43 Responses

1. August 2, 2006

   Gene Mishkevich

   wooohoooo.. 1st one.. nice job Gary

2. August 2, 2006

   garyv

   Gene….nice, SWEET VICTORY, once I get the WLTV t-shirts going I will give them away to the 1st posters

3. August 2, 2006

   Brandon M

   Dang….Howabout a caoster for number 2!!

4. August 2, 2006

   mikep

   Gary. I remember when you did not need the prerequisite ‘red’ in frot of Zinfandel.

   Good to see you giving the old Z its moment. Great to see some wines in the sub $20 get play and kudos. I will try the Graziano and Passagno on your recco.

   I find I enjoy sipping while watching. Even though you may have Cabernet in your glass, and I may have Syrah in mine.

   I find that the Syrah of today is the Zinfandel of yesterday (pre 1990) in that most of todays Zins are way over the top. The Syrahs have tho qualities that Zin should have, slight pepper, great balance, and more of a refrained alcohol level. Thats not to say I don’t like Zin today, I just need to search harder. I went to Zin in the City a few years ago and came out with 3 that I enjoyed! (tasted over 200).

   Keep up the good work.
   Mike

5. August 2, 2006

   bob pederson

   So if the “Veyner-nod” means that a wine is good – do we say that the bad wines have been “Veyner-chucked”

6. August 2, 2006

   Gene Mishkevich

   thanks Gary…I’ll be looking out in the mail for that tshirt….

   My worst story has something to do with that Beringer Zin… I am really ashamed of it.. but, ok, here goes… I once paid $28 for that bottle.. Wifey and I were on a cruise ship and I all of the sudden wanted some of this “stuff”… $28 + mandatory 15% tip.. I still remember this moment and laugh at myself..

7. August 2, 2006

   woodchuck

   Your hair was a mess today

8. August 2, 2006

   K Spengler

   Gary, your a hoot..always a joy to watch and learn from. I sit here nodding in agreement.. well, most of the time. Particularly your Ber. white zin comment…why bother, indeed. Keep up the great work

9. August 2, 2006

   Tim

   just a quick question considering the heat: should we be worried that wines ordered from WL will be cooked during this heat wave?

10. August 2, 2006

    garyv

    TIM we have an amazing temp controlled situation. As for the shipping of the wines we are holding onto a lot of the shipments and over night orders we are sending out.

11. August 2, 2006

    garyv

    I liked my hair today (I looked like Wolverine from X-men)

12. August 2, 2006

    damon

    Worst wine experience, aside from my own first wine making attempt, is probably the 2003 Casa Lapastolle Cuvee Alexandre Cab. Was a big fan of the stuff for previous few vintages, but the 03 had so much new oak it tasted like a 2×4. $20 down the drain. The Norman “Monster” Zin was pretty aweful stuff too. The only 2 wines I can remember that I drank 1 glass of and dumped.

13. August 2, 2006

    Rebecca

    Worst wine experience: My folks went to Spain roughly ten years ago and brought back 2 bottles of Vega Sicilia from the Ribera del Duero. They waited several years to open them and finally did so on Christmas. Both had gone horribly bad most likely because they were not stored properly…my mom had admitted to exposing them to heat and sunlight in her kitchen for several years. I can’t fault her, she had no idea what she’d done…can’t say anything more than it was just very unfortunate…

14. August 2, 2006

    Jim J.

    Gary — great stuff! One nagging question: what’s up with the “art” (to use a term loosely) behind you? I keep trying and failing to discover a link between the picture on the wall and the day’s episode. What am I missing?

    Worst wine experience? Think Bartles & Jaymes and high school and you’ll get some idea.

15. August 2, 2006

    Doug

    Hey Gary what about Ridge? Great Zins there; you mentioned Turley too …

    Worst wine story? Paying too much for wine in France and then waiting as it cleared customs for a WEEK during late summer. Spent a lot of time biting my nails and looking at weather reports and decided not to do THAT again …

16. August 2, 2006

    Sam Zen

    Do I get a free t-shirt and a 25% royalty skim for the VaynerNod or what??? In response to today’s question…. I think I win.

