I am going to have to be a little negative here. All I learned from Helen being on the show was that the Buehler family raised a spoiled daughter who traveled on daddy’s dollar and doesn’t have to pay for wine. I would love a double blind rematch so I can get an honest opinion about the 07 Cab and not bitter taste of incompetence in my mouth.

Gary, you carried the show and did a great job of trying to give as much information about the wines and industry as possible while including Helen back in the conversation. I watched the show the whole way through because of you Gary. In the future please keep shows like this off the air, it didn’t help the Vaynerchuk brand at all. As for Helen: go back to Berlin.

Boy, tough crowd. Enjoyed the show as usual. However, agree that she came off as a spoiled girl. Probably not exactly who she is though.

Boy, tough crowd. Enjoyed the show as usual. However, agree that she came off as a spoiled girl. Probably not exactly who she is though.

I’ve had a second viewing of the episode, and I think some of the things she is being criticized for saying are not that bad. The “I smell wine” comment was just parroting back what Gary had told her to say if she couldn’t pick up anything. You could tell she was hoping by the second wine to pull up something on the nose, but couldn’t do it, so she took the life raft Gary offered her. Perhaps she is a smoker or hangs out in smoky places. Back when I was her age, I hung out at a lot of smoky bars, and for the longest time, I could hardly ever pull up anything but the strongest smells from wines. Now that the DC area is almost all non-smoking, I have a much easier time picking up scents.

Her “I don’t pay for wine” statement was pretty bad, and was a horrible way to connect to potential customers of her family and friends’ wines, but hopefully she learns from her mistake and becomes more humble in future dealings with the wine media.

That being said, while I think it is fair to judge her performance at presenting the wines she brought to be pretty poor, I think it is unfair to judge her as a person based on one 21 minute video that is shot cold with no edits or takes in a less then ideal setting.

Gary also didn’t do her many favors by springing the “How much does the wine retail for” question on camera. He generally has done all of this research beforehand and spits out knowledge on each wine for us the audience. If he had just asked her what the retail price was before the interview, she obviously wouldn’t have known the answer but could have called her family and friends and gotten the info instead of looking foolish. If that had happened, then we would have been left with an episode that was similar to the Samantha Brown or Serena Altschul episodes, where he also threw out the “you can say it smells/tastes like wine” lifeline. Gary, generally an extremely hard worker, missed an easy step on this one, and caused his guest (and her mom) a lot of uncomfortable comments to suffer through because of it.

Merry Christmas to all of the Orthodox Christians out there (at least for a couple of more minutes)! I hope you all had a great day on this mostly forgotten winter holiday.

I’ve had a second viewing of the episode, and I think some of the things she is being criticized for saying are not that bad. The “I smell wine” comment was just parroting back what Gary had told her to say if she couldn’t pick up anything. You could tell she was hoping by the second wine to pull up something on the nose, but couldn’t do it, so she took the life raft Gary offered her. Perhaps she is a smoker or hangs out in smoky places. Back when I was her age, I hung out at a lot of smoky bars, and for the longest time, I could hardly ever pull up anything but the strongest smells from wines. Now that the DC area is almost all non-smoking, I have a much easier time picking up scents.

Her “I don’t pay for wine” statement was pretty bad, and was a horrible way to connect to potential customers of her family and friends’ wines, but hopefully she learns from her mistake and becomes more humble in future dealings with the wine media.

That being said, while I think it is fair to judge her performance at presenting the wines she brought to be pretty poor, I think it is unfair to judge her as a person based on one 21 minute video that is shot cold with no edits or takes in a less then ideal setting.

Gary also didn’t do her many favors by springing the “How much does the wine retail for” question on camera. He generally has done all of this research beforehand and spits out knowledge on each wine for us the audience. If he had just asked her what the retail price was before the interview, she obviously wouldn’t have known the answer but could have called her family and friends and gotten the info instead of looking foolish. If that had happened, then we would have been left with an episode that was similar to the Samantha Brown or Serena Altschul episodes, where he also threw out the “you can say it smells/tastes like wine” lifeline. Gary, generally an extremely hard worker, missed an easy step on this one, and caused his guest (and her mom) a lot of uncomfortable comments to suffer through because of it.

Merry Christmas to all of the Orthodox Christians out there (at least for a couple of more minutes)! I hope you all had a great day on this mostly forgotten winter holiday.

She is smokin hot. Is she single? Thought she handled herself fine.

She is smokin hot. Is she single? Thought she handled herself fine.

maybe she doesn’t pay for wine because her family owns a winery?

maybe she doesn’t pay for wine because her family owns a winery?

That would make sense. If she just drank Buehler wine.

That would make sense. If she just drank Buehler wine.

Helen, welcome to the NFL!

Helen, welcome to the NFL!

I agree its great Helen wants a re-match. However, I believe its in everyone’s best interest if she waits until she is fully prepared and develops some interesting knowledge to share (i.e., on the winery, their wines, current competitive landscape)

In reflection, you could tell she was passionate about family owned wineries. It would be interesting to see her tell the story from that angle.

