Product Description

Sure the labels are confusing and the pronunciation daunting, but France's wines continue to set the standard for excellence around the world. Whether you're well versed in French terroir or you're dabbling outside your comfort zone, this comprehensive guidebook will make you an expert in today's best and best-value wines from France. Jacqueline Friedrich's unpretentious tasting notes are utterly enjoyable and contain the perfect balance of information on specific wines, vintages, prices, and producers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #624181 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Though this collection of essays, gleaned from Lynch’s wine sales brochures from 1974 to 2003, seems at first glance to be little more than wine propaganda, the industry expert’s humorously written descriptions will educate as much as they entertain. Originally written to bolster sales at Lynch’s now legendary wine import shop in Berkeley, Calif., the essays reproduced here serve as an easy-to-imbibe master class for aficionados of French wines. And few writers—even Gourmet’s venerable wine scribe Gerald Asher—can do as princely a job enlisting mere words to describe wine with such precision. Lynch is just as comfortable articulating the "resiny rosemary-like fragrance" of an Auguste Clape Cornas as he is a 1984 Gilbert Alquier Faugères with a "deep purple color, complex aroma and a good chewy quality." And lest readers think that good wine must be expensive, there’s the 1997 Madiran, which leaves a "big, round, powerful impression on the palate" but not on the wallet. Lynch divides his time between France and California, and the "wine people" he profiles on both sides of the Atlantic are one of the collection’s greatest discoveries. Of the merry vintners at Château de Perron, the author writes: "Why do I always have the impression that I have interrupted them at play?... And what kind of smile is that on her face? I’d call it mischievous...." Much wine writing today is infused with a pompous, exclusionary air; not so with Lynch’s casual but informative compendium. These witty writings—sometimes sweet and sometimes dry—are a fitting paean to the author’s lifelong obsession, and the richly photographed tome should be required reading for devotees of nature’s poetry in a bottle.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Publisher
* An anthology of wine writing from one of the world’s most revered wine merchants and importers, selected from more than 30 years of his monthly brochure (national circulation 25,000), and illustrated by the photographs of Gail Skoff.
* Kermit Lynch’s first book, Adventures Along the Wine Route, is in its 11th printing and won the Veuve Cliquot Wine Book of the Year Award. Hugh Johnson said "I am simply thrilled by it. I am bowled over by his blend of poetry and candour." Alice Waters said it "has given wine a new dimension for me."
* Kermit Lynch’s wines are available across the United States.

About the Author
KERMIT LYNCH has been named Wine Professional of the Year by the James Beard Foundation and has won the French Chevalier de l’Ordre de Merite Agricole award. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Customer Reviews

Great Book by a Great Spokesperson for the Industry
Nearly 20 years ago I had the pleasure of reading Kermit Lynch's first book, "Adventures On the Wine Route." Back then I thought it was by far the best wine-related book I had ever read and my opinion hasn't changed. I would look forward to receiving the monthly Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant newsletters because they were so well-written. I would save them because they were such great reading material, and thought what a good book they would make.

Well, that's just what Mr. Lynch did, turned them into a book. His writings make me thirst for the wines he describes. The thing is, of course he is a salesman since he owns a wine shop, but he backs himself up by importing some mighty good wines. Seeing his name as the importer on a bottle of wine inspires confidence.

Inspiring Thirst is a collection of selections from Mr. Lynch's monthly wine letter and I found it fascinating to follow the journey from its beginnings up to the time the book was published. And also to be in wonderment at how low the prices used to be on such great bottles of wine - unbelievable.

The author definitely has a way with words and leaves no doubt that he loves what he does. The selections in the book, just like every newsletter or brochure he has printed, is a learning experience. It is far from the typical wine shop mailing that screams the point score awarded it by Robert Parker or the Wine Spectator and how limited the production is of that latest boutique find. You will find no point scores in Mr. Lynch's world, nor will you find attempts to stir up a frenzy over the most recent "vintage of the century" that needs to be touted. I love his own "vintage chart" (which happens to be a blank piece of paper). I laughed when it first came in the mail, and laughed upon seeing it again in the book.

This book gets a most enthusiastic thumbs up. Oh, and by the way, while it is a rather expensive book, the quality of the pages and binding (not to mention the reading material itself) make it worth the money.

An inspiration for writers and wine merchants alike!
If you could see me now, you'd notice that I'm just the slightest shade of green. This happens everytime I read a book by Kermit Lynch. No, I'm not ill, just envious. Is it really fair that Kermit was blessed as one of our nation's greatest palates AND one of our greatest writers? And if I ever get a chance to hear his band, I understand I'd be jealous of that too.

I found this, his latest collection of wine missives, difficult to put down. His engaging writing style allowed me to clearly imagine tagging along on each of his European sojourns. I imagined standing next to him in every cellar he described, sitting at every meal he journaled.

If you're anything like me, somewhere in the middle of chapter two or three, you'll begin plotting ways to convince your family a vacation in the French wine country beats Disneyland any day.

Dave Chambers, Wine Merchant
Sideways Wine Club

Essential if you drink wine.
I quickly became addicted to the Kermit Lynch Newsletters (and wine) after moving to San Francisco in 1999. My stack of collected newsletters was often revisited and rearranged for convenience (ascending, descending, seasonally), and I eventually had to buy those scary extra large sized binder clips to hold them together. I've always regretted the relative lateness of my enlightenment (through Kermit's book (Adventures), store, and newsletters) to unfiltered, properly shipped, traditional, un-chaptalized wine. This book makes that regret even more painful.

I relived that moment when, as a child (hopefully), you discover time did not start with your birth. "What, Trignon was produced before 1998? And I'll never get to taste it? And it cost how much?"

While Inspiring Thirst did show me that the next Vieux Telegraphe is very likely lurking in my binder clipped collection of newsletters for very cheap, one thing I've realized is that just knowing the facts and history behind a wine (as most books give you) does nothing for the experience. A good storyteller is invaluable, and can make seemingly ordinary wines as special as anything the Bruniers have produced.

Order this book, subscribe to the newsletter, and hope they decide to release volume two soon before that binder clip starts to give way.