1967- good for Louis Martini and me. H.S. graduation. Best thing of the 60’s was the demographics- all those baby boomers made for an exciting decade.

Was at WL today for the Saturday tasting/get together. Very nice. Glad so many Vanyiacs got to visit there for the 1st time. I know they were thrilled. Even got to say hello to G.V., but I did miss Sasha.

Hey – Gary – nuff said about great show and so forth… I just want to say that I have been saving wine now for about 10 years in a proper cellar and I think you should tell people to “layer” their purchases – to get enough of one vintage to taste it throughout its life to make sure its OK. Also – to encourage friends to do the same so that when you offer a tasting with aged wines, you will be recipricated. How about that idea Vaniacs?

Wow…what a great show. It’s always a pleasure to taste older wines. So what is my favorite thing from the 60’s? Well the only thing I can gauge on is a 1966 Graham’s port that I loved from 1966. It was a true pleasure to taste something over 40 years old. So for that…thank you to Scott. The owner of Sawyer’s Specialties in Southwest Harbor, Maine.

Being 21, I was not alive in the 60s obviously, but there is still a lot to like. I can’t pick just one thing but probably: “Revolver”, “Pet Sounds”, “Blonde on Blonde” for music and “2001: A Space Odyssey” for movies.

Being 21, I was not alive in the 60s obviously, but there is still a lot to like. I can’t pick just one thing but probably: “Revolver”, “Pet Sounds”, “Blonde on Blonde” for music and “2001: A Space Odyssey” for movies.

Great show GV! Wow! I had the pleasure of drinking a 57′ vintage of an old germanic wine last year and it was one of those moments that solidified my love for wine. To think that I was drinking a glass of wine that was TWICE as old as me absolutely blew me away! Wine is freak’n amazing!

I hope the get together at WL was off the chizz-ain.

Keep bringing the thunder!

BOOM!

Loved the episode.

QOTD 1: Wow, one thing…..living on a farm with ponies and lots of pets for me…for Carl, just being a little kid.

QOTD 2: Nope, but wish we could.

had a great time at the meetup…i love that you had the remnants of those Louis Martini’s out for mass consumption…i guess that’s what happens to bottles when you taste them on your show…let nobody ask that question again.

QOTD: The best thing about the ’60’s was the invention of ARPAnet, i.e. the Internet! Otherwise most of us would never have heard of Gary Vaynerchuk!

That and the Eagles won a championship in 1960 – their last one 🙁

GV,

I have to disagree with your recommendation on how to attack a restaurant wine list. While I completely support the idea of drinking different things, I don’t feel like the over-priced wine lists of most restaurants is the best place to experiment. I’d rather do my experimentation at retail prices, and then take that knowledge and leverage it to find interesting picks on a restaurant wine list. I agree with drinking a new label, but I don’t feel comfortable just going totally blind at 3X the cost.

Keep up the good work.

Hey Gary! Educational episode, as usual. Haha, you said you were negative 10 when that wine came out. I thought I was the only person who said negative ages, but I’m glad I’m not alone.

Really enjoying the show! I’ll see about creating a 30-sec intro if I have the time today. Cheers.

wow so serious Gary. Id like to get some old vintages like that.

Nice show…old school California Wines of my era. I cut my teeth on these Cabs. You should have thrown BV into this as well while you were doing these vintages..superior, imho

Like several others, I also disagree with your advice to experiment boldly with restaurant wine lists, for at least two reasons:

1. Price. Restaurants mark wine up anywhere from twice wholesale to twice retail (with retail +10% and three times wholesale being popular in between points and a few really outrageous outliers at three times retail, especially for wines that are pretty cheap at retail). I would not want to pay a lot more than it’s worth to try something.

2. Food. You’re paying (presumably) handsomely for your meal if you’re dining out at a restaurant with a serious wine list. You want a thoroughly enjoyable experience, with wine that matches and complements the food. To experiment — especially when the sommelier is not much help — runs a serious risk that, unless you are exceptionally knowledgeable, you will not do a good job matching the food and wine.

