Congratulations to Kermit Lynch for being awarded the top honor bestowed on civilians in France: Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur. Lynch will receive this honor in a private ceremony next year, joining Robert M. Parker, Julia Child, and Robert Mondavi as recipients of this rare award.
Regular readers know I am a fan of Lynch as well as the wines he has been importing for the last few decades in Berkeley. Lynch pioneered the consistent use of refrigerated shipping containers for imported wine (which are sadly still not the industry standard) and has long championed small producers of France who make unfined, unfiltered wines in traditional ways. Lynch is also a passionate and eloquent writer about wine whose store newsletters and books are some of my favorite wine writing in the world.