Chalone imports and distributes, mostly in southern California, premium European wines selected by Kermit Lynch, who is also a retailer in Berkeley, Calif.

In Berkeley, Calif., Kermit Lynch, an importer of French and Italian wine, has cut his margins to absorb some of the impact of a declining dollar, limiting price increases to some 20 percent over the last three years.

(Kermit Lynch, Berkeley, Calif.) Delas Frères Crozes-Hermitage Les Launes 2001: $18 ** 1/2 [Rating: two and a half stars] Balanced, aromatic.

Importers like Michael Skurnik, Kermit Lynch, Robert Chadderdon and Neal Rosenthal began to passionately market the sorts of wines that the big wholesalers were largely ignoring.

Alice Waters, of Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California, and Kermit Lynch, the well-known Berkeley wine writer and retailer, were both disciples.

Stores like Kermit Lynch in Berkeley, Calif., and Sherry-Lehmann in New York are preparing for summer-wedding requests.

I've found Eric Solomon, Jeffrey M. Davies, Kermit Lynch and Louis/Dressner to be particularly reliable guides to good Languedoc wines.

All of which has upset Kermit Lynch.

Several other new wine books are noteworthy: * "Adventures on the Wine Route," by Kermit Lynch (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1988, $19.95.)

This supple, light wine is what the straight-talking Kermit Lynch, a gold-standard merchant in Berkeley, Calif., would call a glugger.