This isn’t Wine Spectator. It’s frank, honest discussion about wine at all price points from all corners of the world that includes Vaynerchuk’s strong expertise, sans the snootiness that seems to accompany most wine talk. It’s as refreshing as a glass of 2005 Ascheri Arneis.
I had a chance to interview Vaynerchuk at his store, The Wine Library, in Springfield not too long ago for a story I wrote in the next issue of Park Place magazine, our sister publication that is distributed to parts of northern New Jersey (parkplacemagazine.com). My article, "Life is a Cabernet," was supposed to focus on how to choose wines for a dinner party. It ended up being a lot about Vaynerchuk. Meet him (or watch those videos) and you’ll know why. I don’t consider myself a wine connoisseur by any stretch. (My husband and I consume a fair amount of it, but except for knowing a few varietals that I like more than others, my expertise is thin.) So it’s refreshing to listen to someone like Vaynerchuk talk about wine in a way that even I "get." He knows his stuff, but he also knows how subjective wine can be. In fact, one of his two rules is to trust your own palate (his other is ignore what other people, including him, say about wine).
It’s ironic that, with those rules, I’m so inclined to listen to Vaynerchuk’s every word. But here’s a guy who grew up around wine, trained his palate backwards (tasting all the fruits and grasses and other things people detect in a glass of wine as a teenager), and is head-over-heels passionate about the subject. His energy has landed him on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and Late Night with Conan O’Brien—and his star is only getting brighter as young people flock to WineLibraryTV and his store. Vaynerchuk been around the world at tastings that feature wine bottles more expensive than my mortgage payments. But he connects with us little people who are just looking for a decent $10 bottle to bring to a dinner party.
My guess is that winelibrarytv.com and this book—currently No. 1 in "Consumer Guides" on Amazon.com—are just the beginning. You’ll probably see a whole lot more of Vaynerchuk. And it’s nice to watch a Jersey guy change the wine culture in America in a way that no high-and-mighty Napa folks have been able to do.