I am not a “Vayniac”, but I do like Gary Vaynerchuk. I admire people who speak up when they have something to say, and Gary has been saying a lot. Sure, he advertises on my site and I thank him for that, but he impresses me all the same.
If you aren’t familiar yet with Gary Vaynerchuk or Wine Library TV(http://tv.winelibrary.com) I am surprised. Gary is an impetuous young man in New Jersey who offers a daily “Video Blog” featuring wine tasting clips in which he rips through a series of wines with a “can’t-sit-still-for-a-second” style which I find very entertaining.
He has recently been on Conan, Ellen DeGeneres, Nightline, etc., eating cigars and dirt and sucking on rocks as unconventional methods to demonstrate tastes and textures found in wine. His video blog ranks number 4 in our list of top food and wine blogs here, http://www.localwineevents.com/blogs/blog_list.php I’ve caught clips of him spouting off on Fox News about subjects that had absolutely nothing to do with wine, but its wine where he is making the most noise.
Now he has a new book, (Gary Vaynerchuk’s 101 Wines)
And I like that too.
Gary toots his own horn a little bit in the introduction, but I’m okay with that. You have to in this world, in my view. He tells of his “rise” from power-trading baseball cards at the age of 14 (at $1000 per week) to trading wine at his father\'s liquor store. Now Gary has become is a minor phenom within the Web 2.0 wine niche.
In his book, Gary offers 101 specific wines. Many of these wines are, right this moment, most likely available to you in a local wine shop near you.
(If not, call me. I got people. wink wink)
His choices appear pretty objective as they cover a very broad spectrum, and each wine has a two-page spread with a pithy headline (the hard part, eh?). There is just enough information on each wine, including vintage, price and grape varietal, as well as notes on the wine and the areas it hails from.
Gary is not preaching “here are a bunch of wines that I drink and so should you” but rather, “here are wines from a wide variety of grapes and styles to give you perspective”.
So, my suggestion would be this:
Get this book
