Gary V - The Thunder keeps on coming
Posted by Paul Mabray on June 4th, 2008Love him or hate him but there is no denying the power of Gary Vaynerchuck. He has exploded into the wine world with his powerful voice, his unique methods of reviewing wine, and his love for life. Disclaimer - I consider Gary a friend and am a huge fan. I like his disruptive approach to wine, his goal to democrotize and empower consumers, and his zest for life. If you want a great history of Gary, read this article. If you want to know him, meet him at any of his events or follow his twitter http://twitter.com/garyvee where you will get a mix of vicious promotion and statements that let you know Gary is a great guy, for example - “Wine + Board Games + Friends = BEST NIGHT EVER!”, or ” So excited to be alive! and to be alive in this amazing time when at 2 am I have all of u to hang with, THANK YOU everything/everybody!”, or ” thnx everyone for yappin on AIM, hope everyone has a house full of LOVE today and u are spending time with friends and FAM! See u guys soon!”
Sometimes I don’t agree with the way he describes wine and I am sure that wineries feel the same. I mean really, it must be hard to have someone publicly comment on the product you have crafted with TLC. But good or bad, as long as he mentions it, sales increase. I’ve heard MANY stories where he loves a wine, sells through it, and when the consumers want more, he points to the wineries. Moreover, there is a Anti-Gary group that just buys everything he pans. Amazing.
He is a huge advocate of winery and retailer Direct to Consumer as well as Direct to Trade efforts (yes, Gary is one of the major retailers who loves the concept of buying DTT). Needless to say, he is a HUGE winery advocate.
He is the newest and without question, the most prominent wine personality in the US today. His internet reach, his ability to garner mainstream media attention (Conan O’Brien cameos that are great to watch), and his usage of Web 2.0 has him as the most watched and listened to wine critic in the world. You may argue that point but I would contend that the numbers don’t lie. You can watch his show daily at http://tv.winelibrary.com/ or at http://www.hulu.com/the-thunder-show. He also has released his first book 101 wines - which is a hilarious, accurate, and wonderful new approach to how he analyzes wine. I won’t steal his thunder (pun intended) by sharing the content of the book, but if you are in the wine industry it is a fun read. I know he is already at work writing the next version and I hope one of your wines gets mentioned. I also hope you try to put it in your tasting room or sell it. I think that promoting that type of fun in wine is good for the industry and will continue to capture the attention of our largest growing wine population - the Millennials.
Hats off to Gary, he really is one of the people helping to change the wine industry for the better.
As a post script - Gary will be at our Annual Symposium speaking about innovation. If you have not seen him, please try to come. It is open to all of our winery partners and as a non-Inertia winery partner you can rsvp to try to get in since we have limited seats. For everyone that comes we’ll be giving away a copy of his book for you to enjoy as we do.
June 5th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Vaynerchuk has certainly “made his mark” on wine criticism. I suspect his methods (web video, podcasts, twitter, well…web 2.0) have had more impact on his success than his content.
I am continually amazed by the power that questionable reviewers like Robert Parker and the Wine Spectator have on the wine business. I suspect that the inconsistency and suspicious motives of those two have unknowingly contributed to Gary’s success.
Am I alone in thinking that Parker is slowly but surely becoming “your father’s Oldsmobile” and that the Spectator is finding it increasingly difficult to work through balancing advertising dollars spent with wine scores?
Gary’s stuff is certainly fun–AND he’s a retailer, so he “gets” the business. I suspect that Gary’s success is another indicator that there is a huge amount of room for new sources for wine reviewing and rating. My personal impression of Gary’s method is that I find myself more interested in Gary than the wines on the table in front of him.