While I’m celebrating the 5th anniversary of 1WineDude.com this year, there’s a true living legend who is marking a much more meaningful – and impressive – milestone in 2012.

Importer, author, musician and iconoclast Kermit Lynch has been working in the wine biz for forty years (as long as I’ve been alive). And he’s managed to keep doing it successfully despite the big wine mags mostly labeling his wines “uncool” in favor of more bombastic, oak-infused, pedal-to-the-metal powerhouses.

Well, what goes around, comes around: wines of place, vibrancy, and context are cool again, and no one is cooler in the world of those wine than Kermit himself.

I caught up Kermit him in his Berkley, CA shop in February and geeked out with him over some delicious Corsican wine from Yves Leccia; the kind of wine that hits your palate like a life-force-giving tazer gun, inciting you with an immediate desire to finish the bottle (preferably over dinner and with friends). Kermit kindly agreed to a video interview – a rarity for this guy – which is posted below after the jump.

What does someone with forty years of against-the-grain vinous fortitude have to say about the most transformative moments in nearly half a century in the wine biz? What about the future of the wine world excites someone with that kind of perspective? And more importantly, will he let me play bass on his next album? Watch to find out!…

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Apologies in advance if this video gets preachy or pedantic, but I’ve gotten a lot of questions from wine bloggers lately about how to increase following and engagement, and openly asked recently via twitter and facebook if this info. would be helpful to others (almost unanimously the answer was "Yes").  This is what has worked for me, your mileage may vary. So I hope you’ll take it as a sort-of “tough-luv” bit of well-meant advice, and let me (and everyone else!) know your thoughts!

Cheers!

For Valentine’s Day, I subject myself to the much-dreaded and (in my view not unfairly) oft-maligned dry-red-wine-with-chocolate food pairing, so that you don’t have to (you can thank me later).

Mentioned in this episode:

• Brix Chocolate (specially formulated to complement wine) – Pretty tasty on its own, especially the medium dark variety
• 2009 V. Sattui Black Sears Vineyard Zinfandel (Howell Mountain) $42 – Damn sexy, with nice plummy fruit and enticing peppery, spicy notes.

Cheers!

I’m guessing that your friends/relatives/loved ones didn’t follow my previous advice on what to get you for the holidays, so in this video I offer up two excellent wine gadgets to buy with the money you get from returning whatever crappy, single-purpose, never-gonna-use-‘em wine gizmos you received. You’re welcome ;-).

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Torkscrew Corkscrew
• Vacu Vin Rapid Ice Wine Chiller
• Fight Club (because it’s totally friggin’ awesome)

Cheers!