—The cover of the program for the April 8, 2026 Wine Cellar Social Club event declared “It’s Wine Time!” Well said. This latest in a series of wine tastings occupied much of the floor space in Michael’s retail Wine Cellar in Sarasota Florida and featured a three-course tasting menu served by the kitchen and staff of Michael’s-on-East. The wine list and menu selections gave around fifty guests seated at five large tables a chance to test pairings of different wines and foods.
Our guide for the tasting, David Warren Curran, Regional Accounts Manager of Jackson Family Fine Wines, introduced each of the seven wines in the tasting line-up. He gave briefings about the regions where the wines originated and the vineyards that produced them. He moved from table to table, answering questions about the wines and adding details of the terrain, climate, and culture of the coastal wine regions that extend from Monterrey to Sonoma Coast.
The Jackson Family company, a private company owned for many years by Jess Jackson’s widow and her children, has acquired in the same form as Gina Gallo’s fiefdom of smaller, fine wine vineyards that maintain their identities within a marketing empire. The Jackson Family relieves the winemakers of the burden of finding distributors for wines within the complex regulations of US States and working with importers of wine in other countries. The family wine regional representatives contact wine buyers in stores, restaurants, and distributors that in some states control deliveries of wines to retailers and restaurants.
All of these behind the scenes activities have little sway on the course of a wine tasting. David Warren Curran, the insider, discusses the nuances of the Matanzas Creek Sauvignon
Blanc, with less sharp an grapefruit acid edge than New Zealand competitors and a 2023 Hartford Family Wines Chenin Blanc, sold out at the vineyard, that reprises the many acres that California vineyards plowed under and replaced with bad Chardonnay.
The clean and simple Chenin Blanc steals the show. While the Sauvignon Blanc enhances a blue cheese in the second food course, the Chenin Blanc shines among the hors d’oeuvres and the Lobster Arancini in the second course. The Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Brut Cuvee sparkling wine sat too long in the glass waiting for the event to begin, but if fresh poured would have added zest to the lovely steamed green mussels with lime and Tequila and corn jalapeño salsa in the second course.
A Rosé of Pinot Noir looked white with no hint of a rosé hue. David suggested that the winemaker had left the red skins on the lees for too short of time to give impart a Rosé color. Something akin to Blanc du Noir as in Brut Champagne from Pinot Noir grapes.
Two Hartford Family Pinot Noir, one overrated but both tasty, and a Kendall-Jackson ‘Grand Reserve’ Cabernet Sauvignon, a dense and robust crowd-pleaser paired with Marrakesh chicken thigh meat skewers and a beef slider with grilled onions, bone marrow, and Tallegio cheese and crispy truffle fries.
The Wine Cellar and Jackson Family tasting afforded the guests an evening rich in flavors and an experience of the confluence of fine wine and food. It’s a wine time!
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.
