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Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe

One cannot think of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the most celebrated cru of the Southern Rhône, without thinking of Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe. The Brunier family is legendary in its own right, having been rooted to the enigmatic plateau known as “La Crau” for over one hundred years. The wines of Vieux Télégraphe evoke the concept of terroir in its purest form: they reflect their dramatic climate, the rough terrain that defines the soil, their full sun exposure at a higher altitude, the typicity of the varietals with an emphasis on Grenache, and of course, the influence of their caretakers, the Brunier family. For many, La Crau is Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s grandest cru.

The Bruniers’ story begins in 1898 with Hippolyte Brunier. A modest farmer who lived off the land, Hippolyte...

That Maxime Magnon is part of one of the most revolutionary wine movements in France should give him a justifiable swagger to his step, yet he is nonetheless a reluctant hero. This thirty-something Burgundian was not born with hereditary rights to a domaine, but makes his own wine in the Corbières A.O.C. instead He was fortunate to have purchased some prime parcels of old vines from abandoned plots and rents his cellar—a garagiste if ever there was one. He farms nine parcels over eleven hectares, with steep vineyards that reach high altitudes, and manages it all on his own. Maxime is part of the new wave of passionate viticulteurs who cultivate their vines with the utmost respect for nature and the soil. He’s certified organic, but also incorporates biodynamic...

One could easily consider Régis Minet the Loire Valley’s answer to an action hero. He may play it cool on the outside, but at closer look, one sees a man of brooding intensity on an insatiable quest for adventure. It may just be in the blood. His grandfather, Robert Minet, was an artisan tonnelier, or barrel-maker. At the beginning of the last century, Robert kept a mere three hectares of vines in the eastern Loire town of Pouilly-sur-Loire—just enough to make the family’s wine. He, too, was very independent, living autonomously off his own livestock and fresh vegetables from his farm. When he passed away in 1976, Régis left his studies to continue the work of the domaine without giving it a second thought. Since then, he has made...

Aubert de Villaine deserves the accolades he receives. He is a reluctant hero, an unlikely trait in a man of such accomplishment, intellect, and inherent sense of noblesse. Heir to one of the most enviable wine legacies of all time, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, the young Aubert was more interested in literature and law than wine. After spending time in New York working for an importer of Burgundian wines, he finally returned home in the mid-nineteen sixties to assume his role as co-director of DRC.

In the 1970s, Aubert and his American wife, Pamela, sought less pedigreed pastures to call home. They finally settled in the village of Bouzeron, well-situated between Chassagne-Montrachet, Santenay, Rully, and Mercurey, in the Côte Chalonnaise. However high profile his day job, Aubert still...

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...

In the colorful, picturesque city of Ajaccio, capital of Corsica, you can’t get very far without seeing the name Abbatucci. There are streets, monuments and plazas that carry the name, which is normal given that General Jean-Charles Abbatucci from Ajaccio was a hero of the French Revolution and comrade in arms of another local hero, Napoléon Bonaparte. Step into a wine bar or a restaurant there, chances are these days they’ll pour you a glass of Domaine Abbatucci. The domaine is run by Jean-Charles Abbatucci, a direct descendant of the General, who has now become a local hero of another kind—for providing the local populace with its most sought-after libation.

Corsicans are proud defenders of their traditions and environment, and with Abbatucci they indulge guilt-free. His wines are...

Just outside of the village of Benais, in the heart of the Touraine, sits the lovely Domaine de la Chanteleuserie. This “place where the larks sing,” as the name means, is perched on a limestone plateau in an idyllic landscape. Moise Boucard, a respected vigneron whom Kermit discovered in 1976, has not only given his good sense of humor and modesty to his son, Thierry, but his winemaking skills, too. The seventh generation of winegrowers at Chanteleuserie and the second generation to be working with KLWM, Thierry now shares the domaine with his wife, Christine.

This is the land of Cabernet Franc, better known locally as “Breton.” While some vignerons in the area add up to 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, the Boucards make pure varietal wines. Bourgueil is among...

Legends seem to converge at the Ermitage du Pic St-Loup. The hermitage dates back from the Middle Ages, as the former home of the bishops of Maguelone. The limestone peak or “pic” perched above the vineyards was named for the legendary Saint Thieri Loup, one of three pious, crusading, brothers and suitors to the beautiful Bertrade—after her untimely death, Loup became a hermit. In 1992, the Ravaille brothers (Xavier, Pierre, and Jean-Marc) joined forces to plant a vineyard in what has traditionally been land dominated by sheep farming and cheese production. The Ravaille family has been in the Languedoc for over one thousand years, long enough to have known Saint Loup personally. These brothers have been on a noble quest of their own to create serious wine that expresses the ...

In Maligny, a village well-poised between Paris and Dijon, just north of Chablis, Olivier Savary and his wife, Francine, have been vignerons since 1984. Though many of Olivier’s family members were vignerons, an unfortunate series of challenging harvests discouraged his parents from joining the family business. Chardonnay runs strongly through his veins, however, and Olivier pursued wine school in Dijon regardless of the fact that he would have no vines of his own. Olivier and Francine arranged to farm some vineyard land en métayage (share cropping) in the Chablis and Petit Chablis appellations. With his father at his side to farm the complex network of vineyards, Olivier initially sold off the majority of his production in bulk to a négociant. With some encouragement from his longtime neighbor and childhood friend,...

As a young man, André Guillard wanted to become a vigneron, working the family domaine in the southern end of the Beaujolais, in the village of Pouilly-le-Monial. Since production was small, there were only enough resources for André’s father and brother to farm it. Accepting the situation as it stood, he became a baker, but his dream never died. At the ripe age of fifty, André was finally given his chance to be part of the domaine. His grandson, Cédric Vincent, was just a tot, but the two were quite close. Cédric’s parents were going through a divorce, but early memories of longing to join his grandfather in the vineyards brought the young Cédric solace. Today, after completing his advanced studies in enology, Cédric works side-by-side in the vineyards and...

Pierre Boillot is a rare master of both the Côtes de Beaune and the Côtes de Nuits–not only does he have the vineyards but also the savoir-faire and skill. Pierre inherited this domaine from his father Lucien, whose name it still carries. Pierre worked together with his brother Louis for years, but a few years ago they parted ways and split up the family holdings. Pierre’s talent has become much more evident as he has had full control over this domaine, and in addition to retaining the original cellars in Gevrey-Chambertin, Pierre has instituted a rigorous revitalizing of the soils and vines in all of his vineyards.

Pierre inherited very old vines from his father in the Côtes de Nuits and from his great-grandfather Henri Boillot, who was...

The ancient fishing village of Cassis has seen its fair share of visitors over the millennia. The Phoenicians first arrived in the sixth century B.C., and with them came the timeless Ugni Blanc grape and viticultural savvy. The Romans later made their way here, as well as their Barbarian successors, followed by the medieval Counts of Les Baux, all the way to tourists of the modern era looking to escape the cold, dark cities. Cassis is not only an active port, but what Kermit calls “an earthly paradise.” The vineyards of Clos Sainte Magdeleine are particularly stunning. They jut out on a private cape to meet majestic limestone cliffs, poised spectacularly above the sparkling, azure Mediterranean. With landscapes such as these, it is only fitting that writers and poets...

Hervé Dubourdieu’s easy charm and modest disposition are complemented by his focus and ferocious perfectionism. He prefers to keep to himself, spending most of his time with his family in his modest, tasteful home, surrounded by his vineyards in the Sauternes and Graves appellations. Roûmieu-Lacoste, situated in Haut Barsac, originates from his mother’s side of the family, dating back to 1890. He also owns Château Graville-Lacoste and Château Ducasse, where he grows grapes for his Graves Blanc and Bordeaux Blanc, respectively. In the words of Dixon Brooke, “Hervé is as meticulous a person as I have encountered in France’s vineyards and wineries. Everything is kept in absolutely perfect condition, and the wines showcase the results of this care – impeccable.” Hervé is incredibly hard on himself. Despite the pedigree and...

The wine bug first bit the young and ambitious Baptiste Lalfert when he tasted a bottle of 1974 Château Suduiraut at a family reunion. Though Baptiste does not come from a winegrowing family as most young vignerons do in France, he boldly set about creating his own path. After finishing a degree in Enology in 2006, he went to Burgundy to Domaine Jean-Marc Boillot to pursue his apprenticeship—a defining region and relationship that has helped shape Baptiste’s career. In 2007, upon hearing about a vineyard of old-vines Carignan and Cinsault that was destined to be destroyed in southern France, he returned to his native Languedoc determined to harness the vineyard’s great potential. Suddenly, Baptiste found himself a farmer of just over one hectare of land without any cellar space...

The brothers who run this estate boast a grand villa just outside Siena, a pope in the family, three last names, and some of the best Chianti Classico on the market today. Andrea and Alessandro Boscu Bianchi Bandinelli are the current proprietors of the Villa di Geggiano, a national monument that has been in their family since 1527; documents show that the family was already producing wine here and exporting it to Great Britain in 1725. Originally the family’s summer house, the villa still touts its 18th-century décor and furnishings, and the family is proud to tell of the famous guests who have graced these rooms. Today the estate covers twenty hectares, encompassing the formal outdoor theater that is still used in the summer, a tantalizing vegetable garden, and...

One glimpse of Serge Férigoule’s barbell moustache might be enough for one to be completely enamored with the wines of Le Sang des Cailloux, although they also speak remarkably well for themselves. This domaine’s name means “the blood of the stones,” and Serge Férigoule is most certainly the heart that links the two together. In 1974, Serge left winemaking school with a longing to return to the vineyards. He went to work for Monsieur Ricard’s family in 1979 to oversee the vineyards. Without anyone in his family to succeed him, Ricard decided to gamble by partnering with Serge in 1982. In 1990, after Monsieur Ricard’s retirement, Serge launched Le Sang des Cailloux. Vacqueyras had just been awarded an A.O.C. that same year, a timely twist of fate that helped...

Domenico Altariva grew up watching his parents work the land; so when he married and bought a house with his new wife, Albertina, it was natural that he also bought a little land that he would tend in his spare time. A salesman by trade, he was also an avid oenophile, so he chose to plant vineyards from which he made wine for personal consumption.

Domenico and Albertina slowly increased their wine production and turned their hobby into a full-time vocation, selling the wine in bulk to private clients. Right from the start they worked their vines with entirely natural products and made the most of their excellent vineyard sites. When their sons Fabio and Fausto joined the estate in 1991 the family took another step forward,...

From a young age Giuseppe Ceschin had a great passion for wine, studying enology as soon as he was old enough and traveling around Italy gaining experience working for wineries in various regions. With the support of his wife, Carla, he followed his dream to Friuli, where the couple worked for thirteen long years before seizing an opportunity to purchase 35 hectares in Prepotto, near the border of Slovenia. The land was a long way from ready, but the Ceschins saw their future in it and dedicated the next decade to the hard labor of building terraces and planting new vineyards. In 1984 the family finally celebrated their first harvest and the realization of their dream. They chose the Friulian word for springtime as the name of the estate...

