WHO IS GARY VAYNERCHUK ANYWAYS??

Gary Vay-Ner-Chuk!

Back in April of 2008 I responded to a craigslist ad for wine sales people.  The economy was in full meltdown, I was financially screwed and needed a 2nd job to try to save my house.  I ended up selling wine inside Costco’s for Cameron Hughes for 19 months straight.  During that period I took 6 days off of work, literally 6 days!   The sales experience was awesome, Cameron is a great guy to work for and the people I met who work for Costco and their customers were great!

In an effort to better educate myself on the wines I was selling I started searching the internet.  I couldn’t afford to taste dozens of wines a week, but I could read reviews and reference them.  That’s when I came across Gary  VAY-NER-CHUK!

I literally laughed out loud, up late at night trying to be all serious about wine and this guy just destroyed it!  I wasn’t around during the early early days of Wine Library TV so I didn’t get to see the transformation from the quiet guy in the first video to the guy that everyone knows from WLTV.  One of my all time favorite episodes is “How to train your palate”.   Being exposed to Gary completely changed the way I sold wine.  I went on to sell over 1,000 cases of wine, working only Saturday’s and Sunday’s and without giving out any samples.

Then Gary went on tour with Crush it!  I saw him speak at the Mesa Hilton, in Mesa, Arizona.  It was AWESOME!  It was October 2009 (I think)  and he was already crushing it in terms of the live stage show the performance and the substance.  I decided to follow his advice and start blogging about something I was interested in…wine!

A few months later I received an email from Gary asking if I would be interested in writing content for his wine website/community cork’d.   I thought it was my friends pranking me so I didn’t respond.  But he emailed again, and boy am I lucky that I responded that time!

I spent 2010 producing 1-3 articles a week.  I was paired up with Jon Troutman and he worked tirelessly to help make me a better writer.  He would suggest edits and taught me a lot of techniques for writing more engaging content.  Which, if you’re reading this I’ve probably forgotten half of!   In addition to the coaching and learning experience I got access to the greater wine community that I never would have without being able to name drop that I wrote for Gary Vaynerchuk.

In the summer of 2010 Gary travelled back to Arizona for the Judgment of Arizona, a wine tasting that pitted Arizona wines against wines of the world.  After the contest was over, I was kind of just minding my own business while everyone gathered around Gary to ask him questions.  I didn’t really have anything to ask, didn’t want to be a bother so I just watched.  After a while he got up approached me and asked if I wanted to go to dinner!

That dinner, looking back was HUGE!  We were joined by some other people, there were 5 of us total.  Just think of that!  What do you think a 2 hour dinner session with Gary would be worth these days?  Two things that Gary said really stood out for me.  First, he said something to the effect of “I know we’re all getting along great here, but I want you guys to keep this going.  You don’t need me here to do this, keep in touch with each other.” I’m still in fairly regular contact with a couple of the guys.

The second thing that he remarked on was something to the effect of “I feel like something great is about to start.  Like I just feel it, I feel it in my guts.  Like I’m on the cusp of something huge.”   He couldn’t have had better intuition.   This was probably right around the time that was very first putting in place the pieces to start Vayner Media.  In case you don’t know, Vayner Media is now a 600 person digital shop with $100,000,000 annual sales.

March 8th, Gary is set to release his newest book: The Ask Gary Vee Book.  This book is based on the Ask Gary Vee Show.  This show is available on podcast, and youtube and focuses on entrepreneurship and leadership among other things.  It’s a really amazing show.  You should seriously be watching it.  Here’s what I like about it.  You get to see a super intuitive guy think on his feet.  I don’t know of a better ad lib, think fast, think on your feet person in the world.

The reason I’m writing this post is to, in my small way, the only way I can, repay Gary for the opportunity that was given to me.  Gary is a guy who gives gives and gives without asking.  He didn’t ask me to write this, I’m just doing it.  It’s the right thing to do.

