![July Newsletter](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/content/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-July-2024-Newsletter-image_set_2_img_1-20482-medium.jpg)
Receive our Monthly Newsletter and Special Promotions. Stay up to date on new arrivals, sales, and events at our Berkeley shop.
July 2024 Newsletter
Receive our Monthly Newsletter and Special Promotions. Stay up to date on new arrivals, sales, and events at our Berkeley shop.
![July Newsletter](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/content/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-July-2024-Newsletter-image_set_2_img_1-20482.jpg)
July 2024 Newsletter
Table of Contents
-
Memories, Wines, and Reflections
Massacre! by Kermit Lynch -
The Summer Market
at Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant - The Thrilling Diversity of Chardonnay by Tom Wolf
- Top Summer Values by Tom Wolf
- Giuseppe Quintarelli by Dixon Brooke
- Northern Rhône Syrah From Barruol/Lynch by Anthony Lynch
- The French Alps by Chris Santini
- Rosés by Anthony Lynch
Cleaning up my home office quite thoroughly for the first time in decades, I finally dug deep enough to uncover a carton containing my earliest tastin...
![Kermit Lynch](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/content/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-Memories,-Wines,-and-Reflections-image_set_1_img_1-20484.jpg)
Cleaning up my home office quite thoroughly for the first time in decades, I finally dug deep enough to uncover a carton containing my earliest tasting notes from almost half a century of wine-buying trips, primarily to France and Italy. Only a couple of years are missing; they must be hiding away somewhere—maybe in the attic of our office in Burgundy.
When wine lover Thomas Jefferson traveled a similar itinerary, bouncing along in a horse-drawn carriage, he took notes, too. Curiously, they lack any tales of adventure. No emotion, either. He did compulsively write down the prices of practically everything, which does not make for passionate reading.
Why his preoccupation with prices? Maybe he had a government expense account? No, he traveled as a private citizen and paid his own way. Possibly to defend his expenses to the IRS—you know, claim them as tax deductions? No, income taxes were not introduced until 1913.
We do, however, learn that Jefferson, the complicated genius, was up to downing a glass or two of Riesling with breakfast. If that detail warms your heart, you’ve come to the right place. If you are a temperance fanatic, open your Bible and show me where Jesus turned wine into water. No way, José—if you believe the Bible, the son of God was no party pooper. We know Jefferson drank with breakfast, because he listed the time, the wine, and its price in his journal, but he delivers not one word about its aroma, body, or finish. He finds nary a cherry, nary a berry in the bouquet. No numerical scores are bestowed. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where Jefferson and I differ. In my own journals, there is rarely anything about my mood, the weather, or even meals. No, they are nearly one hundred percent hastily scribbled, wine-stained tasting notes. Of course, as I started reading through a few pages from my initial tasting trip in 1974, memories began spilling out from between the crinkles of my eighty-two-year-old brain.
My wife asked if finding the notebooks might inspire me to write about the old days. So, here I am! Let’s hit the road.
Fifty years ago, I flew SF→NY→Paris for my first wine-buying trip. Paris! And can you imagine, it was part of my job. I was bushy-tailed, perhaps, a novice in the wine trade, but what with jet lag, far from bright-eyed. Or was it a propeller-driven plane back then? I’d given myself three free days in Paris to recover from the long flight, and I continued that practice on subsequent trips, using those days to enjoy the great city, of course, but also to visit wine shops and restaurants looking for wine leads. My first taste of Raveneau Chablis, for example, was at Le Taillevent restaurant in Paris in 1978.
Last night I watched Funny Face from 1957. Not a great movie, but when Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn do Paris together in technicolor, a couple of tears welled up as I remembered my first impressions of Paris, the closest thing to love that a city can be. Uncovering the past is proving to be emotional. I’m not sure whether it is normal or not, but good things more quickly than bad bring tears to my eyes. For example, remembering pals like Joseph Swan, the California vigneron, or Lulu Peyraud from Domaine Tempier. Beauty will do it, too, like Paris or Yosemite. I’m not a big fan of Hollywood musicals in general, but in Fred Astaire’s Royal Wedding, three or four scenes are good enough for my eyes to eke out a few drops. And Gene Kelly’s classic singing and dancing in the rain with his umbrella—it feels almost Pavlovian, the way it turns on my faucet. A wine, however, has never inspired tears of joy. Even death has never moved me to tears except when my first kitty cat died. She was a real pal during a very rough period after my first marriage blew apart in the mid-sixties. But normally, between me and death, there’s a wall. It must be avoidance. If I avoid it, it’ll avoid me? I doubt it.
