S.W. and Rich Hermansen
Guest Writers
wine@lbknews.com
Wine dinners afford the opportunity to taste a variety of wines from (generally) the same 
vineyard when paired by a chef to a series of dishes. Wine tastings, say the 2025 Butcher’s Block 12th Annual Grand Tent Tasting in Sarasota FL, allow people interested in wine the chance to sample a hundred or more wines. Winemakers, importers. distributors, and their reps pour wines at tables and patiently answer questions from attendees holding out wine glasses like nestlings holding their beaks open and ready for their parents to feed them. At some tables the same questions arise.
“Do you have a sweet wine?” a woman in her early forties asks at the Treasury Wine Group Table 13 as her two friends hover behind her. The Treasury rep stands behind a selection of Australian Penfolds Cab/Shiraz and California Stags Leap Petite Sirah, and BV Rutherford Reserve Cab. “Very few if any of the wines at this tasting will have enough sugar to make them sweet,” the rep answers with no hint of condescension. “You might want to try California Chardonnay or Pinot Noir, some of them have fruit flavors that taste sweet, or II believe that I saw an Italian Ripasso or a Moscato dessert wine on the wine list. The Moscato will have a heavy dose of residual sugar that will satisfy any sweet tooth.”
Indeed, Trinchero Family Estates did not bring their lucrative Sutter Home White Zinfandel or Ménage à Trois Dolce sweet wines to the tasting, opting instead to introduce wines from Northern Spain regions of the Ribera del Duero, Rioja, Priorat, and Rias Baixas. Good choices, we have to admit.
In a similar move, Hess wines stepped up from its mass market wines to its mid-to-upper tier priced wines for this tasting. In addition to five premium Cabernet Sauvignon and red blend wines, the Hess reps poured a 2021 Sonoma Coast “Mardikian” Pinot Noir ($100) from a select plot. This wine and the 2022 Willamette Valley Vineyards Bernau Block Pinot Noir ($53) from Oregon rival the premier Burgundy red wines that we have tasted in France.
Other stars of the tasting deserve special mention. The Duckhorn Vineyard Goldeneye Rosé Brut ($25) from California, the Babylonstoren Mourvedre Rosé ($19) from South Africa, and the Trinchero Terras Gauda Albarino O’Rosai ($20), an “Örange” wine, worked well as refreshing preludes to numerous flinty white wines and robust red wines that dominated the wine list. Tom Hannon, a Sarasota resident representing Tuscany Distributors of Orlando FL, brought several worthy contributors to the scope of the tasting: the 2020 Genetie Illuminé Bourgogne (Blanc) ($25), a lovely aged Chardonnay from Burgundy with characteristic peach and floral nectar tastes; a 2021 Boscaini Carlo Valpolicella Ripasso ($24), made from Northern Italian fruit dried to raisin sweetness prior to fermentation; and, the 2021 Ca’Montebello di Scarani Luigi Barbera ($26) from Lombardy in Italy, with flavors of cherries and spices.
Among the other notable white wines, the 2021 Ceretto Arneis Langhe Blange ($19), the 2023 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir Blanc ($29), and the 2022 DelIlle Chaleur Blanc ($23) white Bordeau blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon from Washington State.
The dominant wine variety in the tasting, Cabernet Sauvignon, comprising about a quarter of the wines on the list, can be found in the tip tier price section of any fine wine shop. No bargains there …. You will find better values in the 2021 Hartford Court Pinot Noir ($35) from the Russian River of California and the 2021 Bele Glos Dairyman Pinot Noir ($40) from the same Russian River region as the Hartford Court.
The Butcher’s Block has stocked these wines and others that ne would struggle to find elsewhere in areas other than the major urban centers. Ask for discounted Tent Tasting prices when adding quality wines to your cellar.
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.
