The Pilgrimage

Wow, where to start?  Friday morning we had an 11:00 appointment to meet Kermit Lynch at Domaine Tempier. The purpose of this visit was, of course, to have Kermit taste our wine now that it is in bottle.  When setting up the appointment with Kermit, I also mentioned that I had never been to Domaine Tempier (one of Kermit's flagship wineries) so we decided to meet there, since Kermit lives in the next village over. 

As we arrived at Domaine Tempier, I felt as if I were coming full circle, as if this was a place I should have visited years ago.  You see, when you work at Kermit Lynch, there are a few domaines that are really cornerstones of the business, and Tempier is at the head of the list. There is a sort of mythical quality surrounding this winery and their wines.  Made famous by the wines of Lucien and Lulu Peyraud, Domaine Tempier has come to symbolize the philosophy of Kermit Lynch.  It's so much more than the wine, it's the whole southern French lifestyle magically brought together by Tempier wines and Lulu's cooking.  Richard Olney, who lived nearby, wrote a cookbook about the cuisine of Lulu Peyraud, entitled Lulu's Provençal Table, a wonderful historical collection of the food and wine served over the years at Domaine Tempier.  Finally I had the chance to visit, and with my own wines in tow, hmm, that seemed a bit out of place.

We met Kermit in the entrance and waited a short while, the time for Daniel Ravier, the winemaker, to finish a previous visit with other clients.  He walked up and said hello, immediately handing us glasses and pouring us a taste of the 2005 rosé.  As we were driving down, the thought crossed my mind that Kermit might want to taste our wines there, at Domaine Tempier, but I quickly put that thought out of my mind - that would be too much.  Well, guess what?  Sure enough, Kermit says, "Let's go to the cellar and taste your wines with Daniel." Ugh, the last thing I would ever want to do.  Taste our first wines, rosé and red, in the cellars of one of the most famous Provençal wineries!!!  Well, we had no choice.

First up, the rosé. Tempier's rosé is often cited as one of the best rosés made; I knew that our rosé was far from that.  What was perfect for us though, was that we had the opportunity to get some great winemaking advice.  2005 was a very ripe vintage; our rosé is a rosé de saignée, which means we bled off some juice from a tank of red wine to make it.  This is a common way of making rosé, but in the case of 2005, it meant that we had a lot of sugar, which translates to alcohol.  Our rosé weighs in at 14,5 degrees, which is a lot.  It was a huge success in Uzès and with all of our friends, but you can imagine against a classy rosé like Tempier, it didn't really measure up.  Oh well, it's a third of the price too!  We got some great wine making advice from Daniel, so we'll try some new techniques this year during harvest.

On to the red ... the one that mattered to us since we don't have any rosé left to sell Kermit.  Luckily for us, the bottle shock is wearing off, and it was showing quite well.  Kermit loved the nose, saying how distinctive it was, the attack was great too, lots of fruit, but the finish was a bit rough, the tannins were showing through.  We decided to try it again later since we had just opened the bottle and it had just spent 2 hours in the car.  We continued on to taste the 2005 blends of the Tempier reds; the Cuvée Classique, La Migoua, La Tourtine, and Cabassaou, made from very old vines, and 95% Mourvèdre.  Amazing.  Following this, we tasted the 2004s and 2003s.  At the end Daniel disappeared and came back with an older bottle of rosé; he didn't show us the vintage right away, simply wanting us to taste it.  Amazing.  It was really interesting, like an older white wine, but at the same time still had rosé characteristics. It was a 1999.  I never really think of aging rosé, but at Tempier they always keep some back.  Apparently it goes through a phase where you'd think it is shot, then it comes back around and opens up again. 

We left Tempier and headed up to Kermit's house for lunch.  It's kind of funny having someone like Kermit Lynch cook lunch for you. He immediately put us to work slicing peppers and tomatoes from his garden while we enjoyed another rosé from Bandol, Domaine de le Tour du Bon.  After a leisurely lunch and an afternoon filled with a dip in the pool, Matt helping Kermit with some computer issues, and even helping fix a leaky toilet, we came back to the question of our wine.  "Let's taste it again right now," said Matt.  OK.

We poured it in the glass and the nose was great, sweet red fruit and réglisse spice.  In the mouth it was even better than that morning and the finish had softened up. Kermit really liked it.  The real proof was that he finished a second glass.  Then we got to the ever-difficult question of price.  We told him what we hoped to sell it for, then compared that with some of his other producers.  In the end, he accepted our price, but decided that for the first year, he wanted to start with bringing it into Berkeley, and not distributing it nationally.  Fine by me - just the fact that he liked our wine and was willing to import it was enough for me.

When we were getting ready to leave, Kermit stopped and congratulated us, saying that we had done a great job, that the wine had a lot of character, it showed the terroir, and was very distinctive.  Wow! That is the greatest compliment I could have ever hoped for, coming from the person who taught me so very much about wine; Matt and I were both on cloud 9. 

Driving back on the autoroute, Matt and I were chatting about our wonderful day, and suddenly I stopped and said; "Cool.   (pause)    When we started this project, never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that Kermit Lynch would import our wine the first year."  Amazing.

Comments

[John]

Wow---Life can be grand after all. Great job.
I can't wait until I too can get my hands on a few bottles.
John-Ohio

[Judy Ellsworth]

Hello Amy:
My daughter, Suzanne, went to school with you (Madison-Mitchell). I was so impressed with the article in the Gazette today. My husband and I have toured vineyards all over the world so this was truly a treat to have a hometown girl following her dream. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to your blogs.

[Kathy Andersen]

Let's see if this really goes through!

[Kathy Andersen]

I didn't want to type a whole bunch until I was sure I did everything correctly and it would post! Your blog is just fabulous...and then to read about Kermit is so exciting. And as you KNOW, he isn't buying your wine based on friendship.... Everyone I have talked to, people you don't even know, are very impressed with your Gazette interview. And they knew you didn't say C.S. is a cultural wasteland...someone of your stature wouldn't slam any place/thing/body! Oh! Keep the pics of Daisy coming! Congratulations...Kathy and Pete