Jason R — There are a lot of places to buy wine in Chicago but you’re right, Wine Library prices beat most of the places around here even with the shipping charge. Some interesting stores in and around Chicago that I’ve visted:

Schaefers in Skokie – big selections, they hold a tasting/class once a month
Flickinger Wine – They have a web presence with many older bottles. I picked up a couple of bottles of Graham’s 1975 port from them. They don’t have a retail store, but you can order from them over the phone and pick the wine up from their south side warehouse.
Knightsbridge – Incredible selection of higher end wines in Northbrook.
Just Grapes – This place is downtown. Doesn’t have a large selection but they have a pay-per-taste tasting bar which is pretty cool.
Lush Wine & Spirits – Located near the UIC campus. They had at least one Pax in addition to the Pax rose.

If you want a treat, you can stop by one of the Glunz wineries (Chicago and Grayslake, IL). They source grapes from California and make the wines in IL. They make a pretty good port and the Zin they were selling this spring was an unbelievable bargain.

Another good experience is going to Lynfred Winery in Roselle, IL. They source grapes from all over the place and make many, many very good wines. I’m a wine club member so I usually go over there for a tasting and to pick up my bottle every month.

wow, i feel like such a slack…but alas it is fiscal year closeout time and i am busy as hell at work. i guess i will have to settle for 77 today. oh well. man, what a way to end WLTV…no wonder the jets suck. personally i am a college football man myself…gary, i am sure you have an appreciation for a “roll tide!”. yeah, i know you have to like ol’ swaggering joe. anyway…ummm…QOTD: i have never received any wine as a gift…no one that knows me understands anyhting about wine (and they do not want to)…therefore, they never attempt to pick a bottle. If i could receive a bottle as a present i would like a nice bordeaux that i could pick back for a while…i have always wanted a lafite or cheval blanc. a 1995 cain five would not be bad either…it was the best bottle i have ever drank…complex and silky smooth.

Gary,

When you taste wines and they dont cut it for you; do the sales hurt? I know you dont want to misinform your customers but isnt that kinda bad for sales? It seems like you would have that in stock forever; which in that case if it doesnt sell; take it out and use for target practice.

Dan

QOD: The nicest bottle I’ve ever given as a gift: a ’96 Bollinger Vieilles Vignes Francaise to the two close friends of ours who drove from Chicago to Toronto to be the witnesses at our wedding, and who made the day even more incredibly special for us. They love champagne, as do we. They’ve since told me it was the best champagne they’ve ever had. (My only regret: not having bought one for ourselves!!!! Gary: get some in! LOL!)

The nicest bottle I’ve ever rec’d as a gift: from the same two friends, years ago, a bottle of ’89 Veuve Clicquot Vintage Reserve that they’d had in their cellar. What made the gift special is that it was the “ah ha!” moment for me re champagne, that moment when you realize it’s not all Korbel. (So they’ve cost me a good bit of $$ since!!)

First – Have a great Party this weekend Gary – I am sure that I speak for all 5000+ of us – We expect a report on the wine early next week!!! LOL

Second – TimF & GOL – Thank you so much for the Chicago info – I will be in Chicago for 1.5 weeks this months, so I will have to check some things out and broaden my normal stops.

THIRD – COOLEST THING TODAY (Sorry – second coolest) First coolest was the 1998 Diamond Creek Gravely Meadow that I picked up at Brown Derby for $39.99 earlier this year – Mismarked. ANYWAYS – I WAS AT THE LOCAL GROCERY STORE TODAY AND THE GUY THAT RUNS THE ATTACHED LIQUOR & WINE SHOP THAT I KNOW FAIRLY WELL – APPROACHED ME AND SAID THAT THEY RECEIVED A COUPLE ERRANT BOTTLES OF HEITZ MARTHA’S IN MISTAKE FOR THE REGULAR & HE WOULD OFFER IT TO ME FOR SAME AS THE REGULAR NAPA STUFF – NEEDLESS TO SAY I BOUGHT ALL I COULD – 1 BOTTLE LEFT FOR $41.99. THESE ARE THE 2 SINGLE “BEST BUYS” THAT I HAVE MADE TO DATE.

GARY V – IF YOU RECALL THE TONGUE LASHING I RECEIVED THE LAST TIME I ASKED A QUESTION WHEN YOU TOOK THE DAY OFF – WELL HERE IT IS – I WOULD LIKE YOU TO ASK “WHAT IS THE “BEST BUY” YOU HAVE MADE & THE STORY BEHIND IT – I think that it fits your style + I would like to hear the stories – I think that it pumps the wine up in your head and just makes it all that much better when you pop the cork that one special day – Hell it could be ordinary stuff and your mind and experience could make it into a legend!!!! Thanks

as a fellow jets fan that made me sick! Kyle Brady! Jonny Mitchel! UGHHHHHHH Any way great recent episodes. Best wine i gave as a gift was a bottle of 1944 Masandra to my father for his 60th birthday 2 years ago. Best wine received as a gift was from my stepfather, a bottle of 1985 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard (i have not opened it yet….yikes)

Gary:

Been a shopper with WL in the past, just started watching WLTV and love it – great info and nothing like hearing someone talk about wine in the middle of a long work day to get me looking forward to a nice red when I get home after work.