My usual approach to a wine list is to look for the best values on the list of the types of wines I think might go with the food being ordered. These may be found anywhere with serious lists (because pricing will depend on when the wines were purchased — many years ago, the best value on one list was a 1964 Richbourg at $75, it was a truly great ‘change your life’ wine and we drank all they had left, more than a dozen bottles), but on ordinary lists tend to come from the top of the bottom third, price-wise. We will often coordinate orders so that we don’t end up with food that one wine will not work with.

A couple of caveats when it’s worth experimenting on a wine list: one is when you are exceptionally knowledgeable and have a very good idea what the wine you’re experimenting with will taste like (if not knowing the exact wine) and the other case is when you find something otherwise unobtainable and unique that you could not otherwise taste. (Examples would be very old vintages and wines that are tiny production that are not sold at retail — an example of the later some years ago would be Stony Hill Chardonnay (almost all of which was sold on the mailing list or to a very few restaurants and a tiny bit was available in California and New York)).

I was instantly excited to see some older wines get showcased – the doner is one generous guy!

I broke out a 1974 cab recently, and it was fairly shot. I think this show highlights the fact that a lot of cabs just can’t age more than 6-12 years.

Still, very intersting stuff.

What a cool episode! Big ups to the dude who donated these wines to the show! The only “old” wine I ever had was a 1969 Chianti. I don’t remember the vinyard. I just remember that it tasted like I was drinking liquid dirt and mushrooms – very brown. Like nothing I’ve had before. The sommelier, thought we we’re a little wierd to order such a strange wine. But it was a great experience!

QOTD – The music and 1961 Lynch Bages!

QOTD: HEEEEEEEEEEEELLLS YEAH I’ll be there!!!

(i.e. I was there. It was thunderous)

P.S. This is absolutely KILLING me: When I ran into Andre Mack, I forgot to ask him if he could demonstrate spitting. I will be sure to do that in the future 🙂

P.P.S: The ’69 was slightly corked when we tried it today. Does that sort of thing build up?

QOTD: December 1, 1969

Gary,
I’m so in your debt for making such a great party happen. I came a bit late to sample the Martinis, but did get a thrill out of that ’75 St. Estephene (even if the 75 vintage is peaked ;-)), and tried a bunch of things I’d never heard of before – what’s the story on the Norton grape? – loads of manure and compost and uttterly delicious.
The most remarkable thing in the 60s was the idea that the world could change if we just changed our perspective. Racism, sexism, war – they are only inevitable if we close our hearts to the possibility of peace. We now live in a world where not only is racism and sexism unacceptable in public discourse, but we will probably have an African-American man or a woman president. Yes we can
Peace,
Harry

VERY COOL Day at the WineLibrary. Thanks Gary

GaryVee – hope the party was radool…

QOTD: They landed on the moon on my 7th birthday in July of ’69. Moms made my birthday cake in the shape of a rocketship, and my brother was soo jealous he sulked in his room and wouldn’t come to the party…

-Paul in VA-

QOTD: Jimi Hendrix of course

The sixties: it’s difficult to adequately explain what an intense decade this was, and how deeply it effected the American psyche. Unless you lived it, of course.

January 20, 1961: JFK said, “Let the word go forth… that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.”

August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King said, “I have a Dream.”

November 22, 1963, JFK was killed. It was a devastating blow. But we still ask what we can do for our country.

For a few years, the nation recovered, and then reveled in a stunning bloom of prosperity and advancement. And then the world started to unravel.

January 30, 1968, the beginning of the end was called “Tet.”

April 4, 1968, King was killed. He was 39 years old. But we still dream.

June 6, 1968, Bobby was killed. He was 42 years old.

July 20, 1969, we landed on the moon, as JFK asked us to. It was the greatest human accomplishment I have seen in my lifetime. “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” And we got to see — and hear — all of it on live TV. And that’s my favorite thing from the sixties.

They landed on the Moon in 1969! Interetsing drinking so many very old wines. How about a vertical from the 90’s.