Méo-Camuzet is one of the most celebrated domaines of the Côte d’Or, located in the heart of prestigious Vosne-Romanée. The domaine boasts fourteen hectares of land in some of the most spectacular appellations and crus of Burgundy. The vineyard land in Burgundy is highly parceled out among families, which makes it rare for anyone to have enough vines to be able to bottle one grand cru, let alone the four that the Méos have. The early beginnings of the domaine left it in the hands of métayeurs, or share-croppers. The last twenty years have brought substantial changes that have fostered a new chapter for the Méo family.

Founder Étienne Camuzet was not only a passionate vigneron, but a full-time politician, and spent most of his time...

Relatively secluded, surrounded by its vines, in a place far from the worries of the outside world, Château Belles-Graves is a small glimpse of what one person’s paradise might be like. Idyllic pastures, vineyards, and gardens decorate the landscape, and the focal point is a beautifully-tended labyrinth made of vines in the gardens of the château. Moreover, the property is rich with history: the vineyards here date to at least the 16th century, when they first appeared on a map of the region, and the building’s edifice as we know it today dates back to the 18th century, before the French Revolution. Though the ownership has changed several times, the old Domaine du Drouilleau, as it was once known, finally settled in the hands of Jean and Hermine Theallet in...

In Sauternes, an appellation that is more well-known for wine châteaux than for the talented people that work the soil and make the wine, Valérie and Daniel Alibrand are braving it on their own without the safety net enjoyed by their more established neighbors. KLWM has a tradition of buying direct from the vigneron, which is not easy in Bordeaux, where brokers play a dominant role in the dealings and add a percentage to the cost of each bottle. Finding just the right fit in Bordeaux may be rare for us with standards like these, but when it happens, it is a rewarding feeling. It was love-at-first-sip when Kermit tasted the wines of Domaine de l’Alliance, and we are proud to welcome them to our portfolio.

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Agostino “Pippo” Parodi and his wife Bice inherited a family estate of mostly fruit and vegetables that Pippo’s grandfather, Filippo or “Fèipu” in local dialect, had first planted. Convinced that his property was particularly well suited to winegrowing, Pippo slowly cleared the land starting in the mid-1960s and replanted it with vines, focusing especially on the native Pigato. Since there were no appellations for Ligurian wine at that time, he decided to highlight this exceptional terroir by naming the estate after the locality, Massaretti. His efforts were instrumental in establishing Ligurian Pigato as a quality wine, and soon they had a long list of potential clients begging for an allocation of their tiny production. As Pippo and Bice eased into retirement, they handed the reins over to the next generation:...

That Arnaud Ente is not a household name in Burgundy is more a reflection of his tireless dedication to his métier than of the quality of his wines. For the Entes, it’s not about pursuing the spotlight, although he is unquestionably a rising star in the region. Arnaud and his wife, Marie-Odile, work primarily on their own to craft an exquisite range of micro-production white Burgundies from Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet. Precision, purity, elegance, and finesse are the best descriptors of the Ente style. Each vine is nurtured through every step of the yearly cycle, and each cru and village wine receives the exact same impeccable treatment; even the “entry-level” Aligoté and Bourgogne Blanc show the layered richness and complexity of a much more sophisticated appellation.

Their neighbors joke...

Jules Lassalle established this family-owned Champagne house in 1942 in the village of Chigny-Les-Roses on the Montagne de Reims. A master of his craft, he established a signature style of elegant, tightly knit wines with a certain ampleur. When he passed away in 1982 his wife, Olga, and their daughter, Chantal Decelle-Lassalle, stepped in and took over the estate, upholding Jules’ high standards and progressively pushing the domaine to the next level. In 2006 Chantal’s daughter, Angéline Templier, joined the estate as winemaker. Their twenty-eight-year tradition of “une femme, un esprit, un style” (one woman, one spirit, one style) holds true today more than ever. In the 1970s, Kermit was the first to begin importing artisanal, grower Champagne, and the Lassalles have been in the KLWM portfolio longer than anyone....

St. Martin de la Garrigue has endured through several eras of history. The château is located in the Languedoc, near Pézenas, the hometown of Molière. Surrounded by pine forests and garrigue, it is situated overlooking the Hérault River. The building that stands today dates back to the Renaissance, yet its dazzling little chapel (which could turn the devil into a true believer) was constructed in the mid-ninth century. Records show that the property was gifted to the clergy throughout the Middle Ages by the kings of France. The story goes back even further though—the Romans were said to have built a villa and vineyards here after the conquest of Gaul. In recent years, primitive pottery shards and graves on the property were found, indicating that people have been living...

Château Aney was built in 1850 by the family that gave it its name, just five years before the wine classification system was initiated in Bordeaux. The domaine thrived and earned Cru Bourgeois status, but by the mid-twentieth century the land was no longer being farmed and the château had fallen into disrepair. In 1972 Jean Raimond and his son, Pierre, bought the property, rehabilitated the vineyards, and refurbished the winery and cellars. This marked a new era for Château Aney; which fittingly achieved Cru Bourgeois status for a second time in 1978. Today Pierre runs the estate along with his son, David, producing wines of class and elegance.

While the Raimond family certainly deserves credit for lovingly bringing the property back to its...

Michel Brégeon is part renegade, part crusader, and full-blown terroirist. Over the years, he has become an ardent defender of the Muscadet-Sèvre-et-Maine terroir, the most highly regarded of the four appellations in the Pays Nantais. Thanks to his deep understanding of the nuances of the land, he plays the game much differently than the region’s caves cooperatives and negociants, who produce en masse and lose the subtlety of the appellation. For seven years, he worked for his family’s domaine before setting out on his own in 1975. When his father retired in 1989, he gave his remaining vineyard land to Michel. Today, Michel farms seven hectares of vineyards in clay, silica, and gabbro soils. Gabbro is old, blue-green, volcanic rock, rarely found in vineyard land. Formed by magma eruptions under...

The most sublime and the most celebrated estate of Chablis, the wines of Domaine Raveneau are a rare find—exceptional because the vineyard holdings are almost entirely made of grand cru and premier cru fruit, painfully finite as so few are produced, outstanding because of their tremendous quality and consistency, and unusual given the modesty of the vignerons who create these world-class wines.

The domaine was created in 1948, when François Raveneau consolidated his holdings with his wife’s family’s vineyard parcels. Though his father had spent years selling off prime parcels, François was doing his best to bring new ones back into the hands of the domaine. The reputation of this elusive and somewhat stoic vigneron spread quickly, as his style was easily recognizable as far superior...

Seyssel may be unknown to many oenophiles today, but the vineyards of this small appellation are regularly mentioned in documents dating back to at least the 11th century, and with the development of sparkling wine production methods in the 19th century a new Seyssel mousseux was created that quickly gained great popularity. Even Queen Victoria is said to have enjoyed the region’s sparkling wines during spa stays in neighboring towns. The “Royal Seyssel” label (originally called “Royal Carte Bleue”), launched in 1901 by the Varichon and Clerc families, was considered for many years to be the best sparkling Seyssel on the market. But when the operation was purchased in the 1990s by a large Burgundian négociant, quality suffered badly, and in 2007 the owners finally closed the local winery, keeping...

Domaine de Poujol was bought by the Cripps family in 1994—Robert and Kim, and Robert’s retired parents, Dick and Ann. Robert is English, Kim is American, and they farm in what was the most unlikely of places to find foreign winegrowers at the time. They came to this part of the Languedoc as the first non-French owners of a domaine, and they quickly distinguished themselves by their experience and strong pioneer spirit. Robert had been in the wine trade in Oxford for several years, eventually going on to make wine at some prestigious wineries in California. Kim had worked for ten years in Napa in financial management. Together, they had a dream of making their own wine in France. After a year of investigating, they found Domaine de Poujol, a...

The Fojadelli family proudly displayed the awards bestowed on their Barbera: gold medals at tastings in Dijon and Bordeaux in 1898, silver the same year in Hamburg and the next in Rome. Their stately villa at Valpane overlooked one of the most enviable vineyard sites in the Monferrato, a perfect amphitheater that had been planted with vines since at least the 1700s. One day a young man came to the estate and enthusiastically described his dream to buy Valpane and pursue his passion for winegrowing on this exceptional plot of land. The elderly Fojadelli brusquely refused at first, but a housekeeper saw the young man’s desolation as his hopes were crushed and convinced the owner to give him a chance. Pietro Giuseppe Arditi began working the land in 1900...

The stunning collection of premier cru and old-vine vineyards held by the two Chevillon brothers would make any Pinot Noir grower jealous. Their innate ability to carefully tend the vines and master the difficult Burgundian conditions provides ripe, healthy clusters of grapes year after year. Taste through the barrels of Chevillon post-harvest and it doesn't matter what happened the year before, almost as if by miracle, the wines show class and character and each terroir has its distinct idiosyncrasies. It is le vrai Pinot chez Chevillon.

Brothers Bertrand and Denis Chevillon are the fifth generation managers of this property in Nuits- Saint-Georges, which means they work the vines and make the wines. Their father Robert, for whom the domaine is named, is still active as well. Both brothers...

To call André Ostertag a revolutionary winemaker is to tell just half the story. He is a pioneer, certainly, but also an ardent environmentalist (as demonstrated in both his wine and his sculpture, another passion). After training in Burgundy, André returned to the family domaine in Alsace with renewed zeal: he lowered yields considerably and introduced viticultural and vinification techniques from other regions to his own home ground. The 1996 vintage marked his first collaboration with KLWM, and the following year he brought biodynamic viticulture to his fourteen hectares of vineyards, including his flagship parcel in the Muenchberg Grand Cru.

There is poetry to Ostertag’s practices. He looks for the nuance of terroir rather than the typicity of a grape varietal. In an...

Jean and Agnès Foillard took over his father’s domaine in 1980, and soon thereafter began to make Kermit Lynch customers very happy. The biggest part of their vineyards are planted on the Côte du Py, the famed slope outside the town of Villié-Morgon and the pride of Morgon. These granite and schist soils sit on an alluvial fan at the highest point above the town and impart great complexity. However, great real estate is not the only key to Foillard’s success. Early on, Jean began to follow the teachings of Jules Chauvet, a traditionalist who defied everything that the more commercial brands were touting in the region. Jean and three other local vignerons, Marcel Lapierre, Jean-Paul Thévenet, and Guy Breton, soon joined in on the movement. This Gang of Four,...

Domaine du Salvard has been a working domaine since 1898, through five hardworking generations of the Delaille family. Today, all forty-two hectares of vineyards are farmed by the capable brother team of Emmanuel and Thierry Delaille, with help from their father Gilbert. To our delight, they have carried on the traditions established by their ancestors, producing a true, classic Cheverny that is both simple and elegant. Unlike others in the appellation who still vinify the widely-planted and forgettable Romorantin varietal, the Delaille brothers have focused their attention on growing fresh, lively Sauvignon Blanc, deeply rooted in the sand, clay, and limestone plains of northeastern Touraine. Pinot Noir, Gamay, and Cot constitute their red grape holdings, creating youthful reds with great aromatics. Gilbert and his sons have also made their...

The Neveu family’s roots in the Loire Valley are nothing short of impressive, even for European standards. The local archives show that a Jean Neveu lived in the village of Verdigny (where the family still resides) as early as the 12th century, and family documents prove that they already owned and ran an agricultural estate in 1641. It is known that grapevines made up part of the property in the 19th century, but they were sadly destroyed in the phylloxera epidemic so it wasn’t until the after World War II that winegrowing regained an important place at the domaine, with nearly all of their wine sold in bulk through the 1960s. It was Roger Neveu, father to current owners Éric and Jean-Philippe, who during the 1970s brought the domaine into...

