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Title: Adventures on the Wine Route : A Wine Buyer's Tour of France by Kermit Lynch ISBN: 0-374-52266-9 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.57 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Essential
Comment: Kermit Lynch is an importer of artisanally made wines. His book is both a diary of his search for wines of authentic character throughout France and a manifesto in defense of an ethic of winemaking that is falling out of fashion. The wines Lynch adores are not always the greatest wines in the world, but there is a certain idiosynchratic appeal to them. They are crafted according to a philosophy that abhors chemical or mechanical adulterants and emphasizes minimal human intervention during the wines' elevation in cellars. Consequently, when nature cooperates, they are expressive of the subtlest elements of their vineyards' terrain, and they taste best with the cuisine prepared where they are grown. But they are risky to make and must be sold in a marketplace that seldom rewards the effort.
Lynch's best chapters are his entries on Provence, the Rhone, and Chablis, which give readers a clear sense of what these wines ought to taste like, how the regions' winemaking traditions have evolved over time, and what differentiates extraordinary examples from underachievers. Each chapter focuses on a handful of producers recalcitrant to change with whom Lynch has longstanding relationships. His analysis, with winemaking scion Gerard Chave, of the component parts of the legendary J. L. Chave Hermitage (one of the best wines in the world) might be the most vivid deconstruction of a taste ever put into words. The chapter on Provence is one of Lynch's more saccharine entries -- his ties to the family behind Bandol's Domaine Tempier are personal, and Lynch introduced and evangelized this hitherto obscure wine to American markets -- but it makes an eloquent case in favor of the rustic and less glamorous country wines of France. True to Lynch's evident loyalties, then, the chapter on the gold standard of French wine, Bordeaux, is among the weakest in the book, focusing on a small producer in Graves unrepresentative of the sprawling aristocratic estates that characterize the region. It tells a charming story, but it is only a footnote to the story of Bordeaux.
Lynch, to his credit, seldom romanticizes his work and does not disguise that he is a businessman who seeks these wines because he loves them but also because it is his trade. Because he has carved out for himself a small market for specialties in a large industry increasingly tending towards uniformity, his interests differ from most importers', inspiring him to remark that he sometimes feels more like a historical preservationist than a winebuyer. Wherever Lynch travels he is as likely to be disillusioned by a once-illustrious producer succumbing to cheap shortcuts as he is to find a truly special product he can sell with a clean conscience to customers who trust his name as a talisman of authenticity. He betrays his commercial interests somewhat by drafting some passages almost as advertisements for his wines, most of which don't need it, and also by repeatedly condemning the practice among American and English reviewers of awarding ratings to wines and vintage years on a numerical scale. In principle, this practice should not offend anyone capable of articulating the gradations of his preferences, but merchants with inventories to sell resent it deeply when a powerful critic advises consumers to avoid a thin vintage. Some such critics have done as much as Lynch to lead consumers to special wines, so I won't concede the principle. But I will drink any of Lynch's wines whenever the opportunity arises, and readers inclined to do the same will find in this book the context that renders them all 100-point experiences.
Rating: 5
Summary: an enjoyable and compelling read
Comment: I picked up Adventures on the Wine Route from my book shelf again tonight after about a year. You know, it's not one of my favorite wine books. It's one of my favorite books. He has a very simple but effective formula of a strong engaging, passionate voice, he's a consummate storyteller, and you know what? He can write.
That's what it comes down to. Can you tell a story? Can you write dialogue so the tempo and phrasing are true to life, as well as the words. Can you describe a man, a scene, a frustration? Can you make your reader feel it? Just in setting down a simple anecdote, Lynch has an elegantly subtle touch, no less than some of the wines he praises.
Rating: 5
Summary: The best wine book ever
Comment: This book shone a dazzling light on the world of wine for me almost nine years ago and is far and away the best wine book ever. (...) Remember that the book was written before "natural winemaking" was in vogue and what appears as sanctimony now was a heartfelt plea back in the day.
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Title: Making Sense of Wine by Matt Kramer ISBN: 0762415797 Publisher: Running Press Pub. Date: 05 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Accidental Connoisseur : An Irreverent Journey Through the Wine World by Lawrence Osborne ISBN: 0865476330 Publisher: North Point Press Pub. Date: 15 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Wine and War : The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure by PETIE KLADSTRUP, DONALD KLADSTRUP ISBN: 0767904486 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 30 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Blue Trout and Black Truffles: The Peregrinations of an Epicure by Joseph Wechsberg ISBN: 0897331346 Publisher: Academy Chicago Pub Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Bacchus and Me : Adventures in the Wine Cellar by JAY MCINERNEY ISBN: 037571362X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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