Definitely a 375ml bottle of Von Strasser Diamond Label when I was away on a business trip! It was awesome, but they ripped me off for $50 on that half bottle…but that wine was awesome.

What a great episode, and great format.

QOTD – Motel 6 rarely has amy mini bar other than the soap!

Being a young recent graduate I haven’t had any mini bar experiences. I have had lots of keggars out of condos and cabins. If this counts there are so many stories to tell it would be a grave injustice to put the entire vaynernation through it. But I will say this, it involves lots of nudity and far too much drinking. Good episode Gary…

Great show Gary. The traveling format is cool you should do more like this less, polished more you. See you on the boat.

QOTD:Can’t say that I’ve had much exciting out of a mini bar, normally screwing off the caps on the airplane size scotches. However, I did once remove all of the contents of one mini bar to chill some wine thanks to the lack of a working ice machine. Chilled my wine and put everything back in the bar but not where it came from. At checkout the hotel had charged me for everything in the mini bar. Everything in the fridge was attached to a sensor that was automatically charging me for everything I moved. Got it fixed up but I’ll remember to ask the front desk for ice a little more assertively.

Fun show Gary. I never venture into the mini bar myself (too expensive) but I did have a kind of bizarre room service order once. Pepperoni pizza, root beer, and crème brûlée. The root beer complemented the crème brûlée rather nicely. It was perfect. 🙂

Fun show Gary. I never venture into the mini bar myself (too expensive) but I did have a kind of bizarre room service order once. Pepperoni pizza, root beer, and crème brûlée. The root beer complemented the crème brûlée rather nicely. It was perfect. 🙂

what is a mini bar?

QOTD: I was unable to get the mini bar open at the last hotel I stayed at (in Taos) so I’m pretty much out of the loop here.

too bad it had to be that of all wines…. any way, I enjoyed the episode. I would use the 10min format for the traveling episodes. Short n sweet. Exhaused….

O yeah i forget about yesterdays blind…. it was awesome and i really loved the edit with you doin the chilean pinot hahaha CLASSIC. KEEP DOIN EM BLIND! And i have yet to try a chilean pinot noir.

QOTD: cancun-many yrs ago. thought mini-bar was free. buddy, me & girls. next day went to argue surprise tab. my friend still thinks my defeated walk back to room is so damn funny. coca p = pepsi. that was the cheapest item on the tab

This was a fun show to come back to, having been out of commission for the past several days. A little silliness always helps. Hope you’re feeling better, too! Now to catch up with the other two episodes…

QOTD: We avoid hotel mini-bars.

QotD – Manhatten, NY. Louis Roederer Cristal Champagne, 1990.

I am normally not a mini-bar high-roller but this was a late night and I did not want to wait for room service. I discovered the bottle while deciding between a cold Snickers bar or some ridiculously priced pistachios. It was wrapped in a paper bag and hidden behind all of the sodas, candy bars, etc. at the back of the fridge. The yellow foil wrap was still intact and the note inside read, “A very special bottle for a very special lady. Be my wife.” I would love to know the story behind that bottle and why it never saw the light of day.

Don’t have any Great stories about anything I’ve ever had out of a hotel mini-bar. Plenty of sad ones… 😀

This story was actually at Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. My friend gets himself a room there every year for his birthday and invites a bunch of friends to come, hang out, play some games what not. Well our friend, we’ll call him John, brought some beverages from home and tried to find a spt in the mini fridge for them. In doing so he rearranges everything in there but unbeknownst to us there are actually sensors in the fridge and when our friend went to check out he had been charged for everything in the fridge. Too funny because it’s not you!

Great episoode Gary. I love the idea of the “Thunder Rack”.

I’ve never had anything from out of a hotel. Just end up drinking some freeze dried coffee, that is complimentary with the room 🙂

I’m too cheap to touch a mini bar. If anything, I would grab the water only if I was really really thirsty.

Best mini-bar experience was this prosecco we had on our trip to Italy last summer.

Arrived in Rome, and we were upgraded to a master suite (!!!) instead of our rinky-dink room that we originally booked. In the master suite, we received complimentary potato chips (love how the Romans roll) and the choice of one beverage in the mini-bar. We opted for the lone bottle (split) of prosecco.

Great show- long time lurker first time commenter. I like that you reviewed a “grocery store” type wine. A whole episode of that might be nice in this wintry economic climate.

I’m all about the Thunder Rack– I’d love to see you make that happen!

Wow!! Cannot believe your dedication to the show and the Vayniacs by banging out a impromptu episode from your hotel room. Great format and thinking behind that one for sure.

QOTD – Nothing stands out, though I did crack open a nice bottle of pol riche whilst chilling with my girlfriend outside out beach bure in Fiji recently. Stunning.

Still in LA? I have some great restaurants (and wine friendly lists) to suggest for you. Send me a Twitter!

IMO I think its great that you are posting from a camera. It more of what I like to see, shows that great programming can come out of something so simple and at the moment.

I’ve been watching your show in and out for the past 8 months and I’ve never commented anything. I’m actually drinking some wine for the first time while watching your show. I wanted to semi-answer your question of the day.

Last New Years, we went to new york. I’m from the lower east side and I don’t think i’ve ever stepped foot in a hotel in the city. It was a nice one called the London. And their mini-bars had anything from bombay to remy to glenlivet. If I had some, I would think any of these were the best, probably the bombay. But since it was was New Years, I took your advice on Juve y Camps Brut Rose (very good by the way for the price) and some Balvenie 15 year scotch.

Hope that was a good first comment. I’ll be watching your show and hopefully commenting more often.

Very cool style of filming.. although some of the camera movements can make you feel a little sick haha

I think you may be on to something with the Thunder Rack.. except most hotels would probably rather you sat in their restaurant/bar than have you drink in your room.

Classic episode, Gary! Changing the wine world, one hotel-screw top-mini bottle at a time!

I love the dedication to the show Gary though I must say I always get a headache after watching, you need to polish up on your camera skillz..HAHA
I also love the fact that you will walk all the way to the bathroom to spit the wine in the sink, I laughed so hard…HAHAHA 🙂

Thanks for this on location shows bro!!

Miss you Mott!!! – Awesome job though Gary….. for a second i thought you were going to spit in the toilet!

QOTD: pretty dissapointed by the few mini-bar drinks i have had,