Kermit Lynch

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Kermit Lynch is an American wine importer and winemaker based out of Berkeley, California. He is the author of Adventures on the Wine Route which won the Veuve Clicquot Wine Book of the Year award. He is a winner of the James Beard Foundation's "Wine Professional of the Year", and the Chevalier de l'Ordre de Mérite Agricole medal presented by the French government for his service to the wine industry.

[edit] Conflicts with US Government Wine labeling laws

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Lynch took disagreement with a regulation of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms that required wine bottles to be labeled with the Surgeon General's warning against alcohol consumption but prohibited any countering sentiment about the benefits of moderate wine drinking to be on the label. ^[1]

On numerous occasions, Lynch petitioned the BATF to allow him to add a statement about the benefit of wine to go with the Surgeon General's warning such as quotes by Louis Pasteur on the hygienic properties of wine, the Bible on wine's healing properties, and Thomas Jefferson on the pleasures that drinking wine can bring. After many trials, Lynch finally had his request approved. ^[1]