S.W. and Rich Hermansen
Guest Writers
wine@lbknews.com
During October of 2024, news broke about arrests by Europol of a syndicate of wine 
fraudsters who had sold millions of Euros of wine in bottle with counterfeit labels. The fraudsters counterfeited labels on bottles and distributed them through wine merchants.
We wrote in 2023 about blockchain tags on bottles of wine from the vineyards producing exceptionally expensive wines. These tags would in a wine future market allow buyers to authenticate a bottle of wine against the records of the vineyard. A wine bottle ID would appear in a continuous trace of the movement of the bottle from the vineyard to each subsequent holder of the bottle. The sequence of transfers of the ID from one holder to another represents a blockchain that traces the wine bottle back to its source.in the vineyard.
The content of the bottle as opposed to the bottle itself or the label on the bottle requires special attention. We think that a counterfeiter of a label does not have access to the content of an authentic bottle of a prestigious wine. Instead, he or she is hoping to perpetuate the contents of a bottle with a fake label and inferior contents, and will expect that the bottle will rest unopened in a collectors’ cellar until the fraudster has covered his or her tracks. Simply knowing that a bottle traces back to one containing the prestigious wine may be enough to authenticate it. We see no evidence in secondary markets of a wine bought and later removed from an authentic bottle and rebottled.
In the case of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the question of authenticity becomes more critical. The source of Bitcoin, for example, and even more for the more recent meme coins introduced by Elon Musk and Donald Trump, does not trace back to an actual producer of prestigious wine or to anything comparable.
We see no reason to worry over whether wine collectors have their treasured Petrus Pomerol in an authentic or fake bottle. We do hope that they can tell the difference.
Of more concern, the proposal by two Republican members of the Florida legistature, Joe Gruters and Webster Barnaby, who have proposed legislation allowing the State of Florida to invest state funds in bitcoin. We suspect that if these two legislators combined their knowledge with that of Donald Trump, they would not be able to explain the block component of the Bitcoin story much less the chain. Is the recent increase in Bitcoin prices evidence of a good investment? Does anyone remember that Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme made some people rich for decades.
Tariffs on beer and wine will cause hardships among small farmers, wineries, and breweries both here and abroad, favor large corporations, raise prices, and limit consumer choices. Anyone paying attention will see how politicians use them to their own advantage.
S.W. Hermansen has used his expertise in econometrics, data science and epidemiology to help develop research databases for the Pentagon, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Agriculture, and Health Resources and Services. He has visited premier vineyards and taste wines from major appellations in California, Oregon, New York State, and internationally from Tuscany and the Piedmont in Italy, the Ribera del Duero in Spain, the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale in Australia, and the Otego Valley in New Zealand. Currently he splits time between residences in Chevy Chase, Maryland and St. Armand’s Circle in Florida.
Rich Hermansen selected has first wine list for a restaurant shortly after graduating from college with a degree in Mathematics. He has extensive service and management experience in the food and wine industry. Family and friends rate him as their favorite chef, bartender, and wine steward. He lives in Severna Park, Maryland.