Here’s what I’m going to do:  I am going to goto Amazon and buy 8 books (to start)  Why?  Because if you buy 8 books and email the receipt to super8@vaynermedia you will be put in for a drawing and the winner gets a 1 hour solo session with Gary!  Normally you would need to buy 1,000 books or shell out serious $cash$ money for that!

But I’m not doing it for the chance to win something, I’d be doing it anyways.  I am doing it because I am going to be giving away this new book to my clients.  I think the knowledge, the actionable information is super awesome.  Even more than that, I think the value that I got from one on one tutoring from Jon Troutman for a year and all the exposure is worth a lot.  I can’t pay $ for it, but I can write, I can promote, I can evangelize the gospel of Gary Vee.

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WINE LIBRARY TV: HOW TO GET YOUR PALATE TRAINED

You know the old adage “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”?  While it’s really difficult not to do so, the same thing can be said of wine.

Left Coast Cellars whimsical and quirky label would lead you to believe that this is an ordinary $12 bottle of wine.  But the wine is not ordinary, and it’s also not $12.

I recently had a chance to talk wine (and a lot of other topics) with Left Coast Cellars winemaker, Luke McCollom.  We went to dinner at a fabulous french cuisine restaurant in Phoenix called Coup des Tartes.  The main reason for choosing the restaurant was they allow you to bring your own wine (for a fee).  We sat in a back room next to the fire place and tasted through a series of wines paired with exceptional food. We dined, sipped and talked for two and half hours and I really got a great sense of who Luke is and what Left Coast Cellars is.

Luke is a very young looking fellow.  He’s 37 years old, but he has some serious wine experience.  His experience in the wine business started in his early teens and led to attaining a Bachelor of Science in fruit science and a minor in wine and viticulture from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.  Luke’s wine experience includes some ridiculously valuable time at Napa Valley’s Harlan Estate.  If you don’t know Harlan, seriously you should.  Luke joined Left Coast Cellars back in 2003 and has really created something special there.

Luke’s passion is wine.  From our conversation, it’s obvious.  But not just wine.  Vineyard management as well.  These days most wine making operations have specialized people working for them.  They have wine makers, they have vineyard managers.  There are not a lot of people that can do both and do both well.  Tasting the wines, I would say Luke is the exception to that rule.  Even though he comes across as an easy going mellow guy, he takes the wine business extremely seriously.  He is on a mission.  A mission for excellence.  I’d say with the wines we tasted, he’s there already.

In this article I’m going to focus on two of his white wines.  The first is the Left Coast Cellars 2014 Truffle Hill Chardonnay.  This wine is 100% Chardonnay aged for 9 months in 66% French oak (25% new) and 33% in stainless steel.  This wine right out of the gate comes across crisp and laser focused. Very well structured, and not at all flabby (not that I thought it would be).  This is not a buttery or vanilla flavored Chardonnay, so if you like that style of wine this is not the wine for you.  If you like  a more old world style with crisp clean acidity, and purity of fruit, not over oaked and not too high alcohol this is the wine for you.  Alcohol weighs in at 13.8% on this wine.  The Truffle hill block has only 5 acres planted to Chardonnay, so this is a very small production wine, order it before it runs out and it will run out soon.  This is a serious, fantastic wine and a great deal at $24.

Weekly Wine Journal Rating: 90 points

The second wine for review is Left Coast Cellars 2014 Pinot Gris from The Orchard block.  This wine is equally serious.  Aged for 4 months in 100% stainless steel this 100% Pinot Gris comes right out at you with an extremely crisp smack in the mouth.  But it’s gentle, not a monster.  Dominated by green apple and minerality, there are some pear notes in the back end as well.  There are 7.4 acres of Pinot Gris planted to the Orchards block, again a very small production wine and at only $18 a bottle this is a ridiculous deal.  Weekly Wine Journal Rating: 90 points