• • •
Today, reading the notes I wrote on my first full day of the trip—May 3, 1974—I see that I entered a wine shop in the fifth arrondissement behind the Jardin des Plantes at 20, rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire. All these many years have passed without my realizing what a momentous event it turned out to be for my career. How much I learned, how much it influenced me. I’m disappointed in myself—how could I have forgotten?
And I’ll never know why, given my lack of experience and inability to speak French, the proprietor, Monsieur Jean-Baptiste Chaudet, generously opened at no charge so many great bottles for tasting and devoted such a big chunk of time to me, just me, of all people.
For starters, alongside an expensive Meursault from Burgundy, he poured a far cheaper Touraine-Amboise blanc from the Touraine—a wine I’d never even heard of. However, when I lowered my handy sniffer into first one, then into the second of the two glasses, lo and behold, it was the lowly Touraine-Amboise that captivated me. Chaudet clearly preferred it, too—that was the point of serving them together. Anyone who has followed my career knows that I took Chaudet’s lesson to heart. It was like a stone hitting the water, and the ripples from it have not ceased issuing forth. It was not that afterwards I disdained the grand appellations. In fact, I gained a reputation as a Burgundy specialist within a few years and worked with grands crus from gifted talents like Jayer, Raveneau, Maume, Coche-Dury, and Ponsot. But I ventured out into the backwoods, too, and felt like a pioneer discovering the fabulous riches of an unknown continent. I found that I preferred a perfectly made so-called “little” wine to a mediocre version of a great appellation. In France, grand cru refers to the vineyard, the land. Not the wine. You might find a masterpiece from Chinon or Cornas and a disappointing Chambertin. In fact, my experiences include exactly such incidents.
I also left Chaudet’s with the address of a winemaker in the Beaujolais region. It took me several years, but a decade later I showed up to taste. The winemaker’s name was Jules Chauvet, who later became known as the father of the natural wine movement. His wines were fabulous. Dazzling creations. I had never experienced anything like them—their cornucopian fruit—and haven’t again since. I mean, of all the wines bottled without SO2 that I have tasted (many of which I import or imported), none truly resembled Chauvet’s. For example, I love the Morgons from The Gang of Four—Foillard, Breton, Lapierre, and Thévenet—sometimes wines greater than Chauvet’s. However, they don’t taste like Chauvet’s. Vinifying without SO2 is not as simple as deciding to vinify without SO2. It requires insane meticulousness, for one thing. Maybe the fact that Jules had a second job played a role. He was also a biochemist on the faculty of the University of Berlin. He knew his wines down to their molecules, and as I learned, that’s what it takes to produce a perfectly correct 100% natural wine.
So, after visiting Chaudet—sorry, it must be confusing, Chauvet the vigneron and Chaudet the wine merchant—after visiting Chaudet, I was never content to look for wines only where everyone else was looking, and later I would be the first to import natural wines into the United States. Not a bad first day in France!
Oh, but that’s not all. Monsieur Chaudet ended our tasting with a 1957 Bâtard-Montrachet, a 1961 Meursault “Clos de la Barre,” and finally a triumphant bottle from the Hospices de Beaune: 1955 Meursault “Charmes.”
And I left with a copy of Chaudet’s little book, Marchand de Vin, even though I couldn’t read French. Once I could understand it, I read it, and here is where this could be interesting for you. Monsieur Chaudet wrote about lesser-known white Burgundies. Listen closely: “And sincerely, I began to prefer them to the grands crus, because they are lighter, more ethereal, and thus, easier to assimilate. I am, I must say, a big eater and I like to quench my thirst.” He points out that he can drink more wine, “not put the brakes on,” and drink much more cheaply from white Burgundies outside the grand cru zones. I grew to see what he meant, and ever since have offered my clientele a large menu of so-called “lesser” Burgundian appellations. See the list of current offerings at the end of these reflections.
Chaudet’s great wine shop was torn down less than two years later—some sort of urban renewal political ploy. The new building is ugly as hell and houses yet another pharmacy. At sixty-five years old, Chaudet was not up to starting over elsewhere.
