I just got back from Napa. I wanted to thank everyone for all the great tips. One of the best tips was to share the tastings with my wife. We were able to taste a lot more wines in lower quantities that way. We went to the following places: Bouchaine, Domaine Carneros, Etude, Hall, Whitehall Lane, Provinence, V Satturi, Ridge, Harvest Moon, Domaine Chandon. I’d be glad to give my impressions on any of these — just let me know.

Major props go to Gary for hooking me up with a personal tour at Ridge where my wife and I were comped our tasting fee and presented with a bottle of Lytton Springs Zin as an anniversary gift. I can’t say enough good things about the trip to Ridge.

Finally, the funniest observation I made was that at 11AM people were very formal and stuffy. By 4PM couples begin groping each other. By 5PM couples are making out all over the place. It’s pretty funny to see it…

One other thing to point out from my trip to Napa: Winelibrary’s prices are better than just about every winery’s tasting room. I’d only buy bottles that aren’t widely distributed. I went to Etude and Gary’s price on the 2004 Pinot is $10 less than it was in the tasting room…

“Winelibrary TV, where small fools drink too much, and great fools none at all.”

How about:
Signing off here at Wine Library TV…
…where a sip of mine saves you time.
…let our waste save your taste.
…always fresh, rarely re-canted.
…pop a cork, twist a top, share a sip, don’t spill a drop.

I like Lynne’s “Remember…Try this at home.” Maybe revised a little “Remember, I’m a professional and you SHOULD try this at home.”

Question lead up:
When I was on a trip to OR and WA I visited a bunch of wineries and got to taste a bunch of pinotâ??s, reislings, zins, and syrahs. While tasting my friend was laughing at me, I was lining up glasses of wine infront of me and going back to them in order to see how air was affecting them. He thought I should be â??drinkingâ?? faster. I pointed out that if his glass was empty he couldnâ??t be enjoying the wine as much as I was.
Question:
Was I tricking myself into thinking I was getting anything new from the wines?

Gary,
Excellent episode (90). Just as you mentioned yesterday where reviewing 90-point wines is an occasional recurring theme on WLTV, you might consider the same for comparing 2-4 vintages for same producer same varietal — always fun and educational. Question for you: Can you talk about, or devote an episode to, how to estimate a wine’s peak (e.g., â??drink now vs. 3 years from nowâ?), as well as what characteristics lead to estimating longevity? As for QOD, my preference is that your SIG contain three elements: 1) Station reminder and/or callback. This also presents an opportunity to add a teaser for next episode if desired. 2) Your name. Although you have a growing fan-base, there are still many more to come and repeating your name at the end helps bring each episode full circle. Plus, the verve with which you say your name is practically its own trademark. 🙂 These first two make sense and have worked well, unless you have significant comments/emails to the contrary. 3) A catchy tagline, preferably something that challenges the viewers to learn and enjoy wine for themselves, which is one of the main reasons for this whole thing, yes? So altogether, it would be something like: â??Iâ??m Gary Vaynerchuk and this is WLTV. Check me on the next, where Iâ??ll be tasting 4 premium red wine blends to see if they live up to their sticker shock. Until then, what wine is pleasing your palate?â?

Hey Gary,

Here is a couple of sign off’s:
Wine Libray TV- making Jets games easier to swallow
I’m Gary Vaynerchuk- The Yoda of Wine
(or a hip-hop tag)- The Wine MC
To serve and protect customers from bad wine
Officer Gary Vaynerchuk- throwing bad wine into jail.

“Thanks for watching and from all of us at Wine Library TV….Go F#@K yourselves.”

Gary, another great installment. Thanks for taking my question. I cook a lot, an my wife’s a chef, so I’m pretty familiar with a lot of spices, but several you refer to I don’t know about. I will be sure to incorporate those flavors into some food so I can appreciate the nuances even more.

Even in my infant knowledge of wines, I’ve come to appreciate the difference in vintage. I used to read Wine Spectator religiously and I always took note of the ratings they would put in tear-out cards based on vintage. It was helpful to explore the differences between on one year and the next. Being around agriculture a little growing up, and some part of my professional career, I think it’s important, as you said, for people not to lose site of the fact that wine is an agricultural product. Too much water, too little water, too hot, too cold. Everything in the environment affects the outcome of an agricultural product.

I will be sure to take a look at episode 64. I’m in DC, but I would love to recommend my friends in NYC and Jersey to come by your shop.

I think the closing of the show is fine the way it is. You don’t strike me as a gimmick guy.

By the way…what’s up with the posting date on the comments page? It’s a day off.

