By Maya Silver | Editor
Before wine country tours fell into vogue, Kermit Lynch—a wine merchant, musician, and writer among other things—wandered the French hillsides in search of the perfect bottle. Twenty-five years after the publication of “Adventures on the Wine Route,” his classic memoir will be reprinted with additional material. Regrettably, we weren’t able to taste wines with Mr. Lynch, but we were able to savor his brilliant anecdotes and reflections on a life devoted to wine.
What is your single favorite from the list of most memorable wines at the end of your book? Where and how would you enjoy that wine?
I cannot separate the wine from the circumstances in which it was consumed. That 1929 Hermitage would be right up there. I was with three friends who mattered a lot in my life: Gerard Chave, Robert Parker, and Boz Scaggs. Our dinner included pig knuckles, lamb testicles, and veal kidney. Yes, vivid memories remain of that evening.
But the top wine experience would have to be the 1961 Romanée-Conti. I drank it with Aubert de Villaine at his home in Bouzeron. While we tasted the 1961, we also tasted Bach’s cello suites in recordings by Casals and Rostropovich. The wine and the Sarabande from the second suite tasted quite similar, at least to my ears. It was a cold night, and we both sat listening close by the fireplace while the wine and music seemed so intense, so profound, so unpredictable in the paths they took. That 1961 Romanée-Conti goes places I never imagined a wine could go.
Have you ever considered opening a winery yourself?
In 1998, I purchased Domaine les Pallères in partnership with Daniel and Frederic Brunier. The winery is in an enchanted valley near Gigondas in the southern Rhône. It had been in the same family for over 500 years, and has long enjoyed the reputation as the most elegant, most “Burgundian” of the region. I like each of its varietals: young, old, and in between. The oldest I’ve tasted was just three years ago, a 1964 that just kept getting better until the bottle was empty.
Do you believe that French wine is the best in the world?
What a question. As I start to answer, I think of all the great California wines I have tasted—great Cabernets from the ‘50s and ‘60s, for example, and I love the wines of Italy. I don’t like answering this question because, well, I don’t think there is an answer that is correct. To each his own, as we say. But France might have the edge in one sense. The difference between the highest achievements and the lowest is quite vast in France. At the highest level, you have Yquem and Romanée-Conti, and the great white Burgundies, the first growths of Bordeaux pre-1982. Such majestic wines soar compared to the ordinary plonk that a lot of the French drink. My god, what a voyage.
You frequently mention the upsides and downsides of organic wines. Do you have hope for the eventual production of consistent, low-risk natural wines?
We are already at the point where we can produce consistent, low-risk natural wines. At Les Pallières, for example, we are as organic as can be in the vineyards and winery. Nothing added except a minimal bit of sulfur dioxide at the bottling. The problem with sulfur dioxide is nothing more than a problem of quantity. Too much and it screws up the wine. A minimal dose protects the wine. I have tested the limits over four decades and experience shows me that a minimal touch of it has no negative effect at all. Indeed, it has a positive effect: your wine won’t go off in the bottle. If we find a way to keep our bottles of wine near freezing until the day we want to drink one, then we can make wine with no sulfur dioxide and no flaws, but not until then.
In your book, you remark that you’re always in a rush: “As pleasurable as my business is, there is too much territory to cover.” Are you less in a rush these days?
I have turned over the day-to-day running of the wine business to Dixon Brooke. He also helps me with selecting the wines we import. So, yes, I am spending less time on business than before. My fifth music CD is almost ready to go. I’m trying to decide if I want to title it “Down In Heaven,” or “Life Is Up, Life Is Down.” And I am in the jotting-down-notes stage of a new book. So, busy enough, but no, not in a rush.