I agree its great Helen wants a re-match. However, I believe its in everyone’s best interest if she waits until she is fully prepared and develops some interesting knowledge to share (i.e., on the winery, their wines, current competitive landscape)

In reflection, you could tell she was passionate about family owned wineries. It would be interesting to see her tell the story from that angle.

Why does that only make sense if she drank her family’s wine? All of her friends and neighbors make wine too, and they all share amongst each other. Would you charge your friends for burgers at M’Glassup cookouts? Because it would probably be seen as a similar deal as charging your friends for wine in a small area like Napa.

That’s not illogical. But on the Parker board, many winemakers post. And they all talk about stuff they’re buying or want. Sure there’s a lot of informal exchange but if you want to know wine, you have to get out of your immediate millieu. That means paying sometimes.

That’s not illogical. But on the Parker board, many winemakers post. And they all talk about stuff they’re buying or want. Sure there’s a lot of informal exchange but if you want to know wine, you have to get out of your immediate millieu. That means paying sometimes.

@Don Simpson – For some reason your comment made me suddenly think of her going through a Rocky-esque training sequence montage:

Flash to her jogging through the rows of the vineyard getting into shape;
Flash to her carrying a wine barrel through the warehouse;
Flash to her sitting in a corner of a boxing ring looking exhausted while her trainer squirts pinot noir into her mouth from a squirt bottle. She shakes her head and spits it out into the bucket at her feet, while her trainer says in a gruff voice, “C’mon kid, we need you to get back out there!”
Flash to her again in the vineyard rows, but now sprinting up and back.
Finally flash back to her in the boxing ring with three different trainers pushing out glasses for her to sniff, and her knocking each one down with a “Grass clippings!”, then “Stone fruit!”, and finally “DIRTY SOCKS!” The trainers break out into a cheer and lift her into the air while she holds a glass of champagne in victory over her head.

Now that would be an intro into her next WLTV appearance!

@Don Simpson – For some reason your comment made me suddenly think of her going through a Rocky-esque training sequence montage:

Flash to her jogging through the rows of the vineyard getting into shape;
Flash to her carrying a wine barrel through the warehouse;
Flash to her sitting in a corner of a boxing ring looking exhausted while her trainer squirts pinot noir into her mouth from a squirt bottle. She shakes her head and spits it out into the bucket at her feet, while her trainer says in a gruff voice, “C’mon kid, we need you to get back out there!”
Flash to her again in the vineyard rows, but now sprinting up and back.
Finally flash back to her in the boxing ring with three different trainers pushing out glasses for her to sniff, and her knocking each one down with a “Grass clippings!”, then “Stone fruit!”, and finally “DIRTY SOCKS!” The trainers break out into a cheer and lift her into the air while she holds a glass of champagne in victory over her head.

Now that would be an intro into her next WLTV appearance!

@Phil – But if you were 23 and could get free wine that is pretty dang good, would you be paying for that much wine? Now if she is still saying in five years that she doesn’t pay for wine, okay, we probably have a problem. But let’s not question her character as a person from one video of her doing bad wine reviews. If I had to represent my company my first year out of college on an unedited video, I’m sure my boss would have been yelling, “You said what?!?” and “Why do you keep scratching your head? Say something!”

@Phil – But if you were 23 and could get free wine that is pretty dang good, would you be paying for that much wine? Now if she is still saying in five years that she doesn’t pay for wine, okay, we probably have a problem. But let’s not question her character as a person from one video of her doing bad wine reviews. If I had to represent my company my first year out of college on an unedited video, I’m sure my boss would have been yelling, “You said what?!?” and “Why do you keep scratching your head? Say something!”

I find this comment thread very interesting. The Vanyiacs think of themselves as kind of a gang that takes an opportunity to slag or defend a guest that comes off as less slick then the host.

Interesting. Where were all of you when your boy went down over on the Dr Vino poll? Leave this poor girl alone, her label is one of the few I trust from Napa anymore. Well them and Havens and we know how that turned out. At least all of us Leviniacs do.

BTW I’m not serious.

I find this comment thread very interesting. The Vanyiacs think of themselves as kind of a gang that takes an opportunity to slag or defend a guest that comes off as less slick then the host.

Interesting. Where were all of you when your boy went down over on the Dr Vino poll? Leave this poor girl alone, her label is one of the few I trust from Napa anymore. Well them and Havens and we know how that turned out. At least all of us Leviniacs do.

BTW I’m not serious.

I find this comment thread very interesting. The Vanyiacs think of themselves as kind of a gang that takes an opportunity to slag or defend a guest that comes off as less slick then the host.

Interesting. Where were all of you when your boy went down over on the Dr Vino poll? Leave this poor girl alone, her label is one of the few I trust from Napa anymore. Well them and Havens and we know how that turned out. At least all of us Leviniacs do.

BTW I’m not serious.