Strangely enough, Kermit came upon the Meyer-Fonné wines for the first time at his home down in Provence. He was tasting with Daniel Ravier, the winemaker at Domaine Tempier, and the two were blown away at the first, dazzling sip; now that we’ve all gotten to know the domaine, we understand why. Félix Meyer is a rising star in Alsace and has an evident instinct for his craft. He is the third generation in his family to be making wine since his grandfather founded the domaine in the late 19th century. Since taking over in 1992, Félix has already left his own mark, modernizing equipment in the winery, developing export sales, and now expanding the family’s holdings in many of Alsace’s great vineyard sites, including several grand crus. ...

Isabelle and Mathieu Champart were relatively new to winegrowing when they first took over Domaine Bramefan (as her family’s farm is also known), in Saint-Chinian, in 1976. Isabelle was a Parisian with a degree in Geography, while Mathieu came from a family of farmers in Champagne. For nearly twelve years they sold their grapes to the local cooperative. Though they waited until 1988 to bottle under their own label, they won almost instant acclaim, and have become the standard against which other producers in the appellation have been measured ever since. Mathieu tends to the vines, and Isabelle makes the wines—that their home is surrounded by their vineyards makes their division of labor all the more poetic. The Champarts have made significant changes to their business over the years. While...

Bertrand is the current Maume-in-charge at the tiny Domaine Maume. He has been involved in making the wines here since the mid nineties. Domaine Maume’s wines are deep, profound Pinot Noir experiences. They are wines of mystery – constantly changing and evolving, both in barrel and in bottle, like the Burgundies of the past. They are bottled from barrel by gravity without any pumping, fining or filtration. The secret to Maume’s success is his rigid adherence to selection massale cuttings in his replanting of the family’s vineyards. By isolating vines with the healthiest grapes, they replant only the best. Most of their vines are quite old, too, averaging 50 years of age across all parcels. Maume does not believe in using new clones but is a strong believer in the...

Attaining cult wine status is not an easy feat, and certainly not when the odds are stacked against you. Laurent Vaillé has achieved what others thought impossible. Having spent his early career training under such masters as Jean-François Coche-Dury (Meursault), Gérard Chave (Hermitage), and Eloi Durrbach (Domaine Trévallon, Provence), he settled in the l’Hérault of the Languedoc and purchased his own land in 1989, near Aniane. In this area of the region, where the limestone is hard and abundant and the soil poor, no one thought he would ever have any success planting a vineyard on his plot of choice. Though it took dynamite and bulldozing to clear twice the amount of limestone, boulders, and glacial scree that was found in his neighbor Aimé Guilbert’s Daumas Gassac vineyards, he...

The lost hamlet of Blagny, up in the hills between Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault in the Côte d’Or in Burgundy, is home to Domaine Comtesse Bernard de Chérisey. You may have heard the name “Blagny” before, attached to a bottle of premier cru Meursault-Blagny, or perhaps even a bottle of the increasingly rare Blagny rouge. Monks were the first inhabitants, planting vines in the 14th century. This almost magical, lost-in-time corner of the world boasts a unique microclimate, with a slightly different average temperature, exposition and soil than the rest of Burgundy. In our humble opinion, our friend and vigneron, Laurent Martelet, creates the most haunting masterpieces that emerge from this terroir. Laurent bottles the wines we import under the Comtesse Bernard de Chérisey label named in honor of his wife...

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...

The wines of Gachot-Monot represent some of the best values in the KLWM portfolio – not because they are the least expensive, but because they offer an outstanding price-to-quality ratio. Damien Gachot may work the vineyards of the lesser known Côtes de Nuits Villages appellation, but he works his vines as if they were premier cru fruit from Nuits-Saint-Georges. This fifth-generation vigneron and his Danish wife, Lise, farm twelve hectares in the village of Corgoloin, in between Nuits-Saint-Georges and Beaune. They first came to Kermit’s attention via a trusted source—the master of La Tâche himself, Aubert de Villaine—and it certainly doesn’t hurt that Damien also received an endorsement from his friend, Bertrand Chevillon, either. Ever-smiling and tireless in his work, Damien was first saluted by the Hospices de Beaune...

One of the oldest and most celebrated domaines in Savennières, Chateau d’Epiré is rich in history, not only for its fabulous architectural rendition of the Petit Trianon of Versailles, but most especially for its exquisite wines. Savennières is situated just southwest of Angers, on the north bank of the Loire River. Vines have been cultivated there since the time of the Romans. The Plantagenet dynasty allowed for the first exports of the wine to be sent to Great Britian in the 11th century. The domaine itself has been in the Bizard family continuously since the 17th century. The most recent owners and caretakers of the land are Monsieur and Madame Luc Bizard. They own eleven hectares, nine of which are entirely dedicated to the cultivation of Pineau de la Loire,...

Like the Sleeping Beauty of the Northern Rhône, the appellation Cornas is at last awaking from a long slumber. Though these were wines once celebrated by Charlemagne, they have been regarded as the red-headed stepchild of the Northern Rhône for the last hundred years. Hard, tannic wines from the large négociants have given the appellation a bad reputation, and the rough, crumbling terraces lining the banks on this patch of the river have crippled even the most robust vignerons. In the early twentieth century, many vineyards here had already fallen into disrepair. By the 1980s, a slow insurgency of passionate winemakers started to resuscitate the vineyards, with Thierry Allemand deep in the fray. Thierry was working at Domaine Robert Michel at the time. Young and eager, he was learning the...

Even after many successful years practicing his craft, fourth-generation vigneron Michel Chignard claims to be a novice. He is a modest man, kind and courteous, but in every aspect of his winemaking one clearly sees a passionate perfectionist. In 2007 Michel turned the management of the family domaine over to his son Cédric, who is carrying on this philosophy with great pride and has already managed to prove himself in his first few vintages. The Chignard family is also blessed with vineyards in one of the best sites of the Fleurie appellation, Les Moriers, an arrowhead-shaped parcel that juts right down into Moulin-à-Vent vines. Their eight hectares of vineyards are over sixty years old, keeping yields naturally low. These old-vine root systems also run very deep, accessing minerals from the...

Nearly forty years of doing business in France and Italy have given Kermit Lynch a level of expertise that few in the wine industry can boast. Countless hours with growers in some of the most famous vineyards and cellars of Europe have offered more than just a casual look at what it takes to be a great grower, let alone a great winemaker. Kermit Lynch was the first to champion the benefits of unfined and unfiltered wines, long before they had become fashionable. This belief is really a matter of taste, and the proof has always been in the glass, offering a purer expression of fruit and an unadulterated reflection of the terroir. Kermit’s conviction has been so strong over the years that he has been able to persuade...

In the hamlet of Le Breuil, deep in the southern Beaujolais and perched above a narrow creek, the Domaine Dupeuble has been running almost continuously since 1512. The name of the domaine has changed just three times in its history, most recently when the last heir, Anna Asmaquer, married Jules Dupeuble in 1919. Today their grandson Damien manages the domaine along with his wife, brothers, sons, and daughter. Kermit first met Damien for lunch in Paris in the late 1980s, and thus began the annual tradition of blending the KLWM Beaujolais Nouveau.

Tradition runs deep in the family, but each generation has also managed to add something new, including increasing the property. Today it is comprised of one hundred hectares, about forty percent of which is consecrated to...

It is no surprise that Château Thivin is the benchmark domaine of the Côte de Brouilly; everything about it is exceptional. Built in the fifteenth century on an ancient volcano which juts out steeply into the valley below, Thivin is the oldest estate on Mont Brouilly. Even more important, however, is its tremendous success since farmer Zaccharie Geoffray purchased the château with its two hectares of land at auction in 1877. His son Claude expanded the property over the next few decades, and his son, also named Claude, boosted the prestige of the zone in the face of the Great Depression when he played a pivotal role in the creation of the Côte de Brouilly appellation. With his wife Yvonne, he also helped to bring greater recognition to the entire...

To walk through the high-altitude vineyards at Domaine de Durban is to walk through an astounding span of history. On the site of a former Roman healing springs destination, a mere handful of soil reveals well-preserved, ancient Roman roof tiles and medieval pot shards. The domaine and its vineyards sit atop a picturesque plateau in the Vaucluse, sheltered by the Dentelles de Montmirail, just above of the village of Beaumes-de-Venise. The scenic views put one at pause considering the timelessness—wine has been a part of the culture here for millennia, and ancient philosopher Pliny the Elder was the first known to praise the Muscat from this place. During the Middle Ages, it was a fortified farm, where it has run regularly since 1159. Jacques Leydier bought the property in...

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...

Yves Leccia has a certain presence and noble bearing to him, much like his wines. In France they have often been referred to as the “Rolls-Royce” of Corsican wines, a reputation earned after nearly 30 years of making consistently elegant and sophisticated wines.

Raised in a small village in the heart of Patrimonio, Yves worked alongside his father in the vines and cellar at the earliest age he could. The Leccias have been making wine from some of the finest terroirs of Patrimonio for countless generations, and there was never the least doubt in Yves’ mind that he would continue the tradition. Originally working alongside his sister, he decided to branch off on his own in 2004 and focus on the single terroir he felt was the...

Vignobles Brunier embodies the ensemble of the holdings by the Brunier family, notably Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe, Domaine La Roquète, Domaine Les Pallières (along with Kermit), and Le Pigeoulet des Brunier. (Click on each domaine name for more specific information.) Vignobles Brunier came to be by brothers Frédéric and Daniel Brunier, the fourth generation of their family to farm the land of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The brothers have worked hard to solidify the legacy left by their father, Henri, and their grandfather, Hippolyte. They have brought their intricate knowledge of the various terroirs of the Southern Rhône to new heights through the expansion of the holdings. Their properties represent a vast variation of soil types,...

The Château Tour Bayard has only been in the family since 1956, but the Nicoletti-Richards have already demonstrated great skill in bringing out the best in the land. Current owners Fanny Nicoletti-Richard and Bruno Richard inherited the estate from Fanny’s parents, who purchased the domaine, but several generations of the family had already worked as vignerons at other estates in the region, so the Nicolettis were masters of their trade by the time they arrived at the château.

Unlike some of their fancier neighbors, these Right Bank vignerons get a little earth under their fingernails. The Richards also plant other crops in addition to their vines, but it is their Montagne St-Émilion that surprises us year after year with its firm, chewy tannins, plump fruit, and incredible...

Pierre Gonon farmed some of Mauve’s best slopes in the heart (some say the birthplace) of the St-Joseph appellation. In 1989, he turned direction of the property over to his sons, Jean and Pierre. This friendly, talented team of brothers has since earned a reputation as the domaine of St-Joseph. This appellation sits along the western bank of the Northern Rhône, with its neighbor, Hermitage, across the river. When it gained its A.O.C. in 1956, the area under vine was very small, centered around the town of St-Joseph and neighboring villages Mauves, Tournon, and St-Jean-de-Muzols. The eastern exposure in the vineyards allows for fewer hours of sunshine, lending an unusual freshness and joie de vivre to these Northern Rhône whites and reds.

In 1971, the appellation...

