KERMIT LYNCH WINE MERCHANT

Château des Deux Rocs

Jean-Claude Zabalia, one of the Languedoc’s most talented vignerons, spent over twenty years at Saint Martin de la Garrigue before striking out on his own to start Château des Deux Rocs. Like any new venture undertaken by a seasoned veteran, Jean-Claude did his homework. In his many searches for great terroir in the Languedoc, he came across Cabrières—an area already known for producing outstanding rosé, but what he found was so much more.

The vines of Jean-Claude’s new domaine, Château des Deux Rocs, are located in the isolated Vallée des Crozes. This enclosed valley is protected from the dominating winds of the region and benefits from more than 220 days of sun per year. His vines are planted at nearly 1000 feet above sea level in deep schist soils, higher than anyone in the region has planted before. These elements lend a delicate and finessed nature to both the rosé and red.

Our bottlings from Deux Rocs are aptly named “Prémices,” meaning a sign of things to come—we certainly believe that great things are to come from this exciting new domaine.

Maxime Magnon

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 practices into his vineyard management. Like his good friend and mentor, Didier Barral (in Faugères), and Jean Foillard (under whom he studied in Morgon), he is a naturalist at heart, and seeks to create a harmonious ecosystem in his vineyards.
Most of Maxime’s vineyard land is comprised of schist and limestone subsoils in the sub-appellation Hautes Corbières, bordering Fitou to the South. This is incredibly tough terrain to farm in, as there is virtually no top-soil, just pure rock and garrigue. The Corbières “Rozeta” is a blend of these two district terroirs. This blend is particularly unique, from Carignan vineyards that are dispersed with numerous varietals of older vines, namely Grenache Gris, Macabou, and Terret, which are all picked and fermented together—a true field blend of the old school. “La Démarrante” is a blend of only Carignan and Cinsault, which does not adhere to the appellation rules; therefore it is designated as a Vin de Pays. It is terrific young and deliciously quaffable. Maxime’s tête de cuvé, “Campagnès,” is a single vineyard of the hundred-year-old Carignan, and is the most age-worthy in his line-up. All wines are aged in second-hand, Burgundian barrels sourced from a producer in Chassagne. “La Démarrante” ages both in cuve and in foudre.  His wines offer great expression of fruit with immediate approachability.

Domaine de Chérisey

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 Hélène’s mother, who inherited their vines and passed them on to Hélène, who works side by side with Laurent.
All of the de Chérisey vines are premier cru, are at least 60 years old, and they encircle their ancient cellar in the Hameau de Blagny. Their Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Hameau de Blagny is from vines on the south side of Blagny, level with the village, just above Puligny Truffières. It is a wine that combines the power and richness of Meursault with the ethereal finesse of Puligny. Laurent’s Puligny-Montrachet1er Cru Les Chalumaux is from vines just below Blagny, between the aforementioned Truffières and Meursault-Perrières. If you were a Chardonnay vine it wouldn’t be a bad place to put down your roots.  The wine is loaded with white limestone and gives a very fine, intensely focused white Burgundy, très Puligny, screaming with minerality. It doesn’t have the renown of its neighbors, but it should. The de Chérisey Meursault-Blagny 1er Cru La Genelotte is from a vineyard just north of Blagny, on the Meursault side of course, high on the slope above the village. The wine is a powerful, classic, long-lived Meursault. The Genelotte vineyard is also a monopole meaning Laurent and Hélène are sole proprietors.

Régis Minet

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 this tiny farm a full-time domaine, and has succeeded in adding an additional eight hectares of vineyards to the holdings. It is certain that his love of his native terroir translates into his wines, although one sees it in many other aspects of his character as well. Watching him fervently serve a plate of crottins de chevre to guests, seeing his latest fossilized finds after a day of diving into the bottom of the Loire River, or watching him tinker with his motorcycle after an epic ride is proof enough that Régis shares both his grandfather’s rogue-ishness and love of the land.
Pouilly-sur-Loire produces one of the greatest Sauvignon Blancs in the world. Régis’ vineyards sit at 750 feet, surrounded by hills on the far east of the Loire River, and centered proudly on the prized limestone and clay of the Kimmeridgian chain. The scattered flint in these vineyards imbues the wines with a character quite distinctive from the neighboring village of Sancerre. In the eloquent words of KLWM Store Manager, Steve Waters, “You couldn’t ask for a cleaner, fresher, flintier, or truer expression of Sauvignon Blanc. Its mouth-watering acidity, depth of flavor, and fleshy texture will have you racing back for more.”

Bèrto Vermouth

Founded in 1890, the distillery of Castelnuovo Don Bosco was purchased in 1906 by Carlo Quaglia, the great grandfather of the current distillery director. A succession of fathers passing the historical and traditional knowledge of distillation, liqueur, and vermouth production to their sons, and each son adding their own vision brings us to present day. The current ambition of the distillery is to preserve the multitude of traditional liqueurs and vermouths of Piedmont. Brothers Alessandro and Gian Natale Fantino of Barolo introduced us to Carlo Quaglia, who helps them make their Barolo Chinato.

The Bèrto red vermouth (Ross da Travaj) and white vermouth (Aperitiv dla Traddission) are standard-bearers of traditionally and artisanally produced sweet vermouth from Piedmont. The recipe dates back to the 1930s and was resurrected by the Italian chef Federico Ricatto. His vision was to create Piemontese Vermouth that could stand on its own as an aperitivo or digestivo. Bèrto is the nickname for Alberto, Federico’s nephew, who was born around the time he was recreating the recipe. Federico recommends consuming their vermouth in wide glasses or in a tumbler with ice and an orange peel.

