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Varietals veer toward ROPP

For two years, iconoclastic winery Bonny Doon has been busy switching from cork to aluminum ROPP caps. Now the conversion is nearly complete.

Pw 12657 Big House White

Winemaker and president of Bonny Doon Vineyard Randall Grahm is no fan of the stuffiness that pervades most discussions of fine wines. So it was no surprise that his Santa Cruz winery became one of the first in California wineries to make a major commitment two years ago to the Stelvin® roll-on, pilfer-proof aluminum closure from Pechiney to replace synthetic cork.

In July 2002, Grahm announced that 80ꯠ cases of his best-selling wines, under the Ca’ del Solo label, would be converted to the easy-to-open alternative.

Two years later, Grahm and his winery haven’t looked back. This year, for example, the Ca’ del Solo label will be producing some 220ꯠ to 230ꯠ cases of bottles finished with the ROPP closure for Bonny Doon’s Big House Red and Big House White varieties, says John Locke, winery spokesman.

For those unfamiliar with his story, Grahm challenges the shopper with a delightfully offbeat approach to selling wine. Big House Red and Big House White are popular-priced ($9.95) wines that are blended from a variety of grapes, mostly Mediterranean in origin. Bonny Doon also markets more conventional varietals, from barbera to zinfandel. Although most of the winery’s offerings are inexpensive, some wines sell for more than $30/bottle.

The Big House varieties get their names and label illustration from the vineyard’s neighbor, the Soledad Men’s Correctional Facility. For these wines, Bonny Doon commissioned illustrator Chuck House to develop label graphics that portray a jailbreak. House, who is affiliated with Icon Design Group, also designed graphics for the new closure and redesigned the back label, calling attention to and explaining the reasons for the closure.

Or as Grahm puts it in his promotional copy: “Bring on the picnics, quilting bees, and orgies. You won’t need any specialized hardware to open [the wine bottles]. Opposable thumbs will do!”

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