Inspiring Thirst An inside look at the wines of Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant.

by Kermit Lynch      [From the July 1997 Newsletter] Bouzeron, population 151, is a little tail’s end of a village in Burgundy where winter’s night can fall with an especially icy clunk. Its three or four streets were already dead and deserted when I drove up to Aubert de Villaine’s iron gate last November. […]

by André Ostertag Alas, I barely have any memory of my previous lives, and although I am willing to bet that I was an innkeeper, a drunkard, or at least your common wine drinker, as much as I search my memory I cannot recall what wine tasted like back then. Luckily, yet too rarely, I […]

by Kermit Lynch Nature Magazine reports that archaeologists recently found ancient pottery containing wine residue, which proves that our ancestors were enjoying wine as early as 5400 B.C. In one report a scientist is quoted as saying of this discovery, “It’s possible this will be the earliest that will ever be found.” Wait a minute. […]

by Kermit Lynch Someone showed me an article that says, “Alice Waters credits Lynch with influencing her cooking.” Oh yes. That must have been my special Charred Pork recipe. I might as well give it to you straight, because Alice has never forgotten it, and she mentions it to me usually in public at least […]

by Kermit Lynch Sometimes I feel under appreciated because some people think my life is one big vacation. They don’t realize the effort it can take to obtain a decent bottle of wine. Yesterday, for example, I had to spend practically the entire day at Cassis. It is not like I can just taste the […]

by Kermit Lynch At San Francisco State in the 1960’s, I took an incredibly rewarding course called something like American Studies, in which we tried to find clues to American character by reading Emerson, Melville, Paine, Thoreau, Hawthorne and others. I was especially taken by one of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories, “The Birthmark,” although it […]

by Kermit Lynch [a follow-up to Jim Harrison’s My Problems with White Wine] By actions, not words, Richard Olney taught me the virtues of the daily apéro, which is French slang for an apéritif. My Webster’s defines apéritif as “an alcoholic beverage, especially wine, taken before meals to stimulate the appetite.” Taken? Well, that’s not […]

by Jim Harrison MAY WE POLITICIZE WINE? I will if I wish. This is a free country though it is quickly becoming less so. I have noted, for instance, that the Bay Area has become fatally infected with the disease of sincerity. Last early December in San Francisco I naively looked for a bar where […]

by Kermit Lynch Back in 1969 before Bacchus waved his magic wand and made me into a wine importer, I was banging about Europe on a penny-pinching holiday. Needing a rest en route from Barcelona to Salzburg, I pulled off the highway to find a hotel. The nearest village was Cassis, proving that accidents are […]

by Kermit Lynch We are excited to announce a new “From the archives” series. We will be sharing handpicked favorites from Kermit’s newsletters—going back to the early 80’s through the 00’s! We hope you enjoy these blasts-from-the-past. Stay tuned for more. Lulu is Lulu Peyraud of Domaine Tempier. Aioli is the garlicky mayonnaise of Provence, […]