Kermit Lynch (born December 1941

Bakersfield, California Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, California, United States. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, which is located in the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's population as of th ...

) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

importer An importer is the receiving country in an export from the sending country. Importation and exportation are the defining financial transactions of international trade. Import is part of the International Trade which involves buying and receivin ...

and

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

based in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

. He is the author of ''Adventures on the Wine Route,'' which won the

Veuve Clicquot Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin () is a Champagne house founded in 1772 and based in Reims. It is one of the largest Champagne houses. Madame Clicquot Ponsardin, Madame Clicquot is credited with major breakthroughs, creating the first known Champag ...

Wine Book of the Year award, as well as ''Inspiring Thirst''. He also co-owns Domaine Les Pallières in Gigondas along with the Brunier family of Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe in

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Châteauneuf-du-Pape (; ) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. The village lies about to the east of the Rhône and north of the town of Avignon. A ruined medieval castle s ...

. He is married to

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

Gail Skoff, whose photographs illustrate his books.

Career

Lynch was born into a family of

teetotalers Teetotalism is the practice of voluntarily abstaining from the consumption of alcohol, specifically in alcoholic drinks. A person who practices (and possibly advocates) teetotalism is called a teetotaler (US) or teetotaller (UK), or said to be ...

, and was introduced to wine at 17 by two graduates of

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

.Kermit Lynch Interview - Terrance Gelenter
In 1972, Lynch opened his eponymous wine importing store in Albany, before moving to Berkeley in the 1980s.

Richard Olney Richard Olney (September 15, 1835 – April 8, 1917) was an American attorney, statesman, and Democratic Party politician who served as a member of the second cabinet of President Grover Cleveland as the 40th United States Attorney General ...

introduced Lynch to many French wine growers, including Lucien and Lulu Peyraud, who were then re-establishing the

Bandol AOC Provence wine or Provençal wine (, ) comes from the French wine-producing region of Provence in southeast France. The Romans called the area ''provincia nostra'' ("our province"), giving the region its name. Just south of the Alps, it was the fi ...

as a vineyard area. Lynch introduced use of refrigerated shipping containers to prevent wines from being ruined by heat during shipping. After noticing that wines imported from

Burgundy Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. ...

tasted different than he remembered at the winery, Lynch began experimenting with refrigerated containers and found that the problem was eliminated. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Lynch took objection to a regulation of the

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and prevention ...

that required wine bottles to be labeled with the

Surgeon General Surgeon general (: surgeons general) is a title used in several Commonwealth countries and most NATO nations to refer either to a senior military medical officer or to a senior uniformed physician commissioned by the government and entrusted with p ...

's warning against alcohol consumption but prohibited any countering sentiment about the benefits of moderate wine drinking. Lynch successfully petitioned for a change of policy.K. MacNeil ''The Wine Bible'' pg 635 Workman Publishing 2001

Awards and honors

Lynch won the

James Beard Foundation The James Beard Foundation is an American non-profit culinary arts organization based in New York City. It was named after James Beard, a food writer, teacher, and cookbook author. Its programs include guest-chef dinners to scholarships for asp ...

's Wine Professional of the Year award in 2000 and in 2006 won the Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America. In 1998 he received the '' Chevalier de l'Ordre de Mérite Agricole'' medal from the

French government The Government of France (, ), officially the Government of the French Republic (, ), exercises Executive (government), executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister of France, prime minister, who is the head of government, ...

for his service to the wine industry. In 2005 he was also awarded France's highest honor given to civilians, the insignia of

Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was o ...

Published works

*''Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France'',

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer P ...

, New York, 1988 *''Inspiring Thirst: Vintage Selections from the Kermit Lynch Wine Brochure'', Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, 2004 *''25th Anniversary Edition of Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France'',

, New York, 2013

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lynch, Kermit Writers from Berkeley, California Living people People from Bakersfield, California Businesspeople from Berkeley, California 1941 births Knights of the Legion of Honour Knights of the Order of Agricultural Merit James Beard Foundation Award winners

Career

Awards and honors

Published works

See also

References

External links