The Timeless Wines of Kermit Lynch - The Most Influential Wine Importer of them All

I've known Berkeley wine importer Kermit Lynch for 35 years. In 1991 he appointed my small wine distributorship to represent his wines in Southern California. At the time it seemed like everyone in the wine industry knew what a formidable talent he was except me. There were many times I had to swallow my pride and ask my customers about his wines—the wines I should have had some expertise in because, after all, I was now the assumed expert.

Photo credit: Gail Skoff

Not only was I behind the curve, only seeing his name on back labels of wine bottles as the importer of record, three years earlier Kermit had published a groundbreaking, award-winning, critically acclaimed book called "Adventures on the Wine Route," which somehow had escaped my attention. I immediately bought a copy and to this day, it remains the finest wine book I've ever read on the soul of French wine. In 2013, a 25th anniversary expanded edition of the book was released, and it is still available in print.

Needless to say, it was like going back to school again, learning about French wine from scratch. For example, I had heard of the Loire Valley, even enjoyed an occasional Vouvray and Pouilly-Fumé from time to time. But Hermitage, Côte-Rôtie, Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Sablet, and Rasteau? Sancerre, Muscadet, Saumur, and Chinon? Which vineyards in Chinon produced the kind of wine my customers wanted and how long can their customers cellar them? Yes, after spending the previous six years selling California wines nearly exclusively, I was learning about wine all over again.

Kermit had a saying, "If you are looking for true bargains, look where no one else is looking." Importers who came before him were all about the classic wine regions: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, and a little Rhône Valley. Kermit also brought in some exclusive Burgundy and Champagne estates, names that today most connoisseurs are well aware of. But his most lasting impact on the consciousness of American wine consumers were the wines he discovered outside of the usual zip codes. Domaine de Vieux Télégraphe Chateauneuf-du-Pape, his joint venture (with Télégraphe's Brunier family) Les Pallières Gigondas, Domaine Tempier Bandol, Kuentz-Bas Alsace wines, Regis Minet Pouilly-Fumé, André Bregeon Muscadet, Champalou Vouvray, Charles Joguet Chinon, Domaine Clape Cornas, Lavantureaux Chablis, Domaine de Durban Muscat Beaumes-de-Venise, Robert Chevillon Nuits Saint-George, Graville-Lacoste Graves Blanc, Roumieu-Lacoste Sauternes, Chateau d'Epiré Savennières, Fontsainte Corbieres, Domaine D'Aupilhac Languedoc, Domaine de Trinquevedel Tavel, not to mention, the other fabulous, mouth-watering rosés that inspired our store to stock them so enthusiastically in spring and summer.

We have Kermit to thank for the resurgence in interest in quality Beaujolais after years of dumbing down by mega-negociants. His wonderful Cru Beaujolais from Chateau Thivin Cote de Brouilly, Nicole Chanrion Cote de Brouilly, Chignard Fleurie, Diochon Moulin-a-Vent and the Morgon gang led by Lapierre, the father of the international natural wine movement.

And so many more excellent producers and their wines.

Origins

Kermit started out his adult life as a rock musician, and I really don't know what drew him to wine decades before the American wine boom took hold. In 1972, he opened a small wine store in the Bay Area town of Albany before moving to Berkeley at his present location on San Pablo Avenue. After being invited to join a wine importer on a buying trip to France, he imported selections for his store.

When he received his first container, he was dismayed that the wines didn't taste anything like they did in France when he ordered them. He learned a painful lesson that if he were to have wines shipped from France, through the steaming-hot Panama Canal and up to San Francisco Bay, he had to pay more for refrigerated shipping or the wines would cook, something few importers, if any, were doing in the 1970s. The results were a spectacular success; the wines from his next containers were in impeccable condition. Nowadays, it is standard practice to ship fine wine in refrigerated containers. We have Kermit to thank for that.

Kermit had been advised by mentors he met along the way to look beyond the obvious to discover small family producers making exceptional wines in tucked away places throughout Provence, the Languedoc, Alsace, the Loire Valley, and Southwest France. He convinced them to bottle their wines unfiltered whenever possible to retain all of their complexity. Unlike the mega-importers of his day, he wasn't worried if a wine threw a little sediment; he wanted the wines he brought into his Berkeley store to perform exactly how they did when he sampled them in their birthplace.

Soon, his influence was felt way beyond Berkeley, way beyond California. The nation's most influential wine critic Robert M. Parker, Jr. championed many of Kermit Lynch's discoveries, so much so that Kermit had to import wine not only for his Berkeley store, but leading wine stores and restaurants all across the country. This was a difficult task because the majority of his producers didn't make enough wine to supply huge chain stores. They remained wines you had to look for "where no one else is looking."

His friendships with people like restaurant icon Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, cookbook writers Richard Olney and Patricia Wells, authors Calvin Trillen and Jim Harrison and the close bonds he formed with the Peyraud family at Domaine Tempier and the Brunier family at Vieux Télégraphe helped deepen the influence he has had on authentic fine wine and food. Today his Berkeley store is still a destination for wine lovers all over the world. The first time I stepped into the simple brick storefront to his showroom floor, I felt like I was in church.

Today there are many small importers who followed Kermit Lynch's lead, so many that we have loads of wine available from famous and out-of-the-way places, places that only a few decades ago were unknown to American wine consumers.

Over the years, Kermit Lynch has graciously helped out our store when we needed it most. Shortly after we opened our store in the mid-1990s, Kermit made a rare public appearance to a packed house at The Wine Country in Signal Hill. It was such a momentous occasion that his short talk to our customers received coverage in the Los Angeles Times. Then again in December 2013 just as the Great Recession was finally receding, Kermit flew down again to conduct a tasting and promote his new edition of Adventures on the Wine Route. His latest book is his first novel At Poupon's Table, an amusing string of tales about—what else?—a wine importer in the South of France.

Thanks to Kermit Lynch, we wine lovers are richer for knowing him and his wine discoveries.

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