Randall Grahm, California winemaker and author, is reaching out to numerous wine enthusiasts about a new project he is developing. In his recent email, he writes: “ To (slightly) paraphrase Brillat-Savarin, ‘The discovery of a new grand cru brings more happiness to humanity than the discovery of a new star.”  While I imagine that some people may disagree with this assessment, it does showcase the importance that a new grand cru might bring to the wine world.

Grahm’s initiative is to create/discover a ‘wine of place’ for the New World. He describes his idea as one that would create a ‘wine of place” by breeding 10,000 new grape varieties. He notes that there is the potential benefit of identifying one or more new genius varieties. The massive project is to take place at Popelouchum close to San Juan Bautista, California. If you have any interest in Popelouchum be sure to check out the extensive information online at Indiegogo.

You might wonder why Grahm is reaching out to others. This long term initiative of Grahm’s will take massive amounts of money and Grahm has established a crowdfunding campaign at Indiegogo for it. The goal is to reach $350,000. Already the contributions have reached more than $26,000 and there is still a month left for the campaign.

Interested people can help by contributing as little as $5 to as much as $5,000. Nine categories of contributions with increasing benefits include:

• $5           Join the Dooniverse
• $25         3 signed posters
• $35         Webinar with Randall
• $65         Book + Tasting Flight for 4
• $75         Name Your New Grape Variety + Flights for 4
• $250       Picnic for 2 at Popelouchum
• $800       Dinner for 4 at Popelouchum
• $1500     Wine Club Membership + Dinner for 2
• $5000     Wine Club Membership + Dinner for 10

Be sure to visit the Indiegogo website to contribute.

Cheers!
Kathy