Question: I hear you often speak of how long you have allowed the bottles to breathe before your tastings. Are they breathing at room temperature or at storage temperatures? What temperature are you drinking your reds, when you do your tastings?

Thanks and keep up the great work.

Louisiana George

Best received – 1997 Poggio Antico Altereo……Still waiting to drink this one!!!

Best given – 2001 Damilano Barolo….Still have 4 more of these. Great Barolo for a reasonable price.

Hey Jason R: TimF mentioned some good places in Chicago. Also, if you’re out west of Chicago, in Palatine there’s a nice shop called “The Wine Cellar”, and up north in Grayslake there’s a new little shop called “Wine Nose”, and in the city there’s also “Hart Davis Hart”, not a walk in store, but you can order wine online or on the phone and pick it up any time you’re in town.

Go Bears.
T

“Gary,

When you taste wines and they dont cut it for you; do the sales hurt? I know you dont want to misinform your customers but isnt that kinda bad for sales? It seems like you would have that in stock forever; which in that case if it doesnt sell; take it out and use for target practice.

Dan ”

Dan this is a huge issue but LYING or MISLEADING on WLTV would hurt me more. I have to do what’s right for my business but wine will sell, plus some people may not agree with me which is great and what wine is all about!

LIZARD!!!! Would that be baked? . . .broileld? . . . shushi? Wha’

What’s with the baloons?

Best I gave: to my wife — Opus One ’82 (their first year)

Best I reveived: from my wife — Ch. Yquem (she has great taste)

Loved the montage. Have a great Labor Day weekend. It looks like we in the East will be sharing it with Ernesto.

Gary,

I’m a new fan and just caught up on the episodes! When you describe the Kathryn Kennedy Lateral, you describe it as both “complex” and “one-dimensional”. So, which is it? I was just a bit confused by that contradictory assessment.

On a side note, I’m not much of a football fan, so if you’re going to include sports commentary in these segments, could you throw in a little gymnastics?

Thanks!
Meg

Hi Gary,

I just found Wine Library TV and I am hooked! I just watched the past 18 episodes in rapid sucession, and i am having a hard time not placing an order for an obscene amount of wine that you found exciting on my credit card (i need to spend some time reducing my current inventory before i can by more). I have a few questions in mind but ill start with one. How about an episode on Madiera? I am a huge fan of the style and complexity that this wine can bring. I would love to see a comparison of the major producers blends 5, 10, and 15 year olds. And maybe a few Vinatage selections thrown in, i have always wondered wether or not they are worth the investment. I am little bit hesitant to pose this question because madiera is pretty much way under the radar and i dont want everyone to start buying up the vintage bottles that i have been saving up for. Keep up the great work on the shows. And Thanks

Nick K.

best bottle? actually purchased two (2) antinori brunellos ’97.. brilliant.
best bottle, however?… a penfold’s grange, 1983 or a Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1983. (both were served at decanter magazine’s vintage dinner in ’03
tv
http://www.tonyvincent.com
http://www.myspace.com/tonyvincent

Gary,
Hope you had a nice long weekend.
I hope you still have some Godello in stock so that I can order later this month when it’s cooler here in Big D.

A liitle scold on my part:
You should never have a corked wine on WLTV. Even if you wish to go into the episode fresh, one of your capable associates should taste everything (maybe without comment) so that corked wines can be caught.
I am sure that once you have a corked wine you begin testing the remaining inventory to see the extent of the problem. Is that correct?

Hey Gary, Best wine I’ve ever given as a present was a 1994 Penfols St Henri Shiraz. To my sister for her 21st. She put it in our Dad’s cellar and well it was drunk accidentally by him thinking it was a Penfolds Rawsons Retreat. Not a happy family. This year I’m giving my dad a ticket to go with me to the Langmeil 10 year vertical tasting lunch (22 October)of their Freedom Shiraz so that will probably top the best wine gift in general.

Best bottle I’ve recieved? A good friend gave me a 1998 Rockford Basket Press Shiraz. Can’t remeber the story behind it but can’t wait to crack it in a few more years.

Gary, what the heck?! Lizard? You’ve got to be kidding me!

Strange episode indeed. BTW, now that I’ve caught up on your episodes, I’m geeked up. So this is technically two posts in a row.

I just wanted to say that I’ve been a Wine Library customer for a couple of years now. I love your store (well, at least the website since I’m in Ohio). I used to see some of your e-mails that stated “94 points – GV” or “Our Director of Operations, Gary Vaynerchuk, raves about this wine” and I always said, “Who the heck is Gary Vaynerchuk and why should I care what he rates a wine?” But now, the last several months, I’ve really enjoyed watching you on WLTV and I trust your opinion – to a point. I don’t understand why so many viewers ask you to taste and rate a certain wine? Don’t they have their own opinion? Or are the just trying to scope out something they haven’t tried as yet? The latter I understand, but the former are…well, insecure or something.

