About Winelibrary TV

Wine Library TV is changing the wine world!

What motivates this revolution, you ask? Our movement seeks to break down the barriers, stereotypes, and misperceptions that otherwise prevent people from exploring and enjoying the exciting and rewarding world of wine. Gary Vaynerchuk (VAY NER CHUK), the star of Wine Library TV, is Director of Operations at Wine Library in Springfield, NJ. With his unconventional, often irreverent commentary on wine, Gary has attracted a cult-like following of more than 80,000 viewers a day. In the name of “expanding one’s palate”, Gary convinced Conan O’Brien to lick salted rocks and shared samples of dirt and grass with Ellen Degeneres. He routinely pans popular wines (even ones sold by Wine Library). He interrupts his webcasts with rants about his beloved New York Jets. This is not your typical wine expert.

Gary’s roots in wine tasting come honestly – his Russian immigrant parents owned a liquor store when he was growing up. Bored at the cash register, Gary began reading Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate and realized collecting wine offered an allure similar to his previous hobby of collecting baseball cards. As a teenager, tasting wine was legally impossible, so Gary set out to train his palate “backwards”. To study various flavors associated with wine, Gary tasted obscure fruits and vegetables, along with earthly influences, including grass, dirt, rocks, tobacco and wood. “I probably consumed more New Jersey grass in my teens than any lawn mower.” By familiarizing himself with the numerous tastes that contributed to a specific wine, Gary was able to detect subtleties that an ordinary palate wouldn’t recognize.

With a wealth of knowledge and an entrepreneurial spirit, Gary spent every weekend of his college years at his parents’ store, rebranding the family business as Wine Library and establishing himself as a respected expert. As the store’s only wine buyer, he sampled every wine that entered the store. Customers depended on Gary for his advice and within a five year time period, Wine Library grew from a $4 million dollar business to a $45 million business.

But Gary’s career took a new turn with the advent of Wine Library TV. Gary’s key goals are twofold: “First, I want people to try different wines. How can you have a favorite if you only know a few? Second, I tell people to trust their palates. If a wine appeals to your palate, then it’s a good choice. Don’t feel pressured to like popular brands or what experts recommend. Buy what ‘brings the thunder’ for you.”

It always troubled Gary to observe the stuffiness of the industry–conceited sommeliers, snobby shopkeepers unwilling (or unable) to educate their consumers, and seemingly mystical conventions all combine to make wine seem intimidating to the uninitiated. Wine Library TV has reinvented the concept of wine tasting for a new generation. In addition to encouraging straightforward wine tasting, Gary educates viewers about the effects of regional factors (soil, sun, wind) on wine flavors, and how to buy wine. Debunking myths (red vs. white, big name brands vs. independent growers, the pitfalls of wine ratings, etc.) is another ongoing theme of the show. Specific episode topics have included decanting, how to train your palate, the impact oak aging
and barrel fermenting have on wine (Beware of the Oak Monster!), and comparisons of wines made from the same grapes grown in different regions.

WLTV has blossomed into a full-fledged community. The viewers (self-named “Vayniacs”) convene on an extremely active forum, and have organized numerous off-line gatherings. Gary and the viewers have teamed up with Crushpad in the past year to create the first ever community wine, Vayniac Cabernet.

Gary Vaynerchuk has been featured by a variety of national media outlets, including:

National TV

Newsprint and News Websites

Magazines

Radio

Internet Shows and Podcasts

Check out WLTV and join the revolution today!

18 Responses

  1. March 27, 2006

    Basic Thinking Blog » E-Commerce: Wein-Webshop mit Videos

    [...] Im About steht mehr zum Sinn und Ziel: Welcome to Wine Library TV, The Wine Library’s video wine blog! Nothing “lives” for us, nothing arouses more passion in our team than this profound and symbolic drink and the fascinating people that create, drink, and sell it. In fact, we believe we are so privileged to be involved with this ancient and yet completely contemporary trade, that we want to share our experiences directly with some of the people who love this great beverage as much as we do – our customers! [...]

  2. October 30, 2006

    Wine Library TV Nears 100 Episodes at The Grape Nuts Blog

    [...] Well, Gary Vaynerchuk at Wine Library hasn’t hit the wall – we don’t even think the wall can be seen on the horizon. [...]

  3. May 13, 2007

    Vlog Deathmatch « The Vloggies

    [...] genius Doctor Popular. Watch the T-unit (Ev Williams, Jack Dorsey, Chris Messina, Vloggies winner Gary Vaynerchuk, and) back her up from the Obvious office in South Park and don’t forget to go to the Vlog [...]

