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

by Dustin Soiseth Last fall, a few days before a big portfolio tasting, my colleagues and I got together to go over the featured wines and decide who would pour what. There were some big names in the lineup and serious negotiations ensued as we angled to pour the most prestigious wines. I mostly avoided […]

Thursday evening marked the first staff tasting since Kermit’s departure to France. The tasting covered whites, reds, and rosés from the Loire, the southern Rhône, Provence, and Corsica. As good students of the Lynchianesque tasting philosophy, we started in the north with the Loire and finished in the south with Corsica. Today I’ll focus on […]

And lots of it. For the manly contingent on the KLWM staff, rosé has no season and any day is a good day to have a glass. Our stocks of rosé were getting low until, thankfully, the first round of the 2009s arrived. If forced to describe 2009 rosé in one sentence, I’d say, “The […]

There are many theories on how wines should be ordered for a tasting. Based on one’s experiences, theories breakdown into principles, which help solve the tasting order riddle. The staff often finds themselves in a troubling situation because we are usually tasting a group of new arrivals—on any given shipment from France, there can be […]

The vast majority of older wines that I’ve tasted have come directly from Kermit’s cellar in Berkeley. He regularly brings down a bottle or two of something old during staff tastings, but every once in a while, the sales staff will head over to his house and have a dinner and tasting of older wines. […]

Last week’s staff tasting focused on recent arrivals from Corsica and the south of France. More often than not, Kermit likes to taste north to south, however this time we started in Corsica and moved north to the mainland. Our normal behavior is also to taste white before red, but I’ve heard of other people […]

We voted at the end of the tasting. Kermit asked, “which red did you like best, the ‘Pourpre’ or the ‘Causse du Bousquet?’” Out of the eight voters  it was a split decision (Kermit was the ninth attendee but didn’t vote). Each red received four votes. What does that mean? It was close, I could […]

While reflecting on the new producers we’ve added to our portfolio over the past couple years, a common theme emerged. For the most part, we haven’t added producers from well-known winegrowing areas, but instead we found gems tucked away in obscure corners of France and Italy. A few of these new producers are Pascal Janvier […]

Last week’s staff tasting featured quite a wide range of regions and styles. From France we covered Champagne, Burgundy, and the Loire, and from Italy, the Friuli. NV Rosé 1er Cru • Veuve Fourny * The rosé from Veuve Fourny is a favorite among the staff in Berkeley. When a special bottle needs to be […]

We started our most recent Thursday night tasting with some new releases from one of our Alsatian domaines, Meyer-Fonné. Since the first shipment from Meyer-Fonné arrived in winter of 2007 we have been perpetually impressed by the wines of Felix Meyer. The domaine makes blends, classic varietal wines, and vineyard specific varietal wines all of […]