• • •
An unprofessional amount of Beaujolais.” That is how I described my wine consumption at dinner that night alone in a bistro across the river from the original Notre-Dame. I’d never eaten oysters, but there they were, listed as the first course on the menu du jour. Therefore, a platter of raw, living, breathing oysters appeared and was placed before me by a slick-haired, bow-tied waiter. Come to think of it, I’d never even seen an oyster. Those six before my eyes on the half-shell were quite large, but what did I know? I picked up knife and fork and began cutting the slimy beasts into triplets, you know, bite-size pieces? It was difficult with those damned half shells in the way. Hack-sawed Oysters On The Half Shell, anyone? I sort of liked them. I didn’t dislike them. The waiter in his black vest and half-waist white apron walked briskly up to my table. He had about twenty years, thirty pounds, and a lot of dining experience on me. He’d come to pick up my platter, of course, but instead of whisking it away he hesitated, staring down at the clutter.
“Massacre!” he whispered. Yes, he was capable of whispering with an exclamation point. I did not speak French but quickly figured out that massacre means “massacre.”
Later I learned to love the slimy little beasts and launched Oyster Bliss to teach my clients to open their pleasure zone to Chablis and oysters, and I learned to observe experienced diners at table before digging into whatever was placed on the plate before me.
That first evening, my first cassoulet followed and the pitcher of Beaujolais flowed and cheeses followed that. Followed by chocolate mousse. Menu du jour. Vive la France!
Buy this collection 12 bottles
Wines in this Collection
![2022 Mâcon-Villages “Terroir de Farges Vieilles Vignes” Henri Perrusset](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2022-MconVillages-Terroir-de-Farges-Vieilles-Vignes-product-image-8776-medium.jpg)
2022 Mâcon-Villages “Terroir de Farges Vieilles Vignes”
France | Burgundy
The tiny village of Farges-lès-Mâcon is a wonderful terroir for textbook, perfectly opulent, floral Mâconnais.
![2022 Bourgogne Vézelay <i>Blanc</i> “Galerne” Domaine Montanet-Thoden](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2022-Bourgogne-Vzelay-iBlanci-Galerne-product-image-8165-medium.jpg)
2022 Bourgogne Vézelay Blanc “Galerne”
France | Burgundy
Climate, a clay-and-limestone soil, and stainless-steel vinification are the pillars of Valentin’s Galerne blanc, a divine rendition of pure, chiseled Chardonnay.
![2022 Petit Chablis Domaine Roland Lavantureux](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2022-Petit-Chablis-product-image-8283-medium.jpg)
2022 Petit Chablis
France | Burgundy
With a delectable combination of fresh fruit and oyster-shell aromatics, this remains Lavantureux’s benchmark for value and typicity.
![2022 Bourgogne Tonnerre Roland Lavantureux](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2022-Bourgogne-Tonnerre-product-image-9090-medium.jpg)
2022 Bourgogne Tonnerre
France | Burgundy
The perfect bottling to open alongside light, grilled cod or haddock, but if you’re like me, you won’t be able to wait until dinner is served to pop the cork
![2022 Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune <i>Blanc</i> “Le Mont et Forêt” Pierre Guillemot](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2022-Bourgogne-HautesCtes-de-Beaune-iBlanci-Le-Mont-et-Fort-product-image-9211-medium.jpg)
2022 Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune Blanc “Le Mont et Forêt”
France | Burgundy
Full of that perky, palate-opening freshness and vigor that’s so essential in a blanc.
![2022 Bourgogne Pinot Beurot “Les Grands Poisots” Domaine Lucien Boillot et Fils](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2022-Bourgogne-Pinot-Beurot-Les-Grands-Poisots-product-image-9081-medium.jpg)
2022 Bourgogne Pinot Beurot “Les Grands Poisots”
Domaine Lucien Boillot et Fils
France | Burgundy
Pinot Beurot is the Burgundian name for their local strand of Pinot Gris. It is unique and delicious and showcases an interesting bit of Burgundy’s history.
![2021 Marsannay <em>Blanc</em> “Les Longeroies” Régis Bouvier](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2021-Marsannay-emBlancem-Les-Longeroies-product-image-9233-medium.jpg)
2021 Marsannay Blanc “Les Longeroies”
France | Burgundy
It is pleasantly toasty and slightly nutty, evoking pretty orchard fruit and fresh citrus, with great acidity with a little grip.