    I was in Chile, on a study abroad program about 5 years ago, and had lunch at the Chilean Senate cafeteria. Because I can speak Spanish I was delegated to sit between two Chilean Senators. Towards the end of lunch I took a small zip of the cab and snarfed a fine mist all over the table and the fine folks surrounding me- honest to God. Now, I have to say, it wasn’t a snarf at the poor quality of the wine (which was horrible) but instead it was a snarf that happens to me randomely once every few years, without explanation. The short of it is that after a lot of excusing myself and wiping of wine from the table I was able to win over the Senators and continue the lunch as if nothing had ever happened. Good times, good times, …

17. August 2, 2006

    Dan

    Hey Gary!

    Go back to saying “sucks” when it does.

    Slate says it is OK:

    http://www.slate.com/id/2146866/

    Tell it like it is! You rock!

    (Worst wine story? An expensive white purchased from an arrogant wine store owner here in Houston who tells me he has an “extremely educated palate” The wine was like the middle ages: Nasty, brutish, and (lucky for me) short)

18. August 2, 2006

    Jim Vandegriff

    Worst wine story: I moved my wine cellar from coastal Santa Cruz, CA to Piercy, CA in southern Humboldt county. Soon thereafter the temperatures hit over 100 degrees for 15 straight days. Can you say “cooking sherry”! Yuck. I had to start collecting over again. Jim

19. August 2, 2006

    Rich S

    Another great episode. I love California Zin. I would have been curious to see how the big time Zin producers (Rosenblum, Ravenswood) would have fared in that contest. Also, is there much of a difference between the Seghesio Old Vine Zin vs. their regular offering? I have never tried the old vine zin but the regular zin has never let me down……

    Worst wine experience has to be when I went out to dinner at a very nice restaurant with a bunch of people from work and someone in our party chose a Brunello for the table and then gave me the tasting duties when the bottle arrived. Surely enough, I really thought the wine was terrible and told her so but she tried it and said that it was fine and that “You must not be used to Italian wines”. Meanwhile I am hugely into Italian wines and after it was poured for the table, everyone proceeded to think the wine was terrible. Why that story was a bad experience for me is that I felt like my opinion wasn’t taken seriously because I am a younger guy but meanwhile, I probably drink and taste more wines than most people at the table……….

20. August 2, 2006

    Brandon M

    &nbsp:
    It’s OK to be a wine geek…that’s a far cry from wine snob. I was up in Tahoe and my whole family was there (2004). One family member brings up two bottles of 75 – 78 Chateau Palmer, somewhere in there. We’re BBQing chicken and this family member goes to open a bottle for dinner as he knows I’m a huge wine fan. His wife steps in and says, “We’re not opening that with Chicken, are you crazy?” I was leaving in the morning so I was completely bummed. I vowed from that point on to serve and enjoy the wine I take to places as if I was sharing them with Bacchus himself!!!
    Don’t be a snob, be a geek!

21. August 2, 2006

    Brandon M

    vayner rating logos!

    http://www.gngnet.com/images/MySpace/vaynernod.gif

    http://www.gngnet.com/images/MySpace/vaynerchucked.gif

22. August 2, 2006

    Chris

    Worst wine experience — easy winner. My wife and I were in Napa last year. We had made an appointment at Hartwell Vineyards for a tasting. We were ten minutes late and they would not let us in the gate onto the property. At first blush, this almost seems reasonable, but having tasted at Hartwell before we knew there was an at least 15 minute history of the winery and mini tour before sitting down to taste. On an even more puzzling level, they knew we spent well over a thousand dollars the last time we visited. These people took themselve way too serious and made a poor business decision. The silver lining — Cliff Lede Vineyards (about 1/4 mile away on the Silverado trail) was an awsome substitute. The wines at CLV were as good or better and half the price. I am a former Hartwell client. I will go out of my way to not buy their wine.

23. August 2, 2006

    Matty Van

    I disagree a little bit with gary’s view of white zin.

    ” why does anyone drink this stuff”.

