KERMIT LYNCH WINE MERCHANT

Tenuta Anfosso

As you cross into Italy on the autoroute running east from Nice, Monaco, and Menton, the first major Italian town you come to is Ventimiglia. Shortly after this, if you exit the autoroute and head north into the hills, the dramatically steep slopes of this area of the pre-Alps come into view. It is immediately apparent that this is a very serious terroir, tucked into the hills of western Liguria and forgotten in time.

In these hills you’ll find Tenuta Anfosso, located in the town of Soldano, and the growing area (or DOC) known as Rossese di Dolceacqua. The grape grown here is the same Rossese as is planted throughout Liguria, but the terroir of Dolceacqua takes the grape to soaring new heights. The wines are reminiscent of Côte-Rôtie, with their combination of floral and roasted/bacon fat aromas and silky mid-palate with stoniness on the finish. There is a level of concentration, structure, spice, and minerality that the more fruit-driven Rossese from further east in Liguria does not possess.

Anfosso is blessed with incredible raw material, enabling them to craft wines of this quality. The average age of the estate’s vine is ancient, including their Poggio Pini cru, planted in the late 19th century, and their even older pre-phylloxera Rossesse Bianco. These slopes are impossibly steep and can only be worked by hand, which is made possible by hand-built dry-stone terraces.

Alessandro Anfosso (joined by his wife, Marisa Perrotti) is the sixth generation of his family to work this land. His great-grandfather Giacomo replanted their Poggio Pini vineyard in 1888. Alessandro's father Luciano still lives in the steep hills among the vines and is currently 87 years old. He has a stunning 77 harvests under his belt!

At 5.5 hectares, Anfosso is one of the 3 largest estates in this DOC, a zone that currently has only 80-90 hectares planted, down from 3,000 in pre-phylloxera times. In fact, there were more vines planted here than in the Langhe at that time. In other words, it is a forgotten gem of ancient viticulture, with a few remaining artisans who are eking out a living in this unforgiving terrain that is capable of producing world-class wines. Alessandro Anfosso is certainly among the best of them.

Villa Diamante

The story of Villa Diamante begins far away from the vine-covered rolling hills of Irpinia, east of Naples: late founder and winemaker Antoine Gaita grew up in Belgium, where his father had immigrated to work in the coal mines. After developing a passion for wine at a young age, Antoine felt the need to return to his roots so he settled back in the Campania town of Montefredane, along with his New Jersey-born wife Diamante, also a returning migrant. In 1996 they established Villa Diamante, and began to bottle organically grown Fiano di Avellino from the hillside surrounding their home. Unlike most vineyards in the area, their meager 3 hectares of Fiano face north, favoring a slow and steady ripening marked by hot days and cool nights. Antoine's primary goal was to allow the high-altitude limestone terroir of Montefredane to express itself by avoiding the use of chemicals in the vineyard while maintaining a non-interventionist approach in the cellar. Antoine experimented constantly, with his background in chemistry driving his methods as his perennial desire for improvement provided a quasi-academic thrill.

Antoine tragically and unexpectedly passed away after an illness in early 2015. With the help of a consulting enologist, Diamante remains committed to ensuring his legacy lives on as a true pioneer of artisanal, terroir-driven Fiano di Avellino. Respecting the methods he championed in the vines and cellar, Antoine's family continues to craft top-quality wines that remain among the most soulful and long-lived whites of southern Italy.

After whole-cluster pressing, the juice is either inoculated from a wild yeast starter culture (pied de cuve) or with cultured yeasts selected from the vineyard, depending on the vintage. Nothing is hurried in the winemaking, as the wine completes its malolactic fermentation and ages extensively sur lie to acquire stunning mouthfeel and glorious complexity. After a year-long élevage in stainless steel, during which a natural clarification takes place, the “Vigna della Congregazione” is bottled unfined and unfiltered, with only a small dose of sulfur. The wine is an exercise in finesse, showcasing Fiano’s potential for purity and longevity along with its striking, ever-evolving aromatics. Villa Diamante’s Fiano is a unique wine, from its delicate floral perfume and mineral character in youth to the pristine texture and smoky, nutty notes it develops with bottle age.