![2019 Viré-Clessé “En Châtelaine” Domaine Robert-Denogent](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2019-Vir-Cless-En-Chtelaine-product-image-5869-medium.jpg)
2019 Viré-Clessé “En Châtelaine”
France | Burgundy
Majority of Chardonnay planted circa 1920
![2020 Saint-Romain <i>Blanc</i> Domaine Taupenot-Merme](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2020-Saint-Romain-iBlanci-product-image-7386-medium.jpg)
2020 Saint-Romain Blanc
France | Burgundy
Full-bodied style, golden, old-school Chardonnay with a chalky base.
![2022 Givry <i>Blanc</i> “Clos des Vignes Rondes” Domaine François Lumpp](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2022-Givry-iBlanci-Clos-des-Vignes-Rondes-product-image-9549-medium.jpg)
2022 Givry Blanc “Clos des Vignes Rondes”
France | Burgundy
A bright, chalky personality full of energy and thirst-quenching savor.
![2020 Pouilly-Fuissé “La Croix Vieilles Vignes” Domaine Robert-Denogent](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2020-PouillyFuiss-La-Croix-Vieilles-Vignes-product-image-8797-medium.jpg)
2020 Pouilly-Fuissé “La Croix Vieilles Vignes”
France | Burgundy
Bursting with energy and joy, this wine is bound to bring out the best of your inner bon vivant.
“WHY NOT DO SOMETHING NEW?” That’s sort of how this started, and remember, that’s a big statement for a more-than-50-year-old shop. &nbs...
![Summer Market poster](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/content/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-The-Summer-Market-image_set_1_img_1-20485.jpg)
“WHY NOT DO SOMETHING NEW?” That’s sort of how this started, and remember, that’s a big statement for a more-than-50-year-old shop.
Our parking lot events of the 1990s and 2000s—loved by our customers, friends, family, and staff—revolved around good food and wine. What if we took the best parts of those events and gave them a revival?
We stock our shelves with exceptional wines from small producers in France and Italy. The Bay Area is also chock full of small purveyors of fine foods, wares, and goods we love. And so we’ve decided to bring the wines of Europe and the talent of the Bay Area to one place.
We couldn’t be more excited to present you with our first Summer Market! In this spirit of rekindling old relationships and building new ones, we’ve invited some of our favorite East Bay makers and creators to pour wine, grill sausages, cook pizzas, shuck oysters, hawk treats, honey, and other wonderful things.
Now we just need YOU to fill the parking lot and enjoy a great summer’s day in Berkeley and some of the finest our corner can offer. Tents? Picnic tables? Music? Food, wine, and local gems? All Check. Join us!
SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2024
11 AM – 4 PM
FEATURING
Wines poured by Chez Panisse • Pizza from Anaviv • Oysters from The Salty Pearl
Sausages from Picnic • Donuts & Chocolates by SoDo & EC Confections
Honey from Uplands Apiary • Music by Gaucho Jazz • and more!
Chardonnay has continued to flourish in recent years to such an extent that you could drink nothing but wines from this grape all summer and stil...
![Vezelay village](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/content/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-The-Thrilling-Diversity-of-Chardonnay-image_set_1_img_1-20486.jpg)
The village of Vézelay
Chardonnay has continued to flourish in recent years to such an extent that you could drink nothing but wines from this grape all summer and still have an enlivened and curious palate in a few months’ time. While most closely associated with its home of Burgundy, sublime Chardonnay can now be found throughout the cooler climates of France and Italy, from the Pays Nantais, just south of Brittany, to the Adriatic’s Gulf of Trieste.
Take, for instance, Edi Kante’s uncommonly delicate rendition from the Carso in northeastern Italy. Whispers of sea breeze and lemon zest make this an ideal bottling for the next time you crack open a dozen oysters or sear scallops. Eric Chevalier’s pure and unfussy Val de Loire bottling offers a touch more generosity and orchard fruit, making it suitable for just about any ice bucket in close proximity to a grill or lobster bake. And from the Beaujolais, a source of increasingly serious and delicious Chardonnay, comes the Thévenets’ misleadingly named Terrain Rouge, a beautifully floral blanc showing that not just the region’s reds deliver intoxicating aromas.