    Easy because they are not wine drinkers and dont have the developed palate to drink real wine. They drink it because they enjoy it and it makes them happy. If I was used to driving around 10 year old ford escorts all the time and did not know that better cars are easy to be had I wouuld enjoy the ford escort just fine.

    To me that comment came off a little bit like some of the stuff I read on WS boards that are a little snobish. Dont get me wrong I know that I can have 1000 better wines than a berenger white zin. but if I were a huge white zin fan I would feel like I was being talked down upon by this episode.

    I feel it does not bother anyone to say a wine sucks but to say “why does anyone drink this stuff” might make the people that do drink it not feel so great.

    I just remember how I felt when I was new to wine trying to ask questions on WS message boards.

    Love the show gary I watch them all, and I look forward to reciving my first order.

24. August 2, 2006

    Tony D

    Gary,

    I’ve had the 03 Seghisio Old Vine Zin. It was hyped to me as a great wine, and I couldn’t wait to pop the cork. But my response was similar to yours: not so great. Helped turn me off to zins (that and my April trip to Amador/Eldorado County “Zin Country” – where I didn’t taste a single zin that I thought was drinkable. Some of these bad boys – and a I mean bad – had 16.5% alcohol!) Yuck!!

    Worst wine experience: Last Christmas my wife and I treated ourselves to a week long trip to Napa and Sonoma. I was totally amped about visiting some of the smaller wineries that made great wine. Unfortunately, a couple of things ruined that. First, it rained the whole time we were there. We left right before the Napa River flooded the town of Napa, giving up after only two days. But those two days would have been awesome if not for the other thing – I came down with a killer cold the first day there. I couldn’t smell or taste a thing – except the alcohol in the wines. We ended up only visiting two wineries before I gave up – everything I tasted tasted like crap. I was seriously bummed.

    On the plus side, as my wife said, if it hadn’t been for my cold, we wouldn’t have left when we did, and we might have gotten washed away in the flood.

25. August 3, 2006

    MarcT

    Man I’m way late on this one.
    I have 4 friends that will get this episode emailed to them as they are huge Zin fans. I too am a Zin fan and really enjoyed this episode.
    Gary…Keep changing the background pictures. It gives me and my buddy extra things to talk about ie:who the figures are and what sporting event it is depicting.
    Worst wine experience…Mine would have to be similar to a few other WLTV fanatics. The ever popular “peer pressure purchase” comes to mind. I was out at a pretty nice restaurant with my girl and two other couples. The two other couples had come to the restaurant the week before and tried a wine that they raved and raved about. So when they told me what wine I was going to pick I folded under pressure. Guess what…I get to taste too. So I look, swirl, sip, swish, slurp, and swallow. I must have had the worst look on my face because the entire group of people including the waitress was stunned. I said “looks like box wine, smells like box wine, tastes like….hhmmm, box wine and if I am paying for part of a $75 bottle of wine it won’t be this one.”
    My friends tasted it (from my glass) and thought is was just fine. So here I am looking like a tool because I had slready told the waitress that we would not be having that wine. She was preplexed and did not know what to do. She said “well it is already open and you had some so you have to pay for it.” Manager please…The manager was reluctant to take the wine back too as it was not corked. My solution was that my friends could drink it and pay for it but I would choose another wine for my girl and me. After a long look at the wine list she drank water and I drank good old Samuel Adams Boston Lager!
    To this day my friends have always pointed out the “wine snob”
    I say geek…they say snob.
    I drink Elderton…they drink Rosemount.
    What can I say?
    So Gary…you said there was a point to the best movie of all time question…I’m waiting.

26. August 3, 2006

    Gene Mishkevich

    I think we should compile a “best of Gary” or “Gary bloopers” episode just in time for 100th episode..

27. August 3, 2006

    Bruce

    Hi Gary,

    One quick comment…I think you should know exactly what a wine costs. You always give a range while the actual cost is displayed on screen. Would help if you knew the cost and quoted the exact price you are selling the wines for….Have your staff put a small label on the bottle or give you a cheat sheet..:)

    I would like to tell all your viewers about my favorite Zinfandel. It is from a small family run winery in Sonoma called Nalle. The Nalle Zins are very nice and have lower alcohol levels then most. The 04 is 13.9% and their wines are not as hot as many other high alcohol Zins. I have had several of the highly rated Rosenblum Zins and they are always really hot and very jammy, almost like a port. The Nalle’s have wonderful flavor and balance and are not over the top fruity. Plus their label art is really fun. I would highly recommend.