  4. May 14, 2007

    Wine Library TV buys Cork’d | BrandBrains

    [...] Gary Vaynerchuk of The Wine Library and Wine Library TV has acquired Cork’d (the très cool social network for wine enthusiasts) from Dan Benjamin and Dan Cederholm. [...]

  5. May 16, 2007

    I’m Totally Cork’d » Erin Cooks

    [...] surrounding Cork’d this week as it was acquired by WineLibrary TV and the absolutely adorable Gary Vaynerchuk.  I watched one of Gary’s wine podcasts today for the first time and I thought it was [...]

  6. June 16, 2007

    Spreading the Thunder — The Social Web, Podcasting, Business Blogs — Changing the (Wine) World « aidrop

    [...] would be Gary Vaynerchuk’s wine library [...]

  7. June 20, 2007

    Watch This Wine Evangelist : Serious About Wine

    [...] Gary Vaynerchuk is a wine enthusiast and evangelist. Fittingly, he’s the Director of Operations at Wine Library, a wine retailer in New Jersey. Gary has been sharing his passion for wine with daily online videos where he sniffs, slurps, and spits wine all the while imparting wit and wisdom about wine (and about the New York Jets). [...]

  8. July 6, 2007

    Romazini - News » Gary Uncorked - Wein Lifestyle

    [...] aber wirklichen News-Wert haben wenige. Geht es nicht unterhaltsamer? Keine Frage, sagte sich Gary Vaynerchuck aus New Jersey und startete 2006 mit seiner Videokamera “Winelibrary TV“. Er degustiert [...]

  9. July 14, 2007

    Louis van Proosdij Duport » Winelibrary TV, en attendant le vrai caviste 2.0

    [...] est-ce que je raconte tout ça? Je suis tombé il y a peu sur le site Winelibrary TV animé par Gary Vaynerchuk. Et là j’ai eu un pincement au coeur. Le site Winelibrary TV en lui-même ne ressemble pas [...]

  10. July 22, 2007

    Gary Vaynerchuk: Lessons in Video Blogging, Conflicts, and Social Media Marketing » Viget’s Four Labs

    [...] and Twitter over the weekend, and through various clicks on friends of friends ended up finding Gary Vaynerchuk — a guy who “drinks wine and tells people what it tastes like” — which led [...]

  11. August 28, 2007

    Vloggies Show » Blog Archive » Vlog Deathmatch = vlogsta rap

    [...] genius Doctor Popular. Watch the T-unit (Ev Williams, Jack Dorsey, Chris Messina, Vloggies winner Gary Vaynerchuk, and Crystal) head-nod at the Obvious office in South Park and don’t forget to go to the [...]

  12. September 18, 2007

    Little Penguin Pinot Noir - Waddle On... | cheapwineratings.com

    [...] I was almost afraid to taste it after my first wiff.  (This is the point where if I were Gary Vaynerchuk I would stuff a sweaty sock into my mouth to prove that I know understand sweaty socks… but [...]

  13. November 21, 2007

    I Want To Be Gary Vaynerchuk

    [...] want to be Gary Vaynerchuk [...]

  14. May 1, 2008

    Off Topic (again): Gary Vaynerchuk is Crazy - sKatterBrainZ

    [...] I mean that in the most positive and complimentary way, honestly.  Gary Vaynerchuk is the host of the Wine Library TV podcast.  You can watch it on the web, or on your iPod, [...]

  15. June 11, 2008

    Free Shipping from Wine Library » Blog Archive » Chateau Haut Brisson 2004

    [...] Points Gary Vaynerchuk: “COLOR-dark; NOSE-wild; very interesting; black forest mushroom component; Sloppy Joe action (w/ [...]

  16. July 1, 2008

    Wine Library TV - sevenload Blog

    [...] what is this revolution that they speak of? The “movement”, led by Gary Vaynerchuk (pronounced VAY NER CHUK) seeks to break down the barriers, stereotypes, and misconceptions that [...]

  17. September 9, 2008

    Gary Vaynerchuck Pull No Punches | Holographic Life Mapping

    [...] time on the internet.  Gary is a social media maven who has risen to fame and fortune with his winelibraryTV video blog and is one of the hardest working people you can imagine. Gary has built his brand and [...]

  18. September 10, 2008

    Free Shipping from Wine Library » Blog Archive » Sandro Fay Sforzato Valtellina 2005

    [...] points Gary Vaynerchuk: “COLOR-dark; NOSE-very nice; romantic; made me think of Christmas (Egg Nog & peppermint); very [...]