Even within Burgundy, there are more beautiful and diverse expressions of the grape than ever. You no doubt know the briny, oyster-shell charms of Chablis like Costal’s Les Truffières. But there are outstanding relative newcomers, like Valentin Montanet’s crisp and joyous Vézelay or the Guillemot family’s Hautes-Côtes de Beaune, an elegant cuvée from one of the most exciting, up-and-coming appellations in the Côte d’Or.
Buy this sampler 6 bottles
Featuring the 2021 Pinot Blanc, 2023 Val de Loire Sauvignon Blanc “Unique”, 2022 Cahors, 2021 Colli Trevigiani Merlot, 2022 Dolcetto d’Alba “La Costa”, and 2022 Gambellara Classico “El Gian”.
![Kuentz-Bas Pinot Blanc Label](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/content/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-Top-Summer-Values-image_set_1_img_1-20487.jpg)
Buy this collection 6 bottles
Wines in this Collection
![2021 Pinot Blanc Kuentz-Bas](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2021-Pinot-Blanc-product-image-9293-medium.jpg)
2021 Pinot Blanc
France | Alsace
New to Alsatian wine? This is the perfect place to start.
![2023 Val de Loire Sauvignon Blanc “Unique” Domaine du Salvard](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2023-Val-de-Loire-Sauvignon-Blanc-Unique-product-image-9150-medium.jpg)
2023 Val de Loire Sauvignon Blanc “Unique”
France | Loire
June Club Gourmand ~ Lime blossoms delivered via a lightning bolt of minerally refreshment.
![2022 Cahors Château La Grave](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2022-Cahors-product-image-9247-medium.jpg)
2022 Cahors
France | Southwest
La Grave is one of the rare Cahors to consist exclusively of the native Malbec. Without any Merlot to soften it, this Cahors is decidedly old-fashioned.
![2021 Colli Trevigiani Merlot Gregoletto](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2021-Colli-Trevigiani-Merlot-product-image-8595-medium.jpg)
2021 Colli Trevigiani Merlot
Italy | Veneto
Unlike the opulent, Cassis-scented Merlots from Bordeaux’s Right Bank, this rendition—with its pretty notes of brambly wild berries and hints of spice—shows the more mineral, ethereal side of the grape.
![2022 Dolcetto d’Alba “La Costa” Piero Benevelli](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2022-Dolcetto-dAlba-La-Costa-product-image-9026-medium.jpg)
2022 Dolcetto d’Alba “La Costa”
Italy | Piedmont
Bone-dry and tangy, with brambly black fruit and a bold, old-school Italian bite.
![2022 Gambellara Classico “El Gian” Vignato Davide](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2022-Gambellara-Classico-El-Gian-product-image-9031-medium.jpg)
2022 Gambellara Classico “El Gian”
Italy | Veneto
Volcanic soils confer mouthwatering salinity to the Garganega grape in this racy, textured white.
The Quintarelli family continues to produce some of the most exquisite wines in all of Italy. Here is your chance to own and enjoy two of their most i...
![Quintarelli’s vines](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/content/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-Giuseppe-Quintarelli-image_set_1_img_1-20488.jpg)
Quintarelli’s vines
The Quintarelli family continues to produce some of the most exquisite wines in all of Italy. Here is your chance to own and enjoy two of their most iconic wines, works of art and distinctive examples of Italy’s viticultural heritage. Both were recently released after spending seven years in large casks in the family’s stunning cellars carved into the hillside underneath their home and surrounded by their vineyards in Negrar, Valpolicella, just north of Verona.
Buy this collection 2 bottles
Wines in this Collection
Born over fifteen years ago out of Louis Barruol’s and Kermit’s shared passion for old-school northern Rhône Syrah, the Barruol/Lynch project has...
![Louis Barruol](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/content/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-Northern-Rhne-Syrah-From-BarruolLynch-image_set_1_img_1-20489.jpg)
Louis Barruol
Born over fifteen years ago out of Louis Barruol’s and Kermit’s shared passion for old-school northern Rhône Syrah, the Barruol/Lynch project has sought to pay homage to the region’s legendary vignerons such as Marius Gentaz, Robert Jasmin, and Raymond Trollat. Louis sources fruit from top sites across several appellations and vinifies it whole-cluster, parcel by parcel, bottling the blends we create with him unfiltered.