    Worst wine story…business dinner and ordered a bottle of Opus One. One of my assosiates who is not much into wines chugged his glass and then over poured his next glass and spilled all over the place. He had no idea that the rest of us were really into savoring the wine and wanted to try and enjoy it. I had to give him a quick lesson in how to drink and enjoy wine by the time the second bottle came so we could relax and enjoy…..

    And, since I missed posting yesterday…I have to vote for Pulp Fiction and Caddyshack as best movies.

    Keep up the good work, the episodes have become really fun!

28. August 3, 2006

    JJ

    Hey guys first post, and I’m not a zin fan but have a good wine horror story for ya.

    Christmas 2001, first Christmas with my girl (who is now my wife). MY local wine store guy had gotten his/my hands on some Mouton-Rothschild so needless to say 1000 dollars poorer I’m happy driving home with the bottles. I leave them in the car (NY in December) to unload the gifts etc, my gf/wife volunteers the get the wine so I say no prob. Hours later when the guests starting arriving I asked her where she put the wine, she replied, right next to the fireplace!!!!!!!!!! My heart sank.
    Needless to say the bottles were actually almost to hot to hold and that was the end of that. I almost made here put ” I promise never ever to touch a bottle of wine again” in our vows

    Later

    Later

29. August 3, 2006

    zerokreap (kw)

    gary! man, i am loving these surprise tasting….i wanna see a box wine get into the mix! hahaha! anyway, worst wine experience…well, i have had a few bad wines in my day, but that wasn’t the worst experience….i am a man on a budget, so with that in mind i must keep a few bottles of decent cheap stuff around so that i can enjoy at least a couple of bottles a week…you know, like a $10-15 bottle…they’re not great bottles, but sometimes they surprise you and stuff like the san felipe cab are just great for the price point. Anyway, I was busting open such a bottle (Beringer Knight’s Valley Cab) and I was with a friend….well, the SOB was corked! Well, i hate to waste wine, and i didn’t feel like trying to ship it back to your guys, so i drank the whole bottle. i mean, my buddy is just a casual wine drinker and he couldn’t tell, so being the ass that i am, i let him drink it and didn’t say anything. well, i finished that thing and i hated myself later…..my stomach hurt and i tasted the TCA for like 2 days in my mouth….it was a horrible idea, but at least i hadn’t wasted my $20….and i was able to entertain….wow, what a horrible story!

30. August 3, 2006

    TimF

    I’m an adventurous wine drinker. Recently I was in an ethnic market that just started carrying wine. I took my time looking over the selection and picked out a Romanian Pinot Noir and was very proud of myself for my bravery. I opened it a few night later — you want to talk about sugar water? Holy cow. It’s the only bottle of wine I’ve ever had where I couldn’t even finish a single glass.

    BTW – I’d love to see a blind tasting. I don’t think I’ve seen you do one yet…

31. August 3, 2006

    kidseyemd

    Hey Gary,

    I understand the association of Zin and Primitivo, but i recall reading numerous sources tracing Zin to its roots in Yugoslavia, or at least somewhere in the Balkans…

    Worst (most disappointing wine experience)-about one year ago, first taste of Ausone,1989,
    corked,major bummer. Now some corked wines are drinkable-this one however was barely palatable!!Glad it wasnt my bottle

    Hugh

32. August 3, 2006

    Craig K

    Great episode Gary. Your description of the Graziano (e.g., leather glove) and especially the Passagno (tangerine?!) were vivid enough to make me want to try them. Experiencing unique and unexpected nuances of varietals is one of the things that makes the wine world go round, IMO. Consider this another vote for the idea of a WL shirt where the front would give a beaming Vey-ner-NOD and the back, complete with Wolverine hair would give the Vey-ner-CHUCK! Worst wine I ever had was my “birth year wine”. In the late 90’s a Florida colleague gave my wife the gift of ‘65 Latour. Whether the fact that 1965 was one of the four worst vintages of the century, or that the wine was stored in a closet not a cellar for 30+ years — or both, there was nothing about the smell-n-slurp that remotely resembled wine. More like a death wine.
    Cheers, CK

