Background
Randall was born in Los Angeles in 1953 and attended University of California Santa Cruz where he was "a permanent Liberal Arts major." He eventually began working at the Wine Merchant in Beverly Hills sweeping floors.
Randall was born in Los Angeles in 1953 and attended University of California Santa Cruz where he was "a permanent Liberal Arts major." He eventually began working at the Wine Merchant in Beverly Hills sweeping floors.
He is perhaps best known for his pioneering work with Rhone varietals in California and for popularizing the use of screw caps on premium wines. He was an early proponent of transparent ingredient labeling on bottled wines, and has been a prominent advocate of terroir wines and biodynamic practice. There he had the opportunity to taste great French wines and the experience turned him into "a complete and insufferable wine fanatic.
He returned to the University of California at Davis to complete a degree in Plant Sciences in 1979, where he developed a "single-minded obsession with Pinot Noir"
In 1989 Randall appeared on the cover of the Wine Spectator, clad in blue polyester, as "The Rhône Ranger," a moniker that has followed him ever since.
In 1991 Randall was added to the Who"s Who of Cooking in America by Cook"s Magazine, and in the same year Ted Bowell of the Lowell Observatory in northern Arizona named the "4934 Rhôneranger" asteroid in his honor. He was proclaimed Wine and Spirits Professional of the Year by the James Beard Foundation in 1994.
Randall lectures frequently to wine societies and technical groups, and occasionally contributes "quixotically sincere" articles to wine journals. His newsletters and articles were collected and published as the award-winning book, "Been Doon So Long: A Randall Grahm Vinthology" in 2009.
In 2010 The Culinary Institute of America inducted him into the Vintner’s Hall of Fame.