The cool 2021 northern Rhône vintage was especially fitting for the wines of Barruol/Lynch, as it echoed conditions more common in decades past, when the above-named greats were in their prime. For fellow lovers of cool-climate Syrah, who chase after lower alcohol, floral aromatics, and silky tannins, this is the year to stock your cellar with these wines expressing a finesse that is hard to come by in warmer vintages. Stocking up on a mixed case of the three appellations below is a surefire way to treat yourself now and for years to come.
Buy this collection 3 bottles
Wines in this Collection
![2021 Crozes Hermitage “Tiercerolles” Barruol / Lynch](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2021-Crozes-Hermitage-Tiercerolles-product-image-8509-medium.jpg)
2021 Crozes Hermitage “Tiercerolles”
France | Northern Rhône
This juicy, blueberry-and-leather-infused Syrah with a long finish is ready to drink tonight.
![2021 Côte-Rôtie “Les Roses” Barruol / Lynch](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2021-CteRtie-Les-Roses-product-image-8511-medium.jpg)
2021 Côte-Rôtie “Les Roses”
France | Northern Rhône
The magic of great Côte Rôtie does not come from its reputation for being a big, bombastic wine.
![2021 Hermitage <em>Rouge</em> “La Pierrelle” Barruol / Lynch](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2020-Hermitage-emRougeem-La-Pierrelle-product-image-8510-medium.jpg)
2021 Hermitage Rouge “La Pierrelle”
France | Northern Rhône
Elegance and restraint from one of the hill’s lesser-known terroirs.
Your typical multigenerational vigneron tale this is not. Long story short: here we have a young fellow from the Loire who studies wine in Burgundy, b...
![Domaine Les Hauts Lieux](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/content/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-The-French-Alps-image_set_1_img_1-20490.jpg)
Domaine Les Hauts Lieux
Buy this collection 3 bottles
Wines in this Collection
![2021 Hautes Alpes <i>Blanc</i> “Grains de Clotinaille” Domaine Les Hauts Lieux](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2021-Hautes-Alpes-Chasan-Chardonnay-Grains-de-Clotinaille-product-image-8128-medium.jpg)
2021 Hautes Alpes Blanc “Grains de Clotinaille”
France | Savoie, Bugey, Hautes-Alpes
Day 2: A remote Alpine blanc for jaded palates seeking new thrills
![Bugey-Cerdon “La Cueille” Patrick Bottex](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-BugeyCerdon-La-Cueille-product-image-9151-medium.jpg)
Bugey-Cerdon “La Cueille”
France | Savoie, Bugey, Hautes-Alpes
This is a universally loved pink bubbly delight of candied strawberries and roses, always true and always exquisite. Icing on the cake is that it’s affordable, too.
![2022 Savoie Chignin-Bergeron “Les Roches Blanches” André & Michel Quenard](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2022-Savoie-Chignin-Bergeron-Les-Roches-Blanches-product-image-8477-medium.jpg)
2022 Savoie Chignin-Bergeron “Les Roches Blanches”
France | Savoie, Bugey, Hautes-Alpes
This medium-bodied white evokes peaches, honey, and pine resin. Perfect for winter nights and dishes like hearty, Savoie-inspired fish chowder.
Just like the region’s famous whites, it has a racy, zesty, tongue-tickling freshness, plus suggestions of peach and watermelon that are particularl...
![Yves and Sandrine Leccia](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/content/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-Ross-image_set_1_img_1-20491.jpg)
Yves and Sandrine Leccia
Buy this collection 4 bottles
Wines in this Collection
![2023 Île de Beauté Rosé Yves Leccia](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2023-le-de-Beaut-Ros-product-image-9237-medium.jpg)
2023 Île de Beauté Rosé
France | Corsica
A refreshing rosé refreshing whose distinct grape varieties yield a familiar wine with just enough Corsican terroir to set it apart.
![2023 Sancerre Rosé Domaine Roger Neveu](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2023-Sancerre-Ros-product-image-9433-medium.jpg)
2023 Sancerre Rosé
France | Loire
Sancerre Rosé is made from Pinot Noir grown in Kimmeridgian limestone soil, and the Neveu family’s interpretation is fine, floral, crisp, and bone-dry.