Sign offs no matter how clever, usually backfire and come of as cartoonish. “See ya next time”, although it may seem too easy is to the point and retains some class. If you have to go with a sign off, then I agree with the suggestion to just use all of them this way your tongue is always in your cheek, and you can get as silly as you want, without the risk of sounding like a repetitious caricature. For example when you get around to doing a show on the pink stuff you can end with something like: “I’m Gary Vaynerchuk looking at the world of wine through rosé colored glasses”.

Or you can re-use some classics like:

“Winelibrary.com..Because an educated consumer is our best customer”.

“Wine.. Itâ??s what’s for dinner”.

“Winelibrary TV.. We will drink no wine before it’s time”.

But if you feel the need to try something clever, hereâ??s one for you..

Winelibrary TV: bringing value to wine one bottle at a time.

Sorry, I couldnâ??t resist.

Can’t come up with anything better than I have already read in the previous posts for a sign off.

Want to thank Gary for helping me get a wine that was temporarily out of stock.

In light of this vintage episode how about looking for wine bargains with good wines from less than good vintages. I picked up some Bordeaux and Burgundy bargains from off vintages over the years. Always looking for more.

Gary,

A good sign off:

This is Gray V. with WL TV uncorking knowledge one bottle at a time.

Gary,

How about one of these signatures:

“W.I.N.E. Wine, wine, wine!” (like the Jets cheer)

“Wine library and you, perfect together”

Great episode. Got a question about smelling the nose of the wine. It seems that everytime I stick my nose in my glass and take a whiff it just smells like alcohol? What gives?

Tom

Closing phrase:

“See you next time as the wine swirls”

Question:

I want to ask you about glass. No, not the glass that Chad Pennington is made of. Glass bottles. I was under the impression that wine bottles are tinted ( brown, green, etc. ) to protect the wine from damage from light. If this is true, then why is an EXPENSIVE Sauternes like Chateau d’Yquem in a CLEAR bottle? What are your thoughts?

Go Giants!!!

More slogans:

Because I’m Gary Vaynerchuk and your not!

“It’s the wine, stupid!!!”

I still can’t believe I get paid for drinking wine.

Rinse or use other glasses as you taste different wines, please. As minute as it is, there remains residue in the glass. Wine tasters are some of the most annal retentive people about. How can you taste the PALMER chardonnay or any other for that matter and than taste a port or merlot using the same glass? You are always looking for the nuances in the wine.

Question can you do an episode on 4 or 5 $15.00 to 20.00 widely available Chards or Cabs. Love the show

Eating worms and licking rocks, so you do not have to.

While I agree with you that there certainly are differences in a wine from vintage to vintage, I think it is an exaggeration to say that all vintages are dramatically different from each other. Sometimes the differences are subtle. In fact, many vintages produce wines that show the same characteristics as wines from earlier vintages. If you read RP (which I’m sure you do) you will see his reference to a prior vintage in a current wine tasting.

Regarding your sign-off, How’s this…

“This is Gary Vaynerchuk. Until next time…Dosvidanja.”

Hey Gary et al.,
I’m still trying to come up with a sign off phrase.

However I have a question: I am pretty new to wine and alcohol in general. I hate to taste the alcohol. I mean, i hate the heat in the finish of some wines and spirits. Is this something that I will get over or do I just have to put up with it as a necessary evil to wine’s being alcoholic? For instance i tried the Hecula you recommended and got some heat on the finish. Is this just a feature of the wine that the mourvedre grape produces, like garnacha produces wines with higher alcohol? Is this something I will get used to? I tend to think that wines with a warm finish are not balanced; am I wrong? Should I just stick to wines with less than 13% alcohol? Please respond.

If you’re still accepting viewer suggestions of wines from your inventory that we’d like you to taste, I would like to request you to taste the Nino Negri Sfursat 5 Stelle 2002.

See you next time, same wine channel ,same wine station

“a wine is a terrible thing to waste”

“Here’s to Travelling the World with Taste”

“This is Gary Vaynerchuk from the headquarters of class, sophistication and good taste… right next door to Taco Bell”

“Goodnight and Have a Pleasant Barolo”

“this MC GV sayin’, I can spit with the best, yo”

“just bring yourself, I’ll bring the wine.”

my #1 sign off: “this is Gary Vaynerchuk… and I smell!”

F’ed it up

same wine time, same wine station

Just discovered this website a couple days ago, and I’m hooked! I’ve already learned tons….

my suggestion: “This is G.V, telling you to whip me, crush me, make me wine”.

Gary: I suggest you sign off with,

“Tasting with a vengence because life is too short to drink bad wine.”

“Don’t whine, drink mine!”

Keep up the great work. BK

I agree with George H. P. (post #64)…. Use a diff. glass with each wines. Other than that, love the show. I’m working on a tag line.