Domaine Les Pallières is undeniably one of the greatest, longest-running properties of the Southern Rhône—outside the village of Gigondas, woven into the foothills of the beautiful and brooding Dentelles de Montmirail. The domaine had been a continuously running farm within the same family since the fifteenth century! Les Pallières was once a famous domaine with wines of impeccable character, yet the property had slowly fallen into disrepair. Two great frosts of the twentieth century had killed off many of the olive and fruit trees, and both the winery and the vineyards were badly in need of repairs. By 1998, the Roux brothers wanted to make a change. With no future successors to take their place, they decided to sell.

The Brunier brothers, Daniel and Frédéric, of...

The late, great Maestro del Veneto, Giuseppe Quintarelli, succeeded in establishing his mythical and legendary estate during an amazing sixty-year career. All of the tradition, love, heart, and soul of crafting one of the world’s finest wines continue at the Quintarelli home and winery in the hills north of Verona. Giuseppe’s wife Franca, his daughter Fiorenza, his son-in-law Giampaolo, and his grandsons Francesco and Lorenzo are all keeping a close watch over the family’s legacy.

It is impossible to speak about Quintarelli without superlatives. The name itself stands for so much: the family, the wines, a style, a tradition, a way of doing things. After all the time, effort, patience, and care that go into the making of a bottle of Quintarelli, it truly does mean...

When Nicole Chanrion began her career in the 1970s, convention relegated women to the enology labs and kept them out of the cellars—even her mother thought winemaking was man’s work—but she would not be deterred from her dream of becoming a vigneronne. With six generations of family tradition preceding her, she grew up helping her father in both the vineyards and the cellar in the Côte-de-Brouilly, one of the southernmost crus of the northern Beaujolais. Though she is mild-mannered and slight of build, her determination and conviction have consistently defied all doubts. Ever since taking over the family domaine in 1988, she works all 6.5 hectares entirely by herself, from pruning the vineyards and driving the tractors to winemaking and bottling, all without bravado or fanfare. In 2000 she became...

The vineyards of Château de Lascaux have been in the family for thirteen generations. The name of the domaine, “Lascaux” comes from a limestone specific to the domaine’s vineyard sites. Jean-Benoît Cavalier took direction of the property in 1984, just after finishing a degree in Agricultural Engineering. In 1990, he consolidated the vineyards, restructured the ancient cellars, and created the official domaine, Château de Lascaux. Today, over twenty-five years later, the domaine has expanded from twenty-five to eighty-five hectares of vineyards, surrounded by three-hundred hectares of forest, filled with green oaks, pines, and garrigue. The quiet isolation of this part of the region, coupled with its proximity to both the sea and the mountains, makes this microclimate so unique. It is nestled along the foothills of the Cevennes, a...

In a tiny stone cellar in the mountain town of Monein, Claude Loustalot continues the tradition first started by his charming uncle, founder Georges Bru-Baché. Although the Bru-Baché-Loustalot clan has been making wine in the Pyrénées since the 1960s, it was not until 1973 that they first began to bottle under their own label. Like many smaller wine regions that were decimated by phylloxera from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth, Jurançon was one of the first to receive A.O.C. status, but has been very slow to recover its production. Since taking over the family domaine in 1994, Claude Loustalot has been bringing pride back to the Jurançon appellation and has taken steps to restore these specialized wines to their former glory.

Claude farms...

In 1900 a Frenchman named Pierre Tintero set out for Piedmont in search of work. He found an opportunity to do odd jobs at a small estate where widow Rosina Cortese was struggling to handle all the work herself. Pierre, called “Pietrin” by the locals, quickly became a vital part of the estate and also fell in love with the widow, whom he married two years later. The couple continued to work the vines together and bottled their own Dolcetto for the first time just as war fell in 1914. Years later their grandson would find a stash of this vintage hidden within the walls of the cellar, certainly a precaution against ransacking troops who passed through the area.

Pietrin and Rosina’s two sons, Giovanni and...

The seemingly reserved façade of Michèle Aubèry-Laurent melts away quickly when she speaks about her wines. As a former nurse (who often favored natural remedies), she has come to treat her vines with the same care, conviction, and passion as she had for her former patients. She and her husband, Philippe, bottled their first vintage of Domaine Gramenon in 1990, in the far northern-eastern stretches of the southern Rhône, in the town of Montbrison-sur-Lez. Philippe was a talented vigneron—both creative and edgy—and he loved to push the envelope of the regulations imposed by the I.N.A.O. In 1999, in an unexpected twist of fate, he was killed in a tragic accident. Michèle was suddenly left on her own with their three children, vineyards, and a winery to deal with. Crushed...

Anne-Marie and Jean-Marc Vincent inherited most of their vines, principally located in and around the village of Santenay in the southern Côte de Beaune, from Jean-Marc’s grandfather, André Bardollet-Bravard. They produce three premier cru reds and two premier cru whites from Santenay, in addition to a red and a white Auxey-Duresses. The Vincent wines are characterized by rich, layered fruit, intense expression of individual terroir, and solid structure.

Their Auxey-Duresses Blanc “Les Hautés,” which thankfully happens to be their highest production wine (that is, more than two barrels produced), is a gem and a role model for other producers of the appellation. This is the wine that first attracted Kermit to the domaine. “I had rarely had an Auxey-Duresses that excited my taste buds,” he said, “I...

Still waters run deep with Franck Follin-Arbelet. He may seem quiet and unassuming, but the intensity of his wines speaks louder than words. Having grown up in Burgundy’s famous Côte d’Or, he was always attracted to viticulture, but his family’s vines were all rented out to métayeurs (share croppers), and they did not make their own wine. Instead, he gravitated towards Geology, a field that gave him an expertise in soil. His wife, Christine, comes from the famous Latour family, and her father, André Masson (once the régisseur at the Hospices de Beaune), had his own vines. In 1990, when the opportunity came to join André’s domaine in Aloxe-Corton, Franck jumped at the chance, giving up one noble career in terroir to take on another. In 1993, André retired...

The feisty, vivacious Marine Roussel took her time finding her place in the family domaine. Her father, Pierre, was an agronomist and started Domaine du Joncier in 1964. However, as a young graphic artist, Marine was seeking adventure beyond her small, sleepy town in the Southern Rhône. After living in both Marseille and Paris, Marine eventually felt a strong pull to return home. She joined the domaine in 1989, and has since taken on her new vocation with the zeal that only a true artist could possess. Marine aims to achieve balance, purity, and minerality in her wines—a noble, if not challenging, goal given the sunbaked terroirs she farms. On the right bank of the Southern Rhône, Lirac shares many similarities to both neighboring crus Tavel and Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Her...

Luisa and Marino Colleoni’s native village of Bergamo is famous for its proud ramparts and medieval palaces, but to them it just couldn’t compare to the legendary natural beauty of Tuscany. The couple purchased an old property outside Montalcino known to the locals as Le Sante Marie and moved there in 1993. The following year during an evening walk in the glow of the setting sun, they spotted a bunch of grapes peeking out through the uppermost leaves of an old tree. The undergrowth was so thick that they couldn’t get to the vine, but their interest was piqued, and the next summer they got to work clearing away the scrub. When they finally finished, a neatly planted vineyard lay before them. Though many of the neglected vines had dried...

Régis Bouvier in Marsannay achieves a rare hat trick in Burgundy, the mastering of all three colors–red, white and rosé, through reasonable yields and high quality terroirs. Bouvier makes the best Burgundian rosé that we have ever tasted, his whites are delicious, with their own particular character completely unlike other Chardonnays from Burgundy, and his reds are his crowning achievement, managing to be wild and exciting while refined and elegant at the same time.

Bouvier’s vineyards in Marsannay are premier-cru quality (some may even get classified) and his lieu-dit Bourgogne Rouge En Montre Cul vineyard is of a quality well above most (cultivated on a steep slope, not flatland Bourgogne). And don’t miss his Morey-St-Denis En la Rue de Vergy, a superb vineyard right above the Grand Cru...

Pascal Janvier never planned on becoming a vigneron. Though his parents had vineyard land of their own, they did not make their own wine. Instead, he went to school to learn butchery. However, Pascal made a sudden about-face at the age of thirty and decided to study winegrowing in Amboise. His serious and soft-spoken demeanor reflects a man prone to quiet contemplation and great deliberation. His decision was anything but a whim. Starting slowly, he has mastered his craft with a focus and passion that is contributing towards the revival of the small appellation of Jasnières, in the department of the Sarthe in the Val du Loir. The Loir is a tributary of the Loire River, and its viticultural area is the most northerly (and coldest) of the greater...

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...

Bernard Baudry is unquestionably one of Chinon’s most outstanding producers. Not only does he have the talent to make delicious and consistent wines, vintage to vintage, but he is also fortunate enough to have vineyard land that showcases many of the varied soil types of the appellation. After completing his studies at the viticultural school in Beaune, Bernard returned to the Loire Valley to consult in Tours. By 1975, he had purchased his first two hectares of land in Cravant-les-Coteaux, a village from which almost half of the production of A.O.C. Chinon is sourced. Over the years, the domaine has grown to twenty-five hectares. Bernard’s son, Mathieu, joined the family domaine in 2000 after studying winemaking in the Mâconnais and Bordeaux, with internships both in Tasmania and California!

...

With a sharp eye, natural instinct, and solid, Burgundian pragmatism, Roland Lavantureux is making no-nonsense Chablis that has come to be one of the most reliable of the old reliables here at Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant. He farms nineteen hectares of Chardonnay vines in Lignorelles, about four miles northwest of Chablis. Upon his completion of wine school in Beaune, Roland founded the domaine in 1978. Today, he is joined by his two sons, one who works with him in the vineyards and cellar, while the other takes the lead in marketing and sales. In addition to making a stunning Chablis, the Lavantureux family also bottles a mouth-watering Petit Chablis, which, depending on the vintage, can easily rival their more highly pedigreed bottling—only proving the unwavering consistency of the Lavantureux family...

The small family domaine in France that works traditionally using techniques and savoir faire passed down across multiple generations is under serious threat today. Consolidation, technology, regulation, foreign investment, globalization, and many other factors (all in the name of progress), threaten the great agricultural tradition of winegrowing in France, arguably the world’s greatest winegrowing culture. Few domaines in France embody this way of life more ably and proudly than Domaine Albert Boxler in Niedermorschwihr. Jean Boxler, many generations removed from his ancestor of the same name that moved here from Switzerland in 1673, currently rules the roost at this humble yet incredibly exciting domaine. Intense and serious about his land, his craft, and his wine, Jean is the genius behind what are certainly some of the finest white wines in...

Jean-Paul Thévenet is the third generation to produce wine at his family estate in Morgon, but as a young man he took the domaine in an unexpected direction. In the early 1980s Beaujolais was flooded with mass-produced, over-commercialized wine, pushing winemaker and viticultural prophet Jules Chauvet to invoke a return to more traditional practices. Jean-Paul and three other local vignerons, Marcel Lapierre, Guy Breton, and Jean Foillard, soon took up the torch of this “natural wine” movement. Kermit dubbed this clan the Gang of Four, and the name has stuck ever since. These rebels called for a return to the old practices of viticulture and vinification: starting with old vines, never using synthetic herbicides or pesticides, harvesting late, rigorously sorting to remove all but the healthiest grapes, adding minimal doses...

