For much of the last 35 years, the wine critic Robert Parker dominated the international wine scene. Parker invented the 100-point rating system for wine, and his reviews wielded such influence over sales that vintners everywhere worked to please Parker’s palate, making oaky, intensely flavored, high-alcohol wines. Kermit Lynch, meanwhile, through his wine shop in Berkeley, Calif., and also through his nationwide distribution business, chose to sell only French and Italian wines made in the unadulterated, old-school traditional style aimed at accentuating terroir — each vineyard’s unique combination of weather, soil and geography.

For years, Lynch, who lives in Berkeley and near Bandol, France, wrote about these values in a monthly newsletter and also in his 1988 book, “Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer’s Tour of France,” which is being reissued by Farrar, Straus & Giroux next month. Today, wine culture is focused on natural and biodynamic wines, and wine bars named Terroir have opened in San Francisco, Scottsdale, Brooklyn, four locations in Manhattan and London. It seems fair to say the Lynch way is finally having its day.

Q: What makes you happy when you pick up a restaurant wine list?

A: I can tell you what makes me unhappy is when it weighs 40 pounds. I just don’t get that. Make the selection for us. But also, when I started bringing in a lot of these wines — Côte Rôtie, Chinon — nobody wanted them. Every restaurant in the States was fighting to get their one annual case of the obvious big-ticket wines like Raveneau or Beaucastel. Now I go into restaurants and I’m asking the sommelier, “Where’s this from?” It’s a treat. One of the most exciting things happening is sommeliers turning customers on to new wines.

Q: For the longest time, the Robert Parker way of thinking about wine was ascendant. Now the Kermit Lynch way is in fashion. Why do you think that happened?