Punta Crena

The tiny village of Varigotti sits on the Mediterranean, just a few rows of houses and restaurants on a pristine beach, with its back against steep hills. Climb up into the hills and you will discover neatly terraced vineyards on the slopes and in hidden clearings further up on the peaks. The Ruffino family has been tending these vineyards for over 500 years, hardly changing a thing as they pass their knowledge and wisdom from one generation to the next. Today the estate is run by four siblings: Tommaso, the eldest, is the winemaker; Paolo is the salesman; Anna handles logistics; and Nicola helps out in the vineyards and winery. Their mother, Libera, was a strong businesswoman who revolutionized sales by dealing directly with clients rather than working with the merchants who controlled the market at the time; but today she stays in the background, happily cooking for the constant flow of guests and tending the home-grown vegetable stand in the courtyard as her numerous grandchildren scamper around her. These unpretentious people are firmly rooted in Varigotti, and the wines they craft are infused with local tradition and character.
Ask Paolo if the family follows organic methods in the vineyards and he’ll laugh. We’re not “organic,” he says as if you had asked about some crazy new technology. We just do everything the same way our ancestors have for hundreds of years. They even build their stone terraces by hand, using the method established here three thousand years ago. The vineyards of Punta Crena (which is named for a large promontory jutting into the sea at the edge of the village) are all within 1200 meters of the water and enjoy sea breezes that help keep the grapes healthy and happy. The Ruffinos are proud to work almost exclusively with local varietals, but they don’t have much company. Mataòssu, which once reigned supreme in this zone, was gradually ripped out because it has such a difficult vegetative balance; Crovino gives such low yields that no one else will grow it. As a result, several of Punta Crena’s wines are one of a kind: the Mataòssu and Cruvin are entirely unique (two other producers make wines labeled Mataòssu, but in fact their vines are the related Lumassina), and the Barbarossa is the only one produced in Italy (a local grape of Emilia-Romagna has the same name but is unrelated). They believe that their only job after the harvest is simply to avoid ruining their lovely fruit as it turns to wine. These are light, fun wines with no pretension. Every bottling from this estate marries beautifully with the local cuisine of fresh vegetables, fritto misto, and anchovies prepared every way imaginable, and we at KLWM are constantly finding more pairings where they taste just as good.

Silvio Giamello

Like most families in the Langhe, the Giamellos started out with a polyculture estate that included small parcels of vines, grain, forest, and pastures where their animals grazed. The bulk of the grape harvest was sold off, but the family made enough wine for their own consumption. This system continued for three generations until the 1950s, when farm life became less profitable and many families left the area to find factory work in the cities. Brothers Luigi and Ercole Giamello stayed but launched a trucking company to supplement their income—the first motorized transportation service in the area—and in their absence their mother took care of the daily vineyard work, wisely replanting much of their land to vines. When the economy improved in the ‘70s Luigi was able to return to the domaine full-time, focusing more on wine production and eventually passing the reins to his son and daughter-in-law, Silvio Giamello and Marina Camia. This fourth generation continues to make wine the only way they can imagine: all vineyard work is natural and chemical-free, and the vinification techniques are purely traditional.
La Licenziana remains the archetypal artisanal estate, with very small quantities produced entirely by the family. When clients come to visit, Silvio humbly presents the wines, and his two young sons invariably burst into the winery with their mother following close behind, then gently leading them back into the house after greeting the guests. The Giamellos often finish tastings by blowing us away with an older vintage from their tiny personal stock. There’s no mistaking it: this is the real thing—old-fashioned Barbaresco with the terroir shining through. Each year we take every last bottle that Silvio can spare, but it’s never enough to satisfy all of his fans!

Château Tertre de la Mouleyre

Eric Jeanneteau spent his childhood following his grandparents around their vineyard and cellar, just outside St-Émilion on the Right Bank of the Dordogne River in the Bordelais. School was of little interest to him; he says all he wanted to do was run free among the vines alongside his grandfather. His enchantment with the métier began at the age of six. By the time he turned eight, he was already assisting his grandfather in the vines and in the cellar. It was only natural, then, when he completed three degrees in viticulture—he was born to be a vigneron. In 1995, after managing various châteaux throughout the region, Eric returned home to take his place at the helm of the family domaine.
Tertre de la Mouleyre, or “the mound of the miller,” is a small hill crowned with an old windmill. The vineyards are situated in clay and limestone soils in the commune of St-Étienne de Lisse, one of Saint-Émilion’s five sister villages within the AOC.  Saint-Émilion may not have been included in the Bordeaux classifications of 1855, but today it is nevertheless considered hallowed ground, displaying tremendous variation and incredible soil pedigree, primarily on the limestone plateau and the surrounding slopes. The vineyards of Château Tertre de la Mouleyre are farmed organically and have been certified since 2001. With not even two hectares of vines to farm, Eric can give his vines the tender, loving care that larger property owners cannot. He treats his vines with specialized organic composts and fertilizers and harvests manually. There is no set recipe for his vinifications, as his method is adapted to the needs of each vintage. Kermit calls this St-Émilion “the real deal,” explaining that “this is different from other ‘petit’ châteaux. I don’t mean that it’s huge and jammy. No, it is more classic Bordeaux, old school—lean, fine, and structured… chiseled, very 1981, before Peynaud and Parker.”