The death of Guy Roulot in 1982 took many by surprise. This legendary producer of some of the finest Meursaults, if not some of the world’s finest white wines, had taken his family’s small production domaine to stardom. Guy’s marriage to Geneviève Coche and his own hard work added more prime parcels to the family’s holdings, which he vinified and bottled separately – a novelty for a domaine which had been distilling, rather than vinifying, their grapes just a generation before. As a result, Domaine Roulot has become the master of the lieu-dit, not to mention the five premier cru parcels they farm in Meursault and Monthelie. Guy’s sudden death left the family in transition, as his son, Jean-Marc was in Paris pursuing a career in acting. A series...

As the nephew of the great Georges Deléger, Michel Colin inherited part of the Chevenottes vineyard, combining it with holdings from the Colin family’s domaine. Today, he is semi-retired. He cannot let go completely, thank goodness. He still farms a few, small parcels, three in fact: Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru En Remilly, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Demoiselles, and Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru. Though the quantities that we are able to buy of each every year are miniscule, it is always a pleasure to continue to be able to taste wines from a mature master vintner with some of Chardonnay’s greatest terroirs. All three vineyards are within a stone’s throw of one another, with En Remilly just around the corner on the south side of Chevalier-Montrachet and Puligny Les Demoiselles on the northern...

The Domaine Costal Chablis “Truffières” is a unique KLWM collaboration that stems from our long relationship with Bernard Raveneau. In addition to his busy full-time job at his namesake domaine, Bernard manages to find the time to take on a few consulting projects in and around Chablis. One of these projects was helping us purchase a cuve of great Chablis from Domaine Costal, the second label of the well-known Domaine Jean Collet, a family domaine since 1792. The project began with a simple barrel tasting with Kermit and Bernard and led to the creation of a custom label, a new cuvée, and a custom vinification and bottling process driven by Bernard. The end result was a great new terroir-driven white Burgundy for our customers.

The Chablis comes from...

The bright and talented Alain Gallety began making wine in the Côtes du Vivarais alongside his father. Together, they had a vision. They built a state-of-the-art winery, constructed right into the hillside below their high-altitude vineyards. Today, Alain’s son, David-Alexandre, works with him. Quietly and diligently, they imagine one day making one of the greatest cuvées of the Southern Rhône. One wouldn’t initially think such a goal is easy to achieve in a little known area as the Vivarais. The Côtes run down the western flank of the Rhône, just south of Montélimar in the Ardèche. Although these hills mirror those of the Côtes-du-Rhône on the opposite bank of the river, the Côtes du Vivarais was only recently awarded A.O.C. in 1999. Over a decade later, the region is...

In the world of wine, there are many good winegrowers. However, there are only a very select few who are truly great, and Auguste Clape is among them. Critics and connoisseurs alike all agree that he is one of the greatest pioneers of the Northern Rhône, and his Syrahs from the cru of Cornas are among the most celebrated wines of France. The Clapes have been vignerons for many generations, but the infamous grower strikes of 1906 and 1907 forced his grandfather out of the Languedoc and into the Northern Rhône to start anew from practically nothing. The Clapes rebuilt their fortunes, terrace-by-terrace, along the steep, western slopes of the Rhône River. For many years, the majority of growers in Cornas sold their fruit to négociants. Auguste was the...

In September 1986, René Laugier wanted to retire but had no successors to take over La Roquette (as it was then known), his domaine in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. When Daniel and Frédéric Brunier bought the domaine, it was a logical choice. The Brunier brothers had been proving their worth as rising young stars of the appellation. The Bruniers had a long history of working tough soils—they farm the La Crau plateau, which boasts some of the most challenging vineyard terrain and most pedigreed soils of Châteauneuf. ( Click here for the family’s history.) Daniel and Frédéric farm twenty-nine hectares of vineyards at La Roquète, each parcel with its own distinct identity.

At Châteauneuf, for many the greatest appellation of the Southern Rhône, vineyard specificity plays...

Cyriaque Rozier, the highly acclaimed winemaker and vineyard manager at Château La Roque, makes his own wine under the label Château Fontanès in Pic St-Loup in the Languedoc. A charming man with a strong sense of vocation and relentless drive, Cyriaque often works sixteen-hour days between the two domaines. He first started his domaine in 2003, and undertook the ultimate labor of love in the Languedoc—planting a vineyard. For many years, this plot of land was best known for olive trees, until the great frost of 1956 decimated groves by the hundreds. The land is hard as a rock, quite literally, and composed primarily of limestone and clay. To plant a vineyard here is a game of patience and incredibly hard work. Over the last few years, Cyriaque has...

Near the remote village of Tarabucetta, outside of Figari on the southern tip of Corsica, Yves Canarelli has made quite an impact not only in Corsica, but on mainland France as well. Now it is our turn. As a former student of economics who turned to enology, Yves strikes a fascinating balance between thoughtful intellectual and ardent traditionalist. Since taking over the family domaine in 1993, he has championed the restoration of native Corsican varietals. The appellation Corse Figari lies along a plateau just inland from the coast, where grapes have been farmed since the 5th century B.C. Though Figari is regarded as the most ancient growing region of Corsica, it has still taken pioneers like Yves having the courage to rip out entire vineyards of foreign varietals before Corsican...

The wines of Chinon have long been celebrated. French humanist and native son, François Rabelais, sang their praises as far back as the sixteenth century. However, the distinction with which the appellation is regarded today is due in part to the legacy left by a more contemporary icon: Charles Joguet. This young painter and sculptor abandoned a budding art career to assume direction of the family domaine in 1957. He soon began to question the common practice of selling grapes to negociants, as his own family had done for years.

The Joguets owned prime vineyard land in between the Loire and Vienne Rivers, with some of their finest found on the left bank of the Vienne, just outside Chinon, in Sazilly. These very lieux-dits had been...

When André Perret was growing up in Chavanay, in the northern Rhône Valley, most of the land there was planted to orchards, including the bulk of the family’s own small estate. Their roots were in Burgundy, though, where André’s forefathers owned and worked vineyards in Chassagne-Montrachet until World War II forced them to relocate. As a young man André studied biology and took a job as a cancer researcher, but he felt cooped up in the laboratory and dreamt of a life outdoors. In 1982, after completing a degree in viticulture and enology, he returned to his hometown and started out with a few small rows of vines that had belonged to his uncle. At that time there were just two other vignerons in Chavanay and the region was in...

In the heart of the Pomerol plateau, on the Right Bank of Bordeaux, the vineyards of Château Gombaude-Guillot have been a family property for so long that the current generation doesn’t even know when they were first acquired. The Bélevier family was already well established as vignerons in Pomerol and Néac when this property was passed down to Marie Bélevier as a dowry in 1868. The “château” itself, which was originally a café where the locals would gather for a drink after church services, was added to the property in 1922. Today, Claire Laval, Marie’s great-granddaughter, runs the estate. Claire started her career as an agronomist, specializing in soils best suited for cattle, and had no formal training in viticulture. It is through viticulture, though, that she has refined her...

Reviews and notes on Guido Porro regularly refer to him as “under the radar”: the wines he makes are worthy of a stellar reputation, but he is too easygoing and unassuming to worry about whether the general wine-drinking public recognizes his name. He rarely bothers to send samples to wine writers. Guido is the fourth generation at an estate that has always been passed from father to son, and although fifth-generation Fabio hasn’t reached middle school, he is already showing a keen curiosity in the family business. The Porros continue to work just as their predecessors did—the only major change over the last few decades has been the decision to bottle at the estate instead of selling the wine in demijohns or barrels—and they like to keep things simple...

The countryside known as the Diois is located in the Drôme Valley around Die (pronounced “Dee”), east of the Rhône in between Valence and Montélimar. It is also the home of the appellation Clairette de Die, derived from its former name, Dea Augusta, during the Roman Empire. The great historian Pliny the Elder was the first to record the greatness of the Clairette and Muscat here, celebrating a pétillance and freshness widely believed to predate those of Champagne. Among the most well-known of Clairette de Die’s producers today is the tiny Domaine Achard-Vincent. Jean-Pierre Achard, and his son, Thomas, descend from five generations of growers. The domaine has farmed organically since Thomas’s grandparents were directing it, although it is now officially certified as both organic (since 1982) and biodynamic...

A few decades ago, in a small, local vigneron hangout in the Beaujolais, Kermit and Henri Perrusset met rather serendipitously. There weren’t enough tables in the restaurant and the hostess seated Kermit with Henri, who was just finishing up his meal. Their conversation blossomed, and Henri invited Kermit to visit and taste his first vintage. We have been buying these delicious, distinctive Chardonnays ever since. For decades, the Mâconnais has been dominated by the banal bottlings of cooperative cellars; not the sort of quality that leads novices to explore the wines of the region. But at the same time, Henri Perrusset has been working his vineyards by hand, reducing his yields to improve grape quality, all while offering us very reasonable prices.

Henri Perrusset’s vineyards and...

Alto Adige—or Südtirol, as it is also known—does not seem Italian. The street names are primarily German, you are more likely to come across sausage and sauerkraut on a menu than tomatoes and basil, and your phone calls are more likely to be answered by an assertive “Hallo?” than a melodic “Pronto!” It is here in Bressanone (a.k.a. Brixen), less than twenty miles south of the Austrian border, that Manni Nössing runs his small winery amid the towering peaks of the Dolomites. Manni’s vineyards benefit from the mountain climate and steep slopes of glacial deposit that make up the Valle Isarco, the narrow valley to the northeast of Bolzano that is known for its fresh, aromatic whites.

Descended from a family of farmers, Manni has no...

In the village of Saint-Père, along a little creek to the southeast of Vézelay in Burgundy, a quiet, peaceful revolution is taking place. This part of Burgundy has been producing wines for centuries, although as much as half of the entire appellation’s production is being sold off to the local cave cooperative. In 1987, Jean and Catherine Montanet, with the help of friends and family, created Domaine de la Cadette. Cadette, or the youngest child, is a nod to Catherine, whose family’s vineyards contribute to the domaine’s production. It took them ten years to clear land and replant vineyards. By 1997, the I.N.A.O. (Institut National des Appellations d’Origines) had awarded Vézelay its own A.O.C; a timely decision that lends more credibility to the noble work of the Montanets. Jean and...

When tasting the wines of Denis Jamain, it is clear that the appellation of Reuilly, in the eastern Loire, is experiencing a renaissance, moving far beyond its former status as the “poor man’s Sancerre.” This land was once a source of great pride, having been part of a gift of the 7th century king, Dagobert, to the Royal Abbey of Saint Denis. Phylloxera had ravaged the majority of the vineyards here in the late 19th century, but Camille Rousseau (Denis’ maternal grandfather) had faith in the future of Reuilly. In 1935, he planted his first vines here, in addition to farming a large oak forest on the outskirts of town. Denis shares his grandfather’s passion for the vineyards and the forest, as well as his hometown pride. Though he...

The Savoie is a picture of fairy-tale perfection: snow-capped peaks, green rolling hills, wildflowers, and cold, sparkling mountain streams. This idyllic region hugs the western Alps, where Michel Quenard farms twenty-two hectares of vineyards along the steep, terraced slopes of the Coteau de Torméry around Chignin. The limestone scree that dominates this vineyard land has brought great diversity to the soils, and consequently, the wines. His grandfather started the domaine in the 1930s. Though he slowly increased the vineyard holdings, he also sold off most of his wine in bulk. It was not until 1960 that Michel’s father, André, began bottling under their own label. Michel joined the domaine in 1976. Today, his son, Guillaume, joins him, fresh out of wine school in Switzerland. While they are far from the...

