried growing Furmint, but it didn’t like the incessant wind, so he grafted to Petit Manseng. “It doesn’t like San Juan Bautista either!” 

But enough about what doesn’t work: let’s talk about what does. The first wine we were served after being seated at the foreverlong table in the vineyards, happened to be the 2020 Popelouchum Estate blend of Grenache Blanc and Grenache Gris ($65). Ironically, the Grenache Blanc vines were behind me, while the Grenache Gris sunned itself behind the folks on the opposite side of the table. It glowed copper and rose gold in the waning sunlight and I could not stop admiring the way it looked like the stained glass at Saint Chappelle. These grapes exhibited that hazy hue of ancient old world stained glass: not the clarity of our 19^th and 20^th century churches. Why I never took a photo of those gorgeous grapes, but for all the servers pouring wine constantly and chatting with tablemates, I’m not sure. Perhaps a little distracted. But a tablemate shared the photo that shows the intersection of both grapes: thanks, Eunice! The wine, as my tablemate Elene noted, is bright with acid and needs food. Indeed, with its definitive salinity and very crisp pear, the texture is rich, almost creamy, and would be fabulous with goat cheese and Bartlett pear tartlets drizzled with honey and topped with hazelnuts. 

We also were served the 2021 Language Of Yes “Le Cérisier,” ($35) a barely pink wine made with Tibouren, Cinsault and Mourvedre, gloriously perfumey and delicately endowed with peach and cherry, a wine that Elene declared perfect. “Pour me more of that!” 

Both of these wines were excellent with the delightful first course of Minnesota Midget melon with Iberico ham, goat cheese, corn, basil, ground cherries and lettuces from the estate garden, prepared by Michelin-starred chef Jarad Gallagher and his stalwart team. After departing Chez TJ in Mountain View, he opened Smoke Point BBQ in San Juan Bautista. Job losses in 2020 left some of his family without work, so they moved to CA to help open the restaurant. It was a good decision. And then one fateful day, Randall walked into the restaurant.

Says Gallagher, “He asked me if I would cater a ‘little wine event.’ Little did I know!! Let’s just say it has progressed quite a lot since I understood the scope! We planted thousands of pounds of vegetables here to use in this dinner. It feels really good to repurpose the bounty of the land we are standing on. We have embraced the wasps and the gusts are dying down, thankfully.” He admitted that when he opened the new restaurant in San Juan Bautista, which is based on smoked cuisine, he had never even used a smoker! Do these two guys belong together or what?

The entire evening was a feast, leaning heavily on that amazing fresh produce, winding up in dishes like corn pudding, grilled squash gratin, Mediterranean tomato and cucumber salad, wheat bulgur with green olives, carrots and eggplant, plus petrale sole poached in Pinot Noir butter sauce with summer peppers and Morris Farms grass-fed beef with sweet onions and olive oil. The bread and estate olive oil were spectacular. 

With the mains, we had the newly released 2020 Popelouchum Pinot Noir ($65), a feisty scrappy, tangy wine, plentiful of acid and tannin that tastes like victory over everything that happened in that brutal year. Another new member of the Yes fold is the peppery, vibrant, olive-tinged and abundantly engaging 2021 The Language Of Yes Syrah ($45) from Rancho Real Vineyard in Santa Maria—both victories in their own way.

But back to that rosé. Truly a stunner. Grahm declared his love of Tibouren that appeared in the “Le Cérisier,” saying “I am an old world guy, not a new world guy. Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Nobody wants to be Anthony Quinn. Tibouren is an old world variety of character and elegance. I think Tibouren is the grape of the future. I’d rather be Anthony Quinn.”

One thing I’ve learned over these decadent decades of watching Randall make wine history: it’s a good thing to just say Yes. 

NOTE: The Language of Yes will be available for purchase mid-October (those at the dinner received first access). Mailing list subscribers will be notified when the wines are available.