Kermit Lynch now importing Boxler; Grand Cru Riesling is $75 a bottle retail
- Thread starter SteveTimko
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Claude Kolm
Claude Kolm
Some of Chadderdon's book has been sold to former distributers, e.g., http://apswine.com/estates.html. (Ironically, Chadderdon's former CA distributor at one time, a long time ago, ran Kermit's Berkeley store.)
Larry Stein
Larry Stein
I wonder if Kermit will import the letter-designated bottlings? Doesn't look that way from the for-sale list. I thought Chadderdon made us bend over for Sommerberg Riesling, but Kermit does just as nice a job.
SteveTimko
Steve Timko
Supply and demand. I think it was Claude who noted the top wines in each area command premium prices, hence the rise in cost of Tempier.
Tristan Welles
Tristan Welles
It was only a matter of time before Lynch found his new Z-H. Hopefully Boxler will not develop the "powerful" profile that afflicted Z-H while in the hands of marketing glibness.
Larry Stein
Larry Stein
No reason why it should. The change in Z-H was Olivier's doing. I'd be surprised if Kermit had any say in this. He imported Z-H when Leonard was making the wine.
Claude Kolm
Claude Kolm
Tempier used to be famous only in California, and then later in the rest of the U.S. It was known to insiders in France, but the Revue du vin de France at best ignored the wines, at other times criticized them severely (interesting story I was told once at Tempier about that, but I shan't repeat it here); that situation has not been the case for some years. Similarly, the profile in the UK was rather low until the beginning of this century when there was a new importer who brought the wines into greater prominence there. Add to that the reputation that Kermit's selections have gained through the years, and you can see why there is the increased demand.
Claude Kolm
Claude Kolm
Do you import pim's confiture?
Claude Kolm
Claude Kolm
Yeah, but Kermit began with them in the mid-1970s. I don't believe he had national distribution until the mid-1980s; I don't recall the t-shirts until the late 1980s at earliest (I don't recall that brand name t-shirts were popular much before then). I think for many years, it was Chez Panisse that really opened people's eyes to Tempier (and it's still very much a favored wine there).
Actually, Gerald Asher with Mosswood also used to import Tempier -- even before Kermit got there, I think -- but I don't think many people were buying it; in those days it was almost all claret, some Burgundy, and the really enlightened would also take some Jaboulet and maybe a little Guigal and an occasional southern Rhône. E.g., looking through the index of 1973-87 tasting notes of the Vintner's Club out here in SF, a group that tasted an amazing variety of quality wines, I don't see a single Bandol.
Tristan Welles
Tristan Welles
I have never noted the out-of-balance characteristics in Boxler -- even in ripe vintages -- that bedeviled some Z-H offerings.
The Z-H power, or over-ripeness, or luscious quality (call it what you will) was completely unpredictable to me. About 1/3 of my bottles would be atypical of what I expected from Alsatian wines. 2/3s could be wonderful or merely very good. I never found a pattern (grape type, vintage, vineyard, late harvest, SGN, all that) and eventually moved my purchases to Boxler, Weinbach, Trimbach et al. Kermit's tariff was a compounding problem.