Michel Colin was the third generation in his family to grow grapes in Burgundy within the prestigious Côte de Beaune. When he retired in 2003, he handed the property over to his sons, Philippe and Bruno, who split the holdings between them to bottle under separate labels. With the help of his wife, Stéphanie, Bruno farms eight hectares of land, in thirty different parcels scattered over five communes, with sometimes as little as just a few rows per parcel. To farm under these circumstances is quintessentially Burgundian, where the old Napoleonic codes of inheritance (evolved from Roman law) divide property equally among offspring. Parcels farmed by any one family continue to get smaller and smaller as they are distributed among relatives.

He bottles Chassagne-Montrachet, Puligny-Montrachet, Saint-Aubin, Santenay,...

François Jobard was one of the first vignerons Kermit imported when he began prospecting for wines in France in the 1970s. The relationship has endured into the next generation, and François’ son Antoine now runs the domaine. This is as classy and as consistent a property as you’ll find in Burgundy, and theirs are generally counted among the best Meursaults. Other respected vignerons like Coche and Raveneau hold these wines in the highest esteem and are generous with their praise when Jobard comes up in conversation.

Among the highlights from the domaine is Jobard’s stunning Bourgogne Blanc, which is routinely one of the best to carry that appellation. Their Meursault En la Barre is an outstanding value from an assiduously tended vineyard plot located just behind their home, and their...

Guillaume Demoulin is the fourth generation of his family to farm the beautiful vineyards of Château de Trinquevedel. His great-grandfather, Eugène, bought the eighteenth-century château in 1936—an opportune decision that coincided with the establishment of Tavel’s A.O.C that same year. However timely, the vineyards were in terrible disrepair, and Eugène had an enormous task ahead. By 1960, the grapes were finally producing wine worthy of the Demoulin’s own bottlings, and the château had at last been restored to its former glory. Louis XIV was among the first to sing the praises of Tavel’s delicious and memorable rosés, which only stands to reason given the appellation’s grand cru reputation today. Tavel is the only A.O.C. entirely made up of rosé, which prohibits any whites or reds from wearing the label...

Along the steep, narrow valley that traces the northern Rhône, the appellations of Côte-Rôtie, Condrieu and Saint-Joseph take their place among the great wines of France, and Domaine Faury is one of the region’s most artisanal producers. When Philippe Faury took over the domaine in 1979, the family was selling wine, peaches and cherries, and the bulk of their clientele was local. Over the years, Philippe expanded their holdings to over eleven hectares, and expanded sales to an international client base. In addition, he has shared his savoir faire with his son, Lionel. Since 2006, Lionel has taken over the reins at Domaine Faury, though father and son still work side by side.

The steep slopes of the northern Rhône present a challenging terrain where farming is...

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...

Documents show that the Piccoli family has owned vineyards in the Veneto since the year 1600. Many generations tended the vines, but after phylloxera hit, the ravaged family estate couldn’t support all five brothers, and one of them left to become a fruit grower. Two generations later Gianni Piccoli grew up surrounded by orchards, but he had wine in his blood so when an estate with extensive vineyards came up for sale in 1971 he jumped at the opportunity. For several years the grapes of Corte Gardoni were sold to local cooperatives, but Gianni felt that their wines lacked the soul and individual attention necessary to produce an honest, natural product. In 1980 he definitively broke those ties and for the first time crafted his own wine, focusing on...

Jean-Pierre Monier is as happy and as grateful a vigneron as one finds. His small production wines certainly have not made him wealthy (far from it), but his effortless calm, natural sensitivity, and quiet conviction give him an enviable air of simplicity. He is the third generation of his family to be farming in Brunieux, a lieu-dit in the hills above the village of St-Désirat in the Northern Rhône appellation of Saint Joseph. Like his forefathers, wine is only part of his farm’s overall production. Apricot orchards complement the vineyards, and everything is farmed biodynamically. Between 1977-2001, Jean-Pierre sold his fruit to the local cave cooperative in St-Désirat, but the noticeable quality his vines were producing was enough to encourage him to bottle wines under his own label. Heavily...

Of all of the domaines we represent, no other serves more as our cornerstone, stands more in the defense of terroir, and is more intricately interwoven with our own history, than that of the iconic Peyraud family of Domaine Tempier. The pages that Kermit has written about them alone rival those of his dear friend, Richard Olney, who wrote the definitive history of the domaine and was the first to introduce Kermit to the family in 1976. Their story might be considered mythic if it were not true.

When Lucie “Lulu” Tempier married Lucien Peyraud in 1936, her father gave them Domaine Tempier, an active farm that had been in the family since 1834, near Le Plan du Castellet, just outside the Mediterranean seaport village of...

The green, rolling landscape of the Jura is a sight to behold, and the perfect picture of how a mountainous region nestled in between Burgundy and Switzerland should appear in the mind’s eye. In this cooler climate, vineyards are planted on slopes at varying altitudes and gradients. This region is home to forty different grape varietals with styles so different that they tend to shock the uninitiated. And at the heart of it all, in the charming hamlet of La Combe (just south of Lons-le-Saulnier), Jean-François Ganevat is making wine with the inspired magic of an alchemist. Known as “Fanfan” to his friends, Jean-François’ wines have occupied the better part of the hamlet, filling picturesque country cottages with barrels and barrels of his diverse yet traditional wines. He comes...

Les Vignes Oubliées is hard to categorize: though the quality and quantity produced suggest an exacting family estate, it is in fact a sort of boutique cooperative—a self-proclaimed “collective of small farmers.” Clustered around the tiny village of Saint Privat, less than an hour northwest of Montpellier, the terraced vineyards sit at 350 meters altitude, placing them among the region’s highest. Winemaker Jean-Baptiste Granier works closely year-round with the four vignerons who entrust their fruit to him, ensuring that both sides maintain their stringent standards.

Having grown up in a family of vignerons, Jean-Baptiste was exposed to wine early on and quickly picked up his father and grandfather’s passion for their profession. They stressed to him the importance of listening to Nature, and the young...

Several years ago, Kermit’s children were attending grammar school in Provence during the months he worked tasting and selecting wines in France. One day when he picked them up after classes, a charming lady walked up and asked if he would drop by one day to taste her Bandol. Little did they know that it would be the perfect fit. Domaine de la Tour du Bon rests peacefully atop a limestone plateau in Le Brûlat du Castellet, in the northwestern corner of the A.O.C. Bandol. Nestled beneath the mountains to the North, it is a bastion of tranquility, an oasis on the Mediterranean surrounded by beautiful gardens and vineyards with emblematic names like La Rémoise (The Dweller), Saint Ferréol (a local saint), Ensoleillade (Place Bathed in Sunshine), Clos des...

When Piero Palmucci decided to found his own Brunello estate, he reached for the stars: before choosing a property he spent several years researching the soil types and microclimates best suited to Sangiovese Grosso, and asking experts and locals which parcels were the best. His search led him unequivocally to Poggio di Sotto, just outside the town of Castelnuovo dell’Abate in the southern part of Montalcino, where he established his estate in 1989. At the same time he began a collaboration with the University of Milan to select the finest Sangiovese clones and optimize the vineyards, from planting density to pruning and sorting during the harvest. Dedicating the entire estate to this single variety, he treated his vines to meticulous organic care and over the years built a reputation...

Guy Breton is known by his friends as Petit Max – though he is anything but petit, by the way. He took over the family domaine from his grandfather in 1986. Until that point, the family was selling their fruit to the large cooperative wineries which dominated the region and were gravitating towards a uniform style. The rise of imported yeast cultures to impart flavor and aroma, the use of high-tech carbonic maceration, and the widespread commercialization of Beaujolais Nouveau debased the region’s reputation, and Beaujolais came to be seen as one-dimensional, lacking any expression of the native terroir. Following the example of traditionalist Jules Chauvet, Guy and three other local vignerons, Marcel Lapierre, Jean-Paul Thévenet, and Jean Foillard, soon hoisted the flag of this back-to-nature movement. Kermit dubbed this...

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and at Montanet-Thoden that’s very good news! Valentin Montanet is the son of Jean Montanet of Domaine de la Cadette, a long-time staple of the Kermit Lynch portfolio, so as a child he watched his father work the vines. Then in 2000 his mother, Catherine, and associate Tom Thoden started Domaine Montanet-Thoden, with vineyards inherited from Catherine's family. Valentin felt the call of the family trade but wanted to gain a broader perspective, so after finishing high school he immediately sought a position in a winery outside Burgundy. After spending a year working in a Swiss winery he was admitted to the prestigious engineering school in Changins, where he took particular interest in the problem of compacted soils and had several articles...

It took Olivier Varichon and Emmanuelle Vinci years of dabbling in various careers before finally settling down and establishing their domaine in Estagel, in the heart of the Roussillon. Olivier had previously studied enology and owned a wine shop while Emmanuelle worked as a biologist, but ultimately their dream of making their own wine prevailed and they began searching throughout France for desirable vineyards to purchase. They fell in love with the wild, rugged landscape of the Agly Valley, and in 2001 Domaine Vinci was born. Olivier and Emmanuelle now organically farm six hectares of vineyards, with parcels so isolated that they need not worry about chemical products from neighbors’ vineyards contaminating the rocky soils their vines call home. These stunning sites, nestled at high altitudes amid scraggly garrigue and...

Alain Pascal could be a character pulled right out of a Marcel Pagnol novel—a kind of Provençal Hercules. Like his father, Honoré, for whom the domaine is named, Alain is a strong, husky man with hands the size of bear claws. That he is a former boxer and an avid hunter should be no surprise, yet his physique matches both his spirit and his wine—this gentle giant and his cuvées are all heart. Of the many stories recorded in Kermit’s Inspiring Thirst, those of Alain are among the most entertaining. For years he sold his prized fruit from Bandol to Domaine Ott and Château de Pibarnon. Though he and his father would bottle their own wine for family consumption, they never labeled it under their own domaine name. Kermit...

After founding the domaine in 1993, which he named after his grandfather, Didier Barral decided fairly quickly that biodynamic practices were the best choice for farming his vineyards. Deep in the heart of the Languedoc, in the Faugères appellation just outside the hamlet of Lenthéric, Domaine Léon Barral is a beacon of revolutionary winegrowing. Didier farms thirty hectares of vineyards, and this is no small feat. Incorporating biodynamic practices into a vineyard means working the soil rigorously, and with so much land to farm, it is fortunate that he has so much help. His workers of choice? A team of twenty cows, horses, and pigs that graze the cover crops in and around the vineyards. The simple act of grazing cultivates healthy microbiotic activity in the soil, bringing mushrooms, ants,...

High in the foothills of Monte Grossu mountain, inland from Calvi, lies the granite plateau of Reginu, an area long known for U Vinu di E Prove – the wine of the Prove, as the micro-climate is known. The particularity of the plateau is the exposition to hot and dry daytime temperatures with high altitude cool nights, all within a short distance from the sea and regular maritime winds. The plateau has been continuously used for vine and olive growing for centuries, and was once the site of a major olive pressing operation that supplied a large part of France with its olive oil. In 1945, when the owner of the olive oil mill packed up and moved his operation to colonial Algeria is search of bigger land and greater...