Jean-Baptiste Arena

The path to becoming a vigneron was a natural one for Jean-Baptiste Arena, son of famed Corsican producer Antoine Arena. Growing up at the family domaine in Patrimonio, Jean-Baptiste enjoyed constant exposure to the wine world through his father’s work, gaining invaluable experience through sales trips to Parisian wine bars and other public tastings with vigneron friends all over Europe—not to mention what he picked up in his very own backyard.

Though he attended law school in Nice after studying viticulture in Bastia, the draw back to the Ile de Beauté proved irresistible, and following a harvest internship in Burgundy, he ultimately returned home in 2001 to join the family domaine. “This happened naturally, as our parents had transmitted their love and passion for this land and everything that springs from it,” Jean-Baptiste discloses.

As of the 2014 vintage, the Arenas have divided their holdings evenly between Antoine, Jean-Baptiste, and his younger brother, Antoine-Marie. In a typically Corsican spirit of self-reliance, Antoine’s sons will carry on the family tradition through their very own domaines, enjoying the autonomy to work the way they desire while maintaining close family bonds and a free exchange of ideas. Choosing who would work which of the family’s numerous lieux-dits proved an easier task than one might expect. In fact, the three easily agreed as to how they should divvy up the Arena holdings, each claiming his favorite parcels to look after independently.

Jean-Baptiste explains, “We will continue to work together all while maintaining our independence. The general philosophy will not change—namely, farming will be 100% organic and vinifications will occur without any additions, save a little sulfites for the whites.” Embracing his father’s respect for the land, Jean-Baptiste will also welcome the liberty of taking the initiative with ideas of his own. His first step is to improve his working conditions: “Two new cellars are in the works; mine is destined for stocking and aging, while I will continue to vinify in the family’s historic cellars.” Additional plans are in place to experiment with new fermentation vessels. The future is certainly bright for this impassioned young talent, leaving no doubt the Arena legacy will live on through Jean-Baptiste, symbolizing the best that Corsica’s terroir has to offer.

Sesti

Although he always enjoyed visiting vineyards and attending tastings, Giuseppe Maria “Giugi” Sesti did not initially choose a career in wine. Instead, his Venetian upbringing inspired him to study music, art, and astronomy, the last of which became his profession. He met his future wife in North Wales while writing his first book on this topic, and in 1975 Giugi and Sarah moved their family to Tuscany, where they bought the abandoned ruins of the hamlet and castle of Argiano, slowly clearing the land and restoring the buildings to create the breathtaking estate we see there today. Giugi was now a father of four, vice-director of a local Baroque opera festival, and actively writing books on astronomy, but he miraculously found spare time to visit local wineries and help his neighbors in the vineyards and cellar. His passion for wine grew along with his experience, and in 1991 he planted his own vineyards on the slopes around the castle. The children helped pick and stomp grapes from the earliest age, and though they, too, pursued international studies in various fields, they always managed to come home for the harvest. In 1999 the couple’s only daughter, Elisa, joined the estate full time, and today she is an active partner in all aspects of the vineyard management and winemaking.
While helping out at neighboring estates Giugi observed that simplicity and careful attention were the most important factors in producing great wines, while chemical intervention skewed their delicate balance; so he determined to make entirely natural wines right from the start. He even took a pioneering extra step by applying his prodigious knowledge of the moon’s influence on living things to his vineyard management and winemaking. Today the family continues this thoroughly eco-friendly philosophy (although no official certification currently meets their personal standards), and Elisa’s primary concern is the materia prima, or raw material, that goes into the wine. The Sesti lineup includes a white Sauvignon and a Sangiovese Rosato born directly of necessity, since the family wanted something light and cooling to drink under the hot summer sun; they were forced to increase production when visiting friends and clients tried these wines and started placing orders. But their basic trio—the Brunello, Brunello Riserva “Phenomena,” and Rosso di Montalcino—provides traditional expressions of the appellation, robust and powerful yet refreshing, with great aging potential in the Brunellos.