![2022 Tavel Rosé Trinquevedel](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2022-Tavel-Ros-product-image-8039-medium.jpg)
2022 Tavel Rosé
France | Southern Rhône
Stony, spicy, and dense, it evokes red berries, watermelon, and garrigue and offers a beautiful accompaniment to a wide range of dishes.
![2022 Vino Rosato “Passatella” Steiger-Kalena](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/products/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-2022-Vino-Rosato-Passatella-product-image-8959-medium.jpg)
2022 Vino Rosato “Passatella”
Italy | Molise
Offers an absolutely electric perfume loaded with bright notes of pomegranate, sour cherry, and fresh strawberry, while the palate delivers bracing acidity and a chiseled, chalky finish.
The Enduring Spirit of Tempier
Over the past nearly fifty years, many glorious tales have been written across these pages about Domaine Tempier. On my first visit last spring, as we walked up the shady driveway lined with plane trees, I felt a sudden trepidation—like I was stepping foot on holy ground...
This month we highlight Domaine Tempier’s current releases of Bandol Rosé & The “Lulu et Lucien” Rouge
Memories, Wines, and Reflections
Massacre!
by Kermit Lynch
Cleaning up my home office quite thoroughly for the first time in decades, I finally dug deep enough to uncover a carton containing my earliest tasting notes from almost half a century of wine-buying trips, primarily to France and Italy. Only a couple of years are missing; they must be hiding away somewhere—maybe in the attic of our office in Burgundy...
The Summer Market
at Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant
“Why not do something NEW?” That’s sort of how this started, and remember, that’s a big statement for a more-than-50-year-old shop.
Our parking lot events of the 1990s and 2000s—loved by our customers, friends, family, and staff—revolved around good food and wine. What if we took the best parts of those events and gave them a revival?
The Thrilling Diversity of Chardonnay
by Tom Wolf
Chardonnay has continued to flourish in recent years to such an extent that you could drink nothing but wines from this grape all summer and still have an enlivened and curious palate in a few months’ time...
Giuseppe Quintarelli
by Dixon Brooke
The Quintarelli family continues to produce some of the most exquisite wines in all of Italy. Here is your chance to own and enjoy two of their most iconic wines, works of art and distinctive examples of Italy’s viticultural heritage...
Northern Rhône Syrah From Barruol/Lynch
by Anthony Lynch
Born over fifteen years ago out of Louis Barruol’s and Kermit’s shared passion for old-school northern Rhône Syrah, the Barruol/Lynch project has sought to pay homage to the region’s legendary vignerons such as Marius Gentaz, Robert Jasmin, and Raymond Trollat. Louis sources fruit from top sites across several appellations and vinifies it whole-cluster, parcel by parcel, bottling the blends we create with him unfiltered...
2021 Crozes Hermitage “Tiercerolles” • Barruol / Lynch 2021 Côte-Rôtie “Les Roses” • Barruol / Lynch 2021 Hermitage Rouge “La Pierrelle” • Barruol / Lynch
The French Alps
by Chris Santini
Your typical multigenerational vigneron tale this is not. Long story short: here we have a young fellow from the Loire who studies wine in Burgundy, bikes to Georgia (the country, that is) while stopping and working at various vineyards along the route to pay his way...
2021 Hautes Alpes Blanc “Grains de Clotinaille” • Domaine Les Hauts Lieux Bugey-Cerdon “La Cueille” • Patrick Bottex 2022 Savoie Chignin-Bergeron “Les Roches Blanches” • André & Michel Quenard
Rosés
by Anthony Lynch
Just like the region’s famous whites, it has a racy, zesty, tongue-tickling freshness, plus suggestions of peach and watermelon that are particularly mouthwatering...
2023 Île de Beauté Rosé • Yves Leccia 2023 Sancerre Rosé • Domaine Roger Neveu 2022 Tavel Rosé • Château de Trinquevedel 2022 Vino Rosato “Passatella” • Steiger-Kalena
Kermit once said...
![Old wine bottles](http://s3.amazonaws.com/efcheckout/kermitlynch/content/Kermit-Lynch-Wine-Merchant-Kermit-once-said-image_img_1-13432-medium.jpeg)
Kermit once said...
Let the brett nerds retire into protective bubbles, and whenever they thirst for wine it can be passed in to them through a sterile filter. Those of us on the outside can continue to enjoy complex, natural, living wines.
Inspiring Thirst, page 236