One of the newest additions to our portfolio is Kermit’s first Sicilian producer: the Riofavara estate, which is on the southern tip of this legendary island. The Padova family has tended vines here for almost a century, but only in 1993 did they begin bottling their own wine. Just a few years later, Massimo Padova took over the estate along with his sister Marianta, their cousin Antonella, and Massimo’s wife, Margherita. This energetic young team has worked tirelessly over the last dozen years to build a new winery and hone production techniques, resulting in an impeccable expression of the land they prize so highly.

The philosophy at Riofavara revolves around two central concepts: Sicilian typicity and the environment. Before rejoining his father at the estate, Massimo...

Christophe Buisson is a young, passionate vigneron with all the skills for success. From his home base in Saint-Romain, the little known and thus underappreciated (and undervalued) appellation in the hills behind Meursault, Christophe has been honing his craft for the last decade. The appellation of Saint-Romain is ampitheatre-like, with the best sites located on stony slopes beneath a striking outcropping of limestone cliffs. You access the village after traversing Auxey-Duresses on the way to the Hautes Côtes de Beaune. Christophe owns land in some of the best sites in Saint-Romain, Sous le Château and La Perrière, sites that would likely be premier cru in a village such as Chassagne-Montrachet.

Christophe’s beliefs, meticulous work in the vineyards, fermentation in cement cuves, élevage in medium age barrels, minimal...

Cap Corse, a largely isolated and thinly populated peninsula at the top of Corsica, sits like a finger pointing up at Genova, its former colonial ruler. The Genovese landed on the Cap in the 14th century and from there soon conquered the entire island. On the Cap, they left an indelible mark on the land, building towers on the cliffs overlooking the sea to watch for other invaders. One Genovese in particular, Monsignor Doria, from one of the most illustrious families of the Genovese Empire, landed in the Cap and settled in a cove not far from the sea, creating an estate he came to call his “Gioielli” or his “Crown Jewel” in the dialect of the time. A villa was built in the middle of the hills which form...

Bénédicte and Grégoire Hubau do not come from winemaking families, nor did they pursue studies in enology or viticulture. Both natives of northern France, Bénédicte was a computer specialist and Grégoire a chemist. Without much ado, they decided one day to leave it all behind and start a new life as vignerons. After visiting an endless line of available properties in various regions of France, they finally came across Château Moulin Pey-Labrie, an estate in Fronsac that met their requirement for a terroir de caractère. Unconcerned by their ignorance in the field of winegrowing but reassured by their experience as avid consumers, they purchased the property and dove head-first into their new adventure, counting on their employees to teach them as they worked. The young couple’s eagerness to learn earned...

Little would we know that when Marcel Lapierre took over the family domaine from his father in 1973, he was on the road to becoming a legend. In 1981, his path would be forever changed by Jules Chauvet, a man whom many now call his spiritual godfather. Chauvet was a winemaker, a researcher, a chemist, and a viticultural prophet. It was he who, upon the advent of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the 1950s, first spoke out for “natural wine,” harkening back to the traditional methods of the Beaujolais. Joined by local vignerons Guy Breton, Jean-Paul Thévenet, and Jean Foillard, Marcel spearheaded a group that soon took up the torch of this movement. Kermit dubbed this clan the Gang of Four, and the name has stuck ever since. These rebels...

Maurizio Fiorano grew up outside Turin and moved to Milan for his studies, but his life took an unexpected turn when he married and moved with his wife to her hometown of Saint Pierre in the Valle d’Aosta. Fiorano continued his work as a surveyor, but his long commute became burdensome when the two of them started a family. By the time their second child came along, Maurizio had had enough and left his old job for good. He didn’t have any definite plans and he knew that his wife’s business of running a small inn was not for him. But she had inherited vineyards from her family, so why not make wine to serve in her restaurant? The idea suited him perfectly, and he went to work in the...

Three generations of Fadats have farmed the large, eighteen-hectare lieu-dit known as Aupilhac, in the village of Montpeyroux, across the river Hérault from Daumas Gassac and Grange des Pères. While the Fadats have farmed this land since the nineteenth century, and the vineyards date even farther back to the time of the Romans, it was not until 1989 that the current member of the Fadat family, Sylvain, finally registered the domaine as a vigneron indépendant. Aupilhac is a special parcel for many reasons. It sits at a high altitude, nestled below the ruins of the village’s château, at almost 1200 feet above sea level on terraced land with southwest sun exposure. The soils are rich in prehistoric oyster fossils, which lend an incredible length and minerality to the wines....

The vibrant little seaport town of Collioure is nestled on the Mediterranean coast, just north of the Spanish border, in the area known as French Catalonia. In 1981, Vincent Cantié and Christine Campadieu took over two small, family-owned domaines where they had grown up, in Collioure and Banyuls, respectively. Together, they farm vineyards planted on steep, schist terraces overlooking the sea, where they are constantly exposed to the fierce and wily wind known as “La Tramontagne.” This constant wind not only ensures naturally low yields, but also keeps the grapes free of mildew with little need for pesticides or copper sulfate. Their vineyards are so steep that cultivation must be by hand, and extensive irrigation canals and walls (all made from the schist rock) are their only prevention against soil...

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...

The good-natured proprietor of the Château de Bellevue, André Chatenoud, seems more at home in his cellars than anywhere else. Though he and his family have owned the property since 1971, the history of the château dates back to at least the 18th Century. One needs only to explore the incredible limestone caves and see the rich range of old graffiti engravings to be impressed: from harvest workers of the 1700s to American G.I.’s of the 1940s, so many of its visitors have been eager to mark their place in time through the walls of this small yet refined estate. Like other châteaux of the region, the winery is adorned with the elegant architecture of the era - the “chartreuse bordelaise.” This typical 18th century edifice is built in a...

Daniel Chotard and his wife, Brigitte, live just outside Sancerre in the village of Reigny. The Chotard family has been making wine for well over two hundred years, though Daniel was initially reluctant to accept the family vocation and started as a teacher. Daniel is a bit of a Renaissance man. His enthusiasm and passion for learning extends beyond wine and into music; he is a gifted guitarist and accordion player. A simple visit to his website illustrates the symmetry between his music and his wines. Sauvignon Blanc is more than a grape varietal; it is a tempo as well. He organizes lively music and wine soirées that showcase wine as an equally compelling art form to jazz. He has also invited Kermit to bring his rootsy band to...

Bugey is one of the best-kept secrets of France. As a geographical crossroads between the Savoie, the Jura, Burgundy, and the Rhône, it is one of the few regions where one can see both palm trees and snow within eyeshot. It is adjacent to the Savoie on its western side, located in between Lyon, Grenoble, and Geneva. The wines of Bugey were first cultivated here by the Romans and were later resuscitated by the medieval monks. Still, the region had to wait until 2009 before receiving its own A.O.C. status. Today, Cerdon is considered one of three crus within the appellation of Bugey, and the only one whose entire production consists of sparkling wine.

In La Cueille, one of seven high-altitude hamlets surrounding the historic medieval...

Hippolyte Reverdy’s family has been making wine in the charming village of Verdigny, a commune of Sancerre in the eastern Loire, for many generations—perhaps as far back as 1600. Traditional in nature, the farm was planted to multiple crops, and the Reverdys raised goats and made small quantities of wine from their own vines for local consumption. It was not until the end of World War II that Hippolyte began increasing his Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir production, selling it to accommodate increasing demands from Paris. Hippolyte and his three sons began bottling small quantities under their own label, although the lion’s share of the grapes was still being sold off to the local cave coopérative. Michel joined his father and brothers in 1971, shortly after finishing high school....

Maison Kuentz-Bas was first established by the Kuentz family in 1795, and the domaine as we know it today was forged through a marriage that joined the Kuentz and Bas families in 1895. Nestled in the town of Husseren-les-Châteaux, it sits at one of the highest points in Alsace, and the vineyards stretch out from the village over an area of ten hectares. More than two hundred years of tradition and vineyard pedigree have made these wines perennial favorites, with the grand crus of Eichberg and Pfersigberg earning the highest esteem. However, when the family sold the property to famed vigneron Jean-Baptiste Adam in 2004, many wondered what direction the new team would take. Adam, like the estate’s former owners, has a reputation for being an advocate of Alsatian terroir,...

The Montagne de Reims boasts some of the best Pinot Noir in the region, and Bouzy is its capital. The key to Bouzy’s inherent greatness lies in its deep, chalky subsoil which imparts intense expression of fruit and great mineral complexity in its grand cru wines. The village of Bouzy and Champagne Paul Bara are practically synonymous. As the published village historian, Paul is indelibly linked to the lore of his hometown. Many argue that he is their most renowned producer, being one of the rare récoltants-manipulants in a region inundated with the mass-produced wines of the large, corporate champagne houses. These récoltants-manipulants, or R.M.s as they are known, are of the few that still grow their own grapes and make their own wines. Champagne Paul Bara is the quintessential...

For several generations the Sommariva family worked the vines on the high plains of the Veneto, growing a mix of French and local varietals and selling off most of their crop as was common practice at the time, but it was Caterino Sommariva who pinpointed the slopes as the best place for vines and began purchasing hillside vineyards together with his wife Urbana in the 1970s. The couple also had great faith in the Prosecco varietal (now known by its historical name, Glera) and decided to plant it exclusively on their new property, which gradually grew as they continued to snatch up adjacent parcels over the years. This great foresight put them in a very advantageous position when Prosecco and the hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene began to gain...

The Basque country lies along the southwestern border of France and Spain, deep in the dramatic Pyrénées mountains. The eleventh century monks of Roncevaux made wine to cater to a population of tourists—religious pilgrims traveling through the mountain pass from France on their way to Santiago de Compostella in Spain. However, throughout the centuries, wine production dissipated drastically. Although Irouléguy was awarded its own A.O.C. in 1970, by the late twentieth century, most of the remaining vignerons were selling to the local cooperative. And then along came Michel and Thérèse Riouspeyrous…

Just after losing his father at the age of thirteen, Michel was raised by his grandfather, with whom he worked in the family farm and vineyards. He eventually gravitated towards studies in Agronomy before the...

Bernard Faurie is the wise old man of the hill (the hill of Hermitage that is), the last of the Mohicans I’d say. Let’s start with the vines. Bernard is the fifth generation in a storied lineage working the same vines on the hill (yes, the very same, they are over 100 years old). He still manages the family apricot groves as well, and man can he grow a mean Bergeron. But nowhere is Bernard more at home, more himself, and more downright giddy than in his vines on the Hermitage hill. He is still going strong in his mid-sixties, and does everything by hand (or foot at crush time) himself.

Bernard’s parcels are spread among three principal parcels of Hermitage: Bessards, Méal, and Gréffieux....

Catherine and Pierre Breton are the real life bon vivants vignerons of lore. They are passionate about what they do, they enjoy sharing it with others, and they entertain with a generosity and charm. That they make great wine with such integrity makes our appreciation of them complete. The Bretons farm eleven hectares of vines just east of Bourgueil in the village of Restigné. They produce Chinon and Bourgueil, as well as a bit of Vouvray, creating honest wines for both early consumption and longer aging. The Bretons first introduced biodynamic practices into their viticulture in 1994, just after receiving their organic certification in 1991. Recently, they started the three-year process of seeking biodynamic certification. In fact, they have become international icons for the natural wine movement in an area...