Charly Thévenet

Growing up the son of famous “Gang of Four” Morgon producer Jean-Paul Thévenet, Charly Thévenet was exposed quite early on to traditional, more natural viticulture—a philosophy that his father and friends helped to resurrect in Beaujolais in the early eighties. Though only in his twenties, Charly has already started a dynamic career. A few years ago, with extensive experience working for his father and in Marcel Lapierre’s winery already under his belt, he purchased a parcel of eighty-year-old vines in Régnié, west-southwest of his hometown of Villié-Morgon. Régnié is a terroir enjoying something of its own renaissance in the hands of talented growers like Charly and his dad’s pal, Guy Breton. In fact, Regnié has joined the short list of Grand Crus in the Beaujolais. Situated on a plateau of seabed stone in the foothills of the Côte du Py, it gives a fresh wine with solid acidity.  

As the next generation of the natural wine movement, Charly seems to have inherited his father’s savoir faire. He uses biodynamic farming techniques in the vineyard, never adding synthetic herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides to the vines. He harvests late, with an aggressive sorting of the grapes, adds minimal doses of sulfur dioxide, ages the wine in four-year-old Burgundian barriques, and bottles his wines unfiltered. Add a dose of that Thévenet talent, and you have a recipe for excellent wine! The 2007 vintage marked his first release and his first collaboration with KLWM.  

We are unanimously impressed with this rising star.

Domaine Pierre Guillemot

Kermit says he has several great memories of visiting with the Guillemots, and his favorite happened about fifteen years ago when Robert Parker asked us to arrange a big tasting of our Burgundy selections. It took place in the cellar below our Beaune office, and Mr. Parker approved Kermit’s suggestion that we invite the winemakers to the tasting. The place was packed and there were over two hundred red and white Burgundies to taste. Pierre Guillemot was there with his big belly and bristly moustache. Everyone loved having him, because he wowed them with comparisons of certain wines with various characteristics of the male and female genders. Kermit noticed at some point in the morning that Pierre had quieted down. He looked over and saw that, as Pierre tasted, he did not avail himself of a spit bucket. Suddenly there was an “Alors, au revoir, à bientôt j’espère,” and up the stairs he went. Kermit followed and watched Pierre walk away, awfully close to a Charlie Chaplin pantomime of a drunken French vigneron weaving down the street, barely able to stand up.
The Guillemot family has worked Savigny-lès-Beaune vines for eight generations (!) and produces wines with classic Burgundian finesse and balance, all while leaving us a reminder of Savigny’s rustic character. Guillemot is one of the quintessential KLWM producers, with wines that epitomize the local terroir and emphasize grace and elegance over power and structure. But do not be fooled into thinking that this means they lack aging potential; the Guillemots are very proud of their old wines and thankfully have the foresight to set aside a good supply and follow their wines’ development over the years. A recent tasting at the domaine included a 1989 and 1975 Savigny Blanc (that’s 35 years old, everyone!), as well as the ‘90, ‘88, ‘85, ‘82, ‘76, ’72, and ‘64 Rouge. There was not a single tired bottle in the bunch. We challenge anyone to find a better deal on Burgundies that are built to last like these!

Éric Chevalier

Éric Chevalier is a rising star in the Nantais of the Loire Valley. For ten years, he sourced fruit for a large négociant in the Touraine.  In 2005, he decided to return to his hometown of Saint-Philbert de Grandlieu, just southwest of Nantes, and ended up taking over the family domaine, Domaine de l’Aujardière, the next year. His father, a talented vigneron who did not bottle much of his wines and was well-known as a high-quality source of bulk wine, had stopped working the vineyards and the vines were either going to have to be pulled up and replanted, or sold.  Éric was anything but enthusiastic. Little by little his passion grew, and today he is proud to be the fourth generation to farm the domaine. He is also proud to be bottling more and more of the family’s production himself. Éric sustainably farms twenty-five hectares of vines, producing wines of great character and finesse. He found his future in his family’s past.
The Nantais is a maritime climate, and the vineyards are not far from the Atlantic Ocean. Consequently, there is an interesting variety of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks, as this area once was ocean floor. Of the twenty-five hectares he farms, a large percentage of his production is dedicated to the production of Melon de Bourgogne (Muscadet Côtes de Grand Lieu, mostly from old vines in the superb lieu-dit of La Butte). The soils here are comprised primarily of serpentinite and quartz, with the exception of his ancient granite parcel known as La Noë. The other half of his crop (Chardonnay, Fié Gris, and Pinot Noir, among others) goes towards the production of Vin de Pays du Val du Loire, and the soils are rich in granite, sand, and silt. Of these “country” wines, the most notable is Éric’s Fié Gris. This grape, pulled out of vineyards for many years to be replaced with the more profitable Sauvignon Blanc, is indigenous to the Loire. Also known as Sauvignon Rose or Sauvignon Gris, Éric’s vines are one of the few remaining strongholds of this elegant and luscious varietal. It makes an impression, with almost an Alsatian exoticism.