33. August 3, 2006

    Julius

    Worst wine experience – easy, and probably most unique. Two days before I am to attend a $150 wine tasting event (non-refundable) I come down with Bell’s Palsy. Unable to find a replacement I decide to go. What a waste. In addition to the difficulty in keeping the glass secure to my lips (at times unsuccessfully so) I had lost almost all of my sense of taste and smell. I could barely distinguish the difference between a first growth Bordeaux and a $10 Vins de Pays.

    BTW, I really enjoyed and appreciated your descriptions of the wines in today’s episode; all the different fruits and especially the the leather glove reference. I don’t think of that as the same as saying that “a work by Picasso is simple ‘various shades of blue blended on a canvas structure to indicate to the viewer an implied emotion’.”
    Keep it up!

34. August 3, 2006

    Ed R

    One day I was out tasting at some of the local vineyards on Long Island and I made a comment about the inflated tasting prices to the employee and asked if anyone ever complains about this recent price surge and the woman stated, ” not on the weekends, but during the week you have some griping.” Needless to say I was there on a Thursday and the woman’s subtle shot was at the locals and you got to love how someone who is pouring wine for $5 an hour can get super snooty just because she serves wine to the rich and famous on the weekends two months a year. Did I mention Bedell sucks.
    Question for you, why does anyone buy over priced long island wine anyway when there is so much more out there?
    Keep up the good work , been with you since the begining, wine novice learning a lot.
    Thanks,
    ED

35. August 3, 2006

    TimF

    Ed R – I was just out on Long Island a few weeks ago (took the ferry over from CT when I was visiting my parents). My wife kept saying she wanted to go to Bedell. We went to 6 wineries that day and Bedell was by far and away the worst of the bunch. Absolutely horrible. I didn’t like a single wine they poured — and you’re right, they were pretentious. I really liked the Merlot that Lenz was pouring and Macari’s Block E was unreal.
    TimF

36. August 3, 2006

    Joe R

    My worst wine experience has to be the homemade zin we made in Nyak last Fall. We bottled it in March and I didn’t taste it until May. “Fungal jockstrap” comes to mind. Way beyond sweaty socks. Needless to say…I’m out of the business. I think I’ll just buy my zin from you from now on. PS…do you think it had anything at all to do with Nyak?

37. August 3, 2006

    Ed R

    Tim F I agree with your statement about Lenz my wife and I have enjoyed a number of their wines. I’ll check out Macari and get back to you thanks for tip.

38. August 3, 2006

    Russ J

    A guy I know that often has “interesting items” for sale gave me a bottle of Hungarian sparkling wine to sample. It was really not bad at all, and I sprung for a case. At $2 a bottle, why not? I brought the case to a New Year’s Eve party and was greeted like a hero. I gave the bottles out among the other party goers and kept a bottle for myself. Bait and switch? This was bait and a dozen bottles of mildly carbonated horse piss with about a pound of sugar added. I hid my bottle behind the couch, with several others, and slunk home in shame.

39. August 3, 2006

    Jose

    Hi Gary,

    I’m not trying to be a know it all, but I thought I’d mention the guys at UC Davis have actually determined that the Zinfandel/Primitivo grape is actually a clone of the Crljenak grape, which was native to Croatia. Regardless of where it came from though, it makes damn good juice, if you like the style.

    My pals and I watch the show and we’re enjoying it very much, but we sort of feel like just watching you tasting wines and scoring them isn’t really as satisfying as learning about the other aspects of wine. We think your viewers may enjoy episodes such as an in depth series on how to taste, how production affects the wine (Steel vs. oak aging, what malolactic fermentation does, old vines vs young vines…. etc..), flavour profiles of specific grapes and regions, climate effects on sugar and tannin levels, hot vs cool climate wines….. all those good things which have been touched on very lightly, but could use more.

