I can remember the first time a good friend of mine told me to check out this person who does wine reviews on the internet. He told me I would get a kick out of this guy who was a little off center but fun to watch. I checked it out and thought to myself, here is a guy that takes the same approach to the wine world that I do. I was hooked. I didn’t watch him religiously, but I tried to get a few episodes of Wine Library TV in every week hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk.
“Hello everyone and welcome to Wine Library TV. I am your host Gary Vay-Ner-Chuk and this my friends is the Thunder Show, the internet’s MOST PASSIONATE WINE PROGRAM…” This is the way he started out every episode. He was both dynamic and knowledgeable with a “Jersey” attitude that came through. He appealed to the younger generation simply because he knew there lingo and spoke about wine using the terms that they could relate to. He had a New York Jets bucket and an action figure of some sort sitting in front of him nearly every episode. He would drink wine and analyze it either straight up or in a blind format. He did his best to educate or as he would put it “Nerd it up”. Sometimes he would have a guest on the program related to wine, and many times they were big names. Jorge Ordonez, Jancis Robinson, Randall Graham, George Tabor and Kermit Lynch to name a few.
Gary has a great palate, or as we say he understands what he is drinking and also has a good barometer for what most people like. This is due in part to the fact that he worked in the retail side of wine. His father Sasha owns a liquor store in New Jersey and Gary eventually took things over becoming the General Manager of the business. Gary took sales from somewhere in the 2 to 4 million dollar mark to nearly 60 million dollars, making his presence as a successful business man. He spent many hours in his early career hustling wine on the floor helping customers make the right choice in their purchase. This experience was invaluable for him when he started his video wine program.
Gary’s true passion lies in business, and although he loves wine and the wine world, he loves being an entrepreneur. He is big into Angel Investing and he loves to give motivational talks. I do not believe there are many out there that understand the value of Social Networking better then Gary. He has recently written his third book entitled “The Thank You Economy” in which he preaches the value of the Social Network to businesses in particular. His book “Crush It” is still one of my favorites that I refer to often as I develop my own skills in social networking.
He ran with Wine Library TV for five years doing one-thousand episodes. He retired from that format and soon started “The Daily Grape” which was similar to his prior show but much shorter and one that he could do on the road since that is where he was most of the time. It was a good program but lacked the steam that he had generated with Wine Library. He had trouble (which is understandable) keeping it going on a daily basis. Recently, he announced his permanent retirement from video blogging (The Daily Grape & Wine Library TV) and said that he is on to other passions which include nurturing his entrepreneurial spirit. and spending time with his daughter and wife.
Gary will be sadly missed. I for my part learned many things from Gary and I enjoyed the format that he developed. I made comments on his video blog and even criticized him from time to time. Gary was always gracious when responding to criticism and I believe he truly cares about people. There is nothing fake about this man and although he has an ego he is truly interested in those that support him. I for my part do not believe that we have seen an end to his video wine interests. Someday, and it may be sooner then we think, Gary will pop up somewhere on the internet with a video about wine.
I wish Gary well and look forward to seeing what he is up to next. Cheers! Stan The Wine Man.