Jean Foillard

Jean and Agnès Foillard took over his father’s domaine in 1980, and soon thereafter began to make Kermit Lynch customers very happy. Most 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, as Kermit christened them, 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 of sulfur dioxide or none at all, and refusing both chaptalization and filtration. The end result allows Morgon to express itself naturally, as it should be without the bubblegum and banana aromas of so many other Beaujolais available today. Its rustic structure, spicy notes, and mineral-laden backbone are what real Morgon is all about.
This estate comprises nearly fourteen hectares. Foillard’s Morgons are deep, structured, and complex, with a velvety lushness that makes them irresistible when young despite their aging potential. Jean raises his wines in older barrels sourced from top estates in Burgundy, a logical decision for someone crafting Gamay in a Burgundian style. It is the passion and dedication of vignerons like this that have brought pride back to the crus of the Beaujolais.

Domaine Gachot-Monot

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 as a young talent to be watched. We have been proud to import his wine since the 2000 vintage. 
In the most competitive market for Pinot Noir in the world, it is not an easy feat making a wine taste better than the pedigree of its soil would allow. Damien’s genius is found in his ability to balance traditional philosophies in the vineyards and respect of terroir with more contemporary methodologies in the cellar. His style gracefully manages to achieve suppleness and approachability without sacrificing authenticity, typicity, or age-ability. Dixon Brooke writes,
Thanks to his efforts and dedication, we get a Côtes de Nuits Villages that tastes more like Nuits-St-Georges than village Burgundy.  It is always deeply colored, highly aromatic, full and complex.  Last year we had the 1978 vintage at a dinner with clients in Beaune, and it really turned some heads, not only among the clients but also with the local sommeliers!  There were many fancier labels on the table from top names. 
Kermit has built his own reputation over the years by finding values where no one else was looking. Dive in and experience great Burgundy without breaking the bank!

Domaine Maume

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 diversity of old Pinot stock.
Maume’s premier cru bottling is a real gem. It is a blend of two parcels, Cherbaudes and La Perrière, that are right in the saddle of grand cru country – below Mazis-Chambertin and Clos de Bèze, next to Chapelle-Chambertin.  There are only a few barrels.  “En Pallud” is a particularly well-suited lieu-dit just south of the village on the slope, below the premier cru Les Corbeaux and at the same elevation and exposure as the grand crus.  The Maumes have a sizeable parcel here of 65 year-old vines.  Etelois is also on the grand cru slope, just below Griotte-Chambertin.  Champeaux is a higher elevation premier cru parcel that was one of the first vineyards worked by the monks of Cluny.   Lavaux St. Jacques is a great premier cru site situated on the Combe de Lavaux, a valley that runs east to west and whose air currents help dry the vineyards of Gevrey after rains.  This is a wine with a remarkable texture, finesse, and length.  The Maume wines have a well-deserved reputation for long-term cellaring potential. A 1980 Lavaux St. Jacques tasted in 2009 was perfectly mature. A 1979 Mazis tasted in 2008 seemed capable of going on forever at its peak of perfection.  A great bottle from Maume takes you about as deep into the Burgundian soul as you can get. 

Henri Perrusset

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 home are located in the small town of Farges-les-Mâcon, on the northernmost spur of the limestone subsoil that characterizes the appellation of Mâcon. Farges is not far away from the village named (believe it or not) Chardonnay. The limestone in Farges is more marly than the compact limestone farther south in Pouilly-Fuissé. It is hard and intensely white, but breaks apart into small pieces and it is loaded with quartz and marine fossils as well. This type of soil is easier to work despite all the stones, provides great drainage for the vines, and gives the wines their grainy minerality. Our Mâcon-Farges bottling comes uniquely from a parcel of old vines, while the Mâcon-Villages is a custom blend of all his other holdings around Farges. These are Chardonnays with the ripeness and intensity level of a Pouilly-Fuissé or even a Saint-Aubin, with the particular goût de terroir of Henri’s corner of Mâcon.

Weingut Carlotto

Feruccio Carlotto and his daughter Michela farm a tiny estate of several hectares in the Alto-Adige town of Ora, south of Bolzano. The special of this village is Lagrein, a red grape that is native to the region, and these folks have it down. They chose to produce only one Lagrein Riserva that is aged in large oak casks. The vines are planted in a complex mélange of soil types dominated by igneous porphyry rock and complemented by limestone subsoil and a wide range of alluvial sediments and stones deposited here over millennia. You have never tasted Lagrein with this much finesse. It is a powerhouse of a wine with a very light touch—inky black, loaded with fruit, with a distinctive personality, and silky tannins. They also make a small amount of Pinot Nero that is made in a very fine, elegant style, with a feathery touch. It is from one of the best terroirs in the Alto Adige for Pinot Nero, the cru of Mazzon. Their 1997 was a revelation.
We went for the Lagrein and were overjoyed to find the best Schiava we’ve ever tasted, albeit in tiny quantities. It is like free-run raspberry juice infused with rose petals with no tannin. We can understand why the locals drink it all up so we were pleasantly surprised when we were able to talk the Carlottos into selling us a pallet for the United States. Unfortunately there are not much of these finely crafted beauties to go around but if you can get your hands on a few cases, you will be experiencing some of the best of what Alto Adige has to offer the wine world.