    For example, we partake in several tastings per year, and we always find that there’s a few people per tasting who can easily distiguish a St. Estephe from a Grave, but they never go into detail about how they know it. It feels like it’s a big secret! Revealing some of those “secrets” would be a great few episodes, I’m sure.

    Just my two cents worth. In the end, we think you’re doing great, and who are we to criticize you?!

    Take care.

40. August 4, 2006

    Paul

    OK, it’s time for bit of wine geekness regarding the origins of Zinfandel.

    Zinfandel has been assumed to have come from Europe at some time, but the origins were uncertain. However, the work of Prof. Carol Meredith of UC Davis and her colleagues have come to a very clear conclusion. Zinfandel was not known to exist anywhere in Europe until about thirty years ago, when it was discovered that Primitivo in southern Italy was the same cultivar. This has been shown to be true using DNA markers and the work repeated in several independent labs. However, it appears that although the two grapes are genetically identical, Zin did not come to the U.S. by way of Italy.

    The Dalmatian cultivar Plavac mali was suspected to be closely related to Zinfandel. Continued work demonstrated that Plavac mali was an offspring of something genetically identical to Zin crossed with another Dalmatian varietal, Dobričić. Given these results, further exploration of other Dalmatian varieties eventually turned up a vine strongly resembling Zinfandel in a vineyard in Kaštela, a coastal town near the city of Split. Genetic analysis revealed that this vine, subsequently determined to be the rare cultivar Crljenak kastelanski, has the same genetic profile as Zinfandel.

    Crljenak kastelanski is almost extinct in Croatia. Several vines have now been found but only in mixed plantings with other varieties. The search for more extensive plantings of Crljenak kastelanski is continuing along the coast and coastal islands.

    The question of how it got from there to here is still unanswered.

    The above notes are modified from the abstract of the following paper, published in:
    ISHS Acta Horticulturae 603: VIII International Conference on Grape Genetics and Breeding
    “THE IDENTIFICATION OF ZINFANDEL ON THE DALMATIAN COAST OF CROATIA”
    Authors: E. Maletic, I. Pejic, J. Karoglan Kontic, J. Piljac, G. Dangl, A. Vokurka, T. Lacombe, N. Miroševic, C. Meredith

41. January 23, 2007

    ThomasS

    Zin zin, never have had it because you almost can’t get it over here, and when you have you almost surely end up with junk for an atmospheric price . Told you to open a WL-shop over here, THAT would change the wine world!
    Worst experience? Mmm, on a fair; huge importer of Italian wines in Belgium I am regular customer of, went to their stand and tasted some wines. There was a bottle of A. Longo Cacc’E Mitte di Lucera 2004. Great wine everybody says (by now, I a sure it is), so we wanted to taste it. Nose was oxidized, being carefull I first had it sniffed by my pal, said the same immediately: oxidized. So we where pretty sure about that (you know the faulty Port and pigeon droppings smell). So I said (very politely): could it be that this wine is oxidized? WOW, what did I say? And those two guys started to get out their glasses, whirling the wine around as if it was something of juice clean of a god’s ass, as to say, you know: we are the real ‘connoisseurs’. I HATE that, really I HATE that (it already showed that new nothing about it, they didn’t even know the varietals (out of 8 wines) … but you know, on a fair you always have these quick earners). And of course: No, it wasn’t. Horse shit! Grrrrr … .
    Know what? A week later, I got a message for a special personified reduction for the next three months … . You know, this is so ridiculous. Just because they disrespect the (into their eyes) ‘average’ customer, they have to make it up with some ‘reduction’, instead of just apologizing at the very moment. There is nothing wrong with an oxidized wine, is it? It’s no one’s fault … . Really HATE that!

42. March 8, 2007

    | californiaredwine.info

    [...] California Red Zinfandel: the tastes, flavors and thoughts …Episode #32 – California red wines. Gary Vaynerchuk jumps in! – Wine Library TV … Video, review, california, wine, merlot, cabernet, wines, Libert school, … [...]

43. August 31, 2007

    WA Ambassador

    I don’t know. I’m still not totally on board with white zin yet.

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