The hilltop village of Cairanne on the left bank of the southern Rhône between Orange and Vaison-la-Romaine is a picture of Provençal fantasy where fields of lavender paint the landscape purple and proud plain trees line the marketplace in the center of town. Cairanne belongs to the Côtes du Rhône Villages appellation and is widely regarded as the star among the seventeen villages that have the right to use this designation.

Catherine Le Goeuil’s taste for adventure has made her a leading pioneer in Cairanne. Having been born in the Congo to French parents, she had already lived in interesting places, but she longed to return to her roots. In 1993, with little experience and great determination, she and her family bought a six-hectare domaine. Soon...

Champagne Veuve Fourny & Fils is relatively new to the KLWM portfolio, although it has been an active family domaine since 1856. The estate is located in the prestigious Côte des Blancs, in the premier cru village of Vertus, an appellation that gives them the rare opportunity to grow Pinot Noir as well as Chardonnay. Brothers Charles-Henry and Emmanuel Fourny sustainably farm nearly nine hectares of vineyards and have been carrying on the family winegrowing tradition since 1993. Their “Clos Faubourg Notre Dame” is a rare jewel in Champagne, primarily due to the fact that there are few existing clos parcels left in the region. In this walled plot of land, their older vines benefit from a unique microclimate with deep, chalky subsoil and clay and limestone deposits. Southeastern sun...

Antoine Arena, like most Corsicans of his generation, grew up in a family that earned a modest living working the land on an island largely unknown to the outside world. As soon as he could he joined the mass exodus of Corsicans to the French mainland, in search of jobs and what they thought to be a better life. Several years later in the mid 1970s, with a promising career on the mainland, the Corsican independence movement exploded with violent confrontations between nationalists and French government forces, leaving Antoine stunned.

In his shock and anger, he moved back to the family farm and decided to reverse the trend and remain on the land, as his own form of protest. Many others soon followed his lead, and for the...

The picturesque landscape surrounding the historic Château La Roque appears largely unchanged from how it must have been two thousand years ago. Ownership has changed hands many times since the Romans were first here, yet the soul of this special place remains in tact. Romans were said to have planted the first vines, and Benedictine Monks created the sturdy vaulted-ceiling cellars that still house the bottles today. Winegrowing resumed in the thirteenth century when the de la Roque brothers planted new vines. By the 15th century, another branch of the de la Roque family added glass blowing to the farm’s production. Today, Château La Roque is in the capable hands of Jacques Figuette, who has continued to convert to organic and now biodynamic viticulture, as planned by the previous...

Deep in the southwest of France, amidst dramatic rock formations and cliffs, the Lot River slowly snakes its way along the valley floor, coiling covetously around the charming town of Cahors. The diversity in architecture serves as a proud historical mark left by many previous generations of inhabitants. Once a former Roman town, Cahors was also as a center of commerce during the Middle Ages that served as an important crossroads for pilgrims on the trail to Santiago de Compostella. Among the many specialties that have brought pride to the region, the constant has been its wine. A.O.C. Cahors is known as the “black wine” of the Southwest—the deeply inky, earthy wines that seem to complement the regional fare of duck (and duck fat!) so wonderfully. Cahors is also...

Unlike so many of our producers who were born into the trade, Emmanuelle Dupéré and Laurent Barrera did not start their careers in wine. Emmanuelle was, and still is, a professional singer, and Laurent a geological engineer on the island of Réunion, near Madagascar. In 1998, Laurent decided to change direction and enrolled in viticultural school in the Var. Emmanuelle already had a degree in Wine Commerce, but went back to school to learn the production side of the business. Their studies brought them together with great winemakers from various regions of France, and as they learned from these experienced producers, they gained a deep respect for the unadulterated expression of the fruit so prevalent in naturally-made wines.

There is nothing average about this husband-and-wife team...

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...

The first vineyards at Domaine de Fontsainte, in the Corbières appellation, were planted by the Romans. Artifacts found in these vineyards, such as an old coin dating from the time of Marcus Agrippa in 25 A.D., are a testament to its antiquity. The original domaine was built around a thermal spring, which was later named for the local, twelfth-century patron saint, Saint Siméon; hence Fontsainte—the saint’s fount. Yves Laboucarié’s family has been making wine here since the seventeenth century, and we were lucky to have met him so early on in his career. For over thirty years, KLWM has been proudly importing his wine, and now we work with his son, Bruno. Like his father, one of the first vignerons working with whole cluster fermentation in the region, he believes...

Before acquiring vineyards, Georges Delille trained as a sommelier in Paris. In 1963, he bought what would become Domaine de Terrebrune, a property in Ollioules, just east of Bandol, framed by the Mediterranean and the mountain called Gros-Cerveau (Big Brain), dotted with olive groves and scenic views—an idyllic spot. During the years following the declaration of A.O.C. Bandol (1941), mass overhauling and reconstruction of vineyards were commonplace, and vignerons were eager to revive the noble Mourvèdre grape. Georges spent ten years just renovating the property; he terraced hillsides, refashioned the masonry, replanted vineyards following the advice of Lucien Peyraud, designated soils to lie dormant and regenerate, and built a new cellar. In 1980, his son Reynald joined him after finishing winemaking school, and together they launched their first bottled...

One need only speak of Meursault to evoke a myriad of questions regarding the village’s resident icon, Jean-François Coche. He began working in the family vineyards alongside his father, Georges, at the age of fourteen, becoming the third generation of Coches to tend these vines. His marriage to Odile Dury in 1975 added to the family holdings, which lead to the formation of Domaine Coche-Dury. Since then, the enigmatic, modest, Jean-François has only reluctantly accepted the celebrity status of his wines. When asked, he would be most likely say that it is rigor, constant vigilance, and adherence to old-school tradition that makes the wines so special. Jean-François’ heritage seems more closely linked to the studious, farmer-monks that once propagated this area of Burgundy during the Middle Ages than to...

At the foot of the rolling vineyards of Moulin-à-Vent, just across the road from its famous namesake windmill, Domaine Diochon has been making Beaujolais the old-fashioned way since 1935. Bernard Diochon, the beloved, mustachioed character immortalized by photographer Gail Skoff, succeeded his father in 1967. As a torch bearer to the ancestral methods passed down to him, Bernard explains,

I like tannic wines without heaviness; with fruit and floral aromas. I don’t like weighty wines with hard tannins. My favorite wines are St Emilion from Bordeaux, and Chambolle-Musigny and Nuits-St-Georges from Burgundy. Every vigneron naturally chooses to make wines in the style they prefer. It works well that Kermit and I share the same taste; it’s what has allowed our relationship to last for so long.

...

Jean-Yves Bizot is a rare find in Burgundy these days, and we are proud to represent him exclusively in the United States. His strict and uncompromising standards in the vineyards and his enviable old–vine parcels in Vosne-Romanée combine to give us a stellar lineup of miniscule production red Burgundies built for the long haul. Bizot is a professor of viticulture and oenology in Beaune who lives in Vosne across the street from Henri Jayer’s old residence. The two vignerons had neighboring parcels in Vosne and used to discuss vinfication from time to time while working their vines. Bizot decided to adapt some of Jayer’s techniques in his own cellar (in particular whole cluster fermentation at cool temperatures in conical wooden vats) and is now making top-notch Vosne that still flies ...

Nearly forty years of doing business in France and Italy have given Kermit Lynch a level of expertise that few in the wine industry can boast. Countless hours with growers in some of the most famous vineyards and cellars of Europe have offered more than just a casual look at what it takes to be a great grower, let alone a great winemaker. Kermit Lynch was the first to champion the benefits of unfined and unfiltered wines, long before they had become fashionable. This belief is really a matter of taste, and the proof has always been in the glass, offering a purer expression of fruit and an unadulterated reflection of the terroir. Kermit’s conviction has been so strong over the years that he has been able to persuade even...

When first tasting the wines of Domaine Robert-Denogent, it is essential to put aside any preconceived notions about the young, over-cropped whites of southern Burgundy. These are wines of a much different class, whose reflection of terroir is one more likely found farther north in the prestigious Côte d’Or. Jean-Jacques Robert took over five hectares of his grandfather’s vines in the Mâconnais just outside the village of Fuissé after finishing law school in 1988. Though most of the harvest had always been sold off to the cooperatives, the small parcels that made up the domaine were already understood to enjoy unique microclimates, producing Pouilly-Fuissés of great pedigree. Jean-Jacques soon came under the influence of two ardent defenders of terroir, the great master of Morgon, Marcel Lapierre, and American importer,...

Catherine and Didier Champalou both came from vigneron families, yet their mutual sense of independence prompted the couple to brave it on their own right after completing viticultural school in Saumur. Since starting the domaine in 1983, they have not only grown their business, but their label is one of the most highly-acclaimed in the appellation. Vouvray is home to the noble Chenin Blanc, more commonly known as Pineau de la Loire in their part of the world. As widespread as Pineau is, both soil and climate play key roles in the diversity of its incarnations, and a Chenin from California gives one no hint of what the grape is capable of in the right soil.

Farther inland along the Loire, in the region of the Touraine, Vouvray...

The village of Aghione is not far from the old Roman capitol of Corsica on the eastern coast of the island, poetically known as the Costa Serena. Flanked against the Corsican Mountains where the flats begin to rise into the hills, this small village of 235 inhabitants is just as celebrated today for its sulfur springs, olive groves, and vineyards as it was thousands of years ago. The enduring legacy is no coincidence—cool nights, high altitude, and the soil help the grapes retain their freshness and allow for a slow, even ripening. The terraced land of Aghione is a mix of schist and granite gravel with silt that has descended from the mountains over the last ten thousand years.

The Amalric family has farmed Domaine de...

Hildegard Horat-Diop’s rebellious streak, verve, and innate talent have made her a star of the Languedoc. Though she began making wine at a time when female winemakers in France were rare, she also broke many other social conventions along the way. She had started her career in her native Switzerland, where she was actively working as a restorer to old monuments. It all changed in 1975 when she and her first husband, Ernst Wirz, visited the Languedoc and fell in love with the domaine, La Grange de Quatre Sous. At the time, the property was in complete disrepair. It is a unique piece of land that borders an ancient Roman road, and the buildings are said to have belonged to the medieval order of the Knights of Malta, also known...

Pierre Ragon of Domaine Trotereau is as much an icon of the small appellation of Quincy in the Loire Valley as the appellation itself is a historical icon for the whole of France. Quincy was the second recognized appellation in France in 1936, second only to Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Grapes had long been planted here, however, with Sauvignon Blanc having been introduced by Cistercian monks in the 12th century. Southwest of Sancerre, on the banks of a tributary of the Loire River, the Cher, the relatively small appellation of 200 hectares is located between the villages of Vierzon and Bourges. The sandy, silex-ridden topsoil with an undercurrent of pink limestone is truly unique, unlike any other Sauvignon Blanc appellation in the world, and gives a very particular wine. Sauvignon is able to...

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KERMIT LYNCH WINE MERCHANT
1605 San Pablo Avenue
Berkeley, California, 94702
510.524.1524

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