Kermit Lynch

Kermit Lynch (born December 1941 in Bakersfield, California) is an American wine importer and author based in Berkeley, California. He is the author of Adventures on the Wine Route, which won the Veuve Clicquot Wine Book of the Year award, as well as Inspiring Thirst. He also co-owns in Gigondas along with the Brunier family of in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, France.

He is married to the American photographer Gail Skoff, whose photographs illustrate his books.

Career Lynch was born into a family of teetotalers, and was introduced to wine at seventeen by two graduates of UC Berkeley.

In 1972, Lynch opened his eponymous wine importing store in Albany, before moving to Berkeley in the 1980s.

Richard Olney introduced Lynch to many French wine growers, including Lucien and Lulu Peyraud, who were then re-establishing the Bandol AOC as a vineyard area.

Awards and honors Lynch won the James Beard Foundation's Wine Professional of the Year award in 2000 and in 2006 won the Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America.

In 1998, he received the ('Order of Agricultural Merit') medal from the French government for his service to the wine industry. In 2005 he was also awarded France's highest honor given to civilians, the insignia of ('Knight of the Legion of Honor').

Published works Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1988 Inspiring Thirst: Vintage Selections from the Kermit Lynch Wine Brochure, Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, 2004 25th Anniversary Edition of Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2013 At Poupon's Table: A Novel, Podium Publishing, 2025