QOD: The best wine, IMHO, that I ever gave as a gift was a 1997 Ducru Beaucaillou that I gave to a good friend who was moving out of town (new job). That was four years ago and he told me he is still saving it for when I come and visit next year.

The best wine I’ve ever gotten as a gift? Based on your tasting the other day, it may the 2003 Almaviva that my wife got me for our anniversary this year. Haven’t tried it as yet, but it sounds yummy.

– JayZee

Hi Gary,

We have heard you say many times that a wines taste is greatly inlfuenced by the occasion, location and our mind set at the time. Today you did not seem into it. Was something bothering you? Were you in a bad mood? Did you give the wines a fair shake?

Given – 2003 Caymus Select
Received – 2 bottles 2002 Joseph Phelps Insignia from my Wife for Christmas last year.

Gary-
Finally caught up with all the episodes (I don’t have cable). You’re doing a great job. Good information and you’re always keeping it upbeat and fun. The Carlo Rossi tasting was HILARIOUS. I don’t know why people would be upset about your 1 minute post when you had to head off to be in a wedding. It was nice of you to post any video that day.

Still waiting for you to do a blind tasting. When you do it, if you could make sure to go through your entire thought process on how you’re narrowing down which wine you think it is, that would be extrememly informative/educational.

Thank you for providing this great resource!

Gary,
This was a pretty good episode – not because the wines were either clear Vayner-CHUKS or floating somewhere in the nether region of blah, but because I didn’t find there to be enough detail in your descriptions to help me get into why the wine was monolithic or underachieving. In short, you seemed off balance. Thanks anyway for trying some of the wines that viewers requested, and as always your truth in reviewing is appreciated. It looks like Joe and I are going to continue to wish for the Chateau Pavie tasting, and maybe if we pair it with a magical expression like “Go Jets!” it will be realized one of these days. QOTD: Best bottle I ever gave to someone, in terms of being truly memorable and one of my all-time favorites, was a 1990 Guigal Hermitage, and the price at that time was an astounding $29. Best bottle we received was a 1990 Dom Perignon.

Gary,

I really like the new layout. Very clean. Good episode. I think no one should ever apologize for being underwhelmed by a bottle of wine. It’s tough to poo-poo a wine when someone else has recommended it. I had several very terse responses for my stepfather who provided unsolicited and unflattering comments about a bottle of wine I purchased for us to enjoy with dinner.

The Jets clip was a riot. I feel your pain my friend. Need I say more than “I’m a Detroit Lions fan?” Three number one picks…three wide receivers. Forget that we don’t even have a decent quarterback to to get them the ball, an offensive line that can block long enough to get the pass off, or a defense that can actually return the ball to our offense with out 7 points being given in exchange!

Okay…here’s the question for you. The Jets play the Lions on October 22. Care to predict the score?

gv,

happened upon wltv a week or so ago and went back to ep 0 to see em all (about half way done). you and wltv are awesome. best thing on the net, wine or not. what you’ve already done is huge. i’d say you have the vision thing.

looking forward to catching up to the present and future episodes.

best give: gave a bottle of m rothchild to a friend and a magnum of insignia to a client

funniest wine incident: gave the aforementioned insignia magnum to client at his xmas party. he unwittingly added the bottle to the bar thinking it was run of the mill vin rouge and the bartender promptly opened it and started serving it to everyone requesting red. when i saw the bartender with a black magnum i thought no way. horrorified upon closer inspection i of course raced over to get a glass just before it was all served up!

best get already drank: got a chat lafite for my 30th birthday – yum!

best red get still in bottle: one of my brothers gave me a bottle of 94 insignia,

best white get still in bottle: my honey just gave me a bottle of yquem.

hope i haven’t waited too long for the 94 insignia?

Were you supposed to be in the those videos?
QOTD – Best bottle ever recieved – Got to be a 2000 Chateau Rayas. A friend of mine was going to live in the RHone for 3 months and I told him that he had to go to Rayas. He went, and as a thank you for stearing him there, he brought be back this bottle. Pretty cool!
Best bottle ever given – Got to be a 1978 Chateau Palmer that I gave to a buddy on his 28th b-day.

Dave

#100!!! Not as prestigious as #1, but cool in its own right.

QOTD:
Recieved 2003 Bacio Divino (my favorite wine) for my 35th b-day
Given: 2004 Opus One to the same friend for her retirement

I have no idea who those people were but it was still awesome to watch the Jets fans reactions – priceless. Are the Jets the worst at Draft picking?

Qotd – Best Bottle was an Alban Reva Syrah I gave my Dad for Christmas – best bottle I got is a toss up between a bottle of Dom P. for my wedding and a bottle of 99 Cinc Cepages (#2 wine – 95 points Spectator) from my Dad. That was the first wine that made me truly appreciate wine.