Eric Hemer

Coming Up

Wine study at WSET Global gave Eric Hemer a working base in tasting discipline and the vocabulary to describe what’s in the glass. That early training helped shape a career built on clear communication, structured analysis, and the ability to make wine’s complexity practical for other professionals. Since 2013, he has served as Senior Vice President, Product Education of Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, bringing that approach to a major industry platform. In a trade where technical knowledge can overwhelm, Hemer’s record points to the value of precision, context, and respect for the bottle’s background.

Where They Are Now

Since 2013, he has served as Senior Vice President, Product Education, placing wine education at the center of the role. That remit asks for close attention to detail, steady experience, and the ability to translate information into something useful for the trade. Working across regions, vintages, producers, and shifting demand, he sits between data and interpretation, where education functions as a craft in its own right. Wine education remains the throughline of his work and the area where Eric Hemer has built his reputation.

In Their Words “I enjoyed relating stories about wine to my customers, which in turn led to a wine education.” The point here is the link between narrative and understanding: wine becomes more legible when it is framed, explained, and shared in conversation. For Hemer, that bridge from customer dialogue to formal education shows how trade knowledge is often built—through listening, repeating, and refining what the bottle means to the person in front of you. “I find it hard to believe sometimes, but I’m coming up to my fourth decade in the industry!” Four decades says less about sentiment than it does about continuity in a business that keeps changing. The remark reads as a measure of staying power, adjustment, and repeated contact with a market that never stands still. In that sense, Eric Hemer’s career reflects the discipline of remaining useful as the industry moves.

Honors

Eric's honors include Master Sommelier (MS), Master of Wine (MW) (2013), and Certified Wine Educator. These honors map the range of the work: sensory judgment, formal wine scholarship, and teaching. Master Sommelier (MS) and Master of Wine (MW) (2013) sit among the field’s most demanding recognitions, while Certified Wine Educator points directly to the instructional side of the profession. Taken together, they show a career spent not only mastering wine, but teaching others how to read it.