Look for the unusual label, don’t be fooled by it.  While these are seriously well made wines, they’re not snobby.  Luke is a down to earth honest guy who really is a master of his craft.  He’s committed to sustainable practices and building a legacy of great wine.  I would be surprised if I didn’t see some major accolades from major publications in the next several months.

http://leftcoastcellars.com/

So you’re sipping a spectacular glass of wine, taking in all the flavors and aromas and marveling at what a great palate you have until someone says “Hey did you know this wine was aged for 6 months with bags of oak wood chips and a little bit of port was added to soften it up a bit”

Whoa!!  I did not know that!  What started out as an austere wine not ready for immediate consumption turned into a nice “drink now” or in a year or two wine.  But is it really natural?  Is this cheating or dishonest?

Even without barrel manipulation, there’s a lot that can be done in the vineyard and in the actual wine making process that would raise the eyebrows of a wine naturalist/purist, but if you think about it, isn’t all wine just a manipulation of the grape?

There’s a very funny bit at the end of “Blood into Wine”  where the wine snob is smoking a cigarette and pontificating on the purity of the wine and he says that the most pure wine you’ll ever taste is the grape juice directly out of the wine.  Although clearly a parody, a parallel can be drawn to the current debate.

I came across the raging debate on a Wine & Spirits group on Linkedin of all places.  With over 67,000 members, this group has many of the worlds experts in wine, as well as bloggers, consumers, retailers, distributors.  Everyone.   In France, according to one commenter, it is forbidden to add water to wine, and in a lot of areas it is also forbidden to irrigate.  While in California it is not illegal to add water to wine, or irrigate (barring any current water restrictions).

There’s also a great article from The Daily Beast from 2009 that really gets into some scary manipulation and down right dishonesty:  “The Great Wine Coverup”

What is the best “manipulated” wine you’ve ever had, or the best natural wine you’ve had, if you even know which is which 😉

Mimi Premium Wines | Feteasca Alba

Mimi Feteasca Alba

What is Feteasca Alba and how did I come across this wine?  Well the kind folks at Colangelo PR reached out to me a while back to see if I would be interested in trying out some wines from Moldova.  I was interested and a few days later a box of wine (a box with bottles in it) arrived.  One of the wines was by a producer named Mimi.  The label was difficult to understand, not being in english but I did gather that Feteasca Alba must be the variety of grape used.

A little background on The Republic of Moldova and their wine history (from Colangelo PR)

• Moldova has the greatest density of vineyards in the world
• Over 276,000 acres of grape vines grow on 7% of Moldova’s arable land.
• Moldova cultivates indigenous varietals like Feteasca Alba, Feteasca Neagra, Rara Neagra, Traminer and Saperavi
• International grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and others are grown as well
• Over 250,000 citizens are employed by the wine industry
• Moldova’s wine industry accounts for 3.2% of the gross domestic product and 7.5% of the country’s total export

According to Wines of Moldova the first vines planted in Moldova can be traced as far back as 7,000 years with the first records of wine making dating back 3,000 years.  The area is mentioned with reference to wine in Homer’s Iliad (800 B.C.)  Talk about old world wine!

Feteasca Alba?  What is it?  It’s a grape indigenous  to Romania, Hungry, Transylvania and Moldova.  It’s also very difficult to find any information on.  So what does it taste like?

On the nose, pleasantly aromatic, predominantly apricot.  At first the palate was dry and austere, but after the wine warmed up the fruit really began to show itself.  This wine would really benefit from at least an hour of decanting and to be served close to the temperature you would serve red wine.  There are layers of grapefruit and pear intermingled with subtle minerality.  The wine is light (12% alcohol) which also lends itself to warmer serving temperature.  Even at a serving temperature of above 70F I didn’t detect any alcoholic heat.

This wine was a pleasant surprise.  If you’re looking to try something completely different I recommend trying this wine. And remember, don’t serve it too cold!

Weekly Wine Journal Rating: 88 points