Talks At Google: Gary Vaynerchuk | 2008

please join me in welcoming Gary vaynerchuk so first and foremost thank you so much for having me I am thrilled to be here Britney I got to give you a huge shout out for getting me to be here so super thrilled uh awfully pumped to drink some wine today um and talk about really anything you want I tend to when I do talks with tech company since this is a tech company um a lot of the questions and things that people want to talk about social media and how I built my brand and why do so many people follow you on Twitter and all that stuff so I'm thrilled to do that I'm really interested in doing this very Q& A with you guys I don't really want to stand up here and brag about how awesomely rad I am though I'm thrilled to do it if you let me so be careful um but what I really want to do is obviously I want to talk about the wines we have three wines I want to do that uh and I do want to talk about you know technology and how I've been able to do some things with a very stagnant wine industry and create some Buzz I'm gonna play one little thing every time I do these things Everybody Plays the Conan O'Brien piece which is awesome but he's so much taller than me I don't really like watching it so I'm gonna I'm going to play the Nightline piece which ran this for anybody probably most of you who don't know who I am will give you some sort of feel so this was awesome except that I was speaking futes web apps in London when they decided to air this so I had no time to buzz it out so nobody saw it S and S blouet or the Woody tones of an oak fermented chardonay as more and more people enjoy drinking wine there's also the challenge of how to describe it so now one wine afficionado has dispensed with the Hefty vocabulary Because he believes that anyone can evaluate a good vintage here's ABC's Ryan Owens hello everybody and welcome to Wine Library TV I am your host Gary ve Nur chuck if Wayne's World had a wine offici he'd be it the oak monster this 31-year-old rabid football fan noticed the New York Jet's bucket is on a oneman mission to uncork the mysteries of wine we're changing the wine world aren't we and it's somewh low it's 15% alcohol content from the office of his wine shop in of all places New Jersey Gary records a web week he says each averages close to 40,000 viewers this is a kick and a Nars I'm going to trick you sucker kind of wine look at this color this is like eating your shoe I mean this is a lot of leather you know like the golden locks and the entire rainbow of flavor exploded into our face the American dream woo and some of the rainbow even got up our nose and that's what's going on with this wine he sucks rocks eats dirt anything to explain what you should look for in a bottle when I describe wine I describe it how it truly tastes to me cat FR never ever failed to deliver bell peppers and a lot of people want to use the wine terms cus and tah and all these terms and if it tastes like big league chudam then that's what it's going to be it has absolutely attacked my pallette Gary style is Brash but don't be fooled he knows his stuff his parents immigrated from Russia and opened a modest liquor store here in 1983 Gary worked in the family business from the beginning and got hooked he started reading wine spectator magazine in junior high by high school he was giving Shoppers advice on Cabernet and Chardonnay this is the old store before long Gary turned his parents' small store into the three-story Wine Library which now Rings up $60 million a year Americans bought $ 27 billion worth of wine last year that's almost twice what they drank a decade ago and this immigrant son has found a way to capitalize on that half his sales are internet based wine boxed up and shipped around the country the first thing when he start talking to me about the internet and all this stuff I said that's you know who the hell ever dream so today we are bringing the Thunder his style has gotten plenty of attention including from critics or wine snobs as Gary calls them they point out he reviews wines he sells which makes him a good salesman not a true critic for you is this really about wine or is this business this is not about wine or business this is about life this is about people realizing we shouldn't be sheep Hollywood told us to drink P Noir and now everybody drinks P Noir he's talking about the 2004 film sideways which mign Mero and if they want to drink Mero we're drinking Mero no if anybody orders Mero I'm leaving I am not drinking any Mero and sent sales of Pino Noir through the roof Gary says sideways is the perfect example of just how intimidated we've become by all those bottles of Smash grapes Justin's bringing sexy back and I'm bring Mero back Gary says when picking a red or a white forget what you've heard and try everything at every price to prove the point he set up a taste test with two bottles one retails for $18 the other for 60 twice that in most restaurant about this Gary said the cheaper was better and this untrained palette agrees I would certainly say it tastes better I do I did like the smell of that one better but I don't always smell my wine yeah I mean if you want to pop a wine and smell it all night then maybe this is the way to go but if you do want to consume it I just think this is a great example of where price has no impact on the wine industry one more lesson Gary says when you're at a fancy restaurant and the server pours you a taste quit trying so hard and so basically the move is cool date move okay all right smell it you don't even have to taste it no because I've never seen anybody delivered the salmon and cut it and analyze it and flip it over and be like oh it's pink tendous what about the fumbling around with the cork are there things at the table that you should be looking for in your cork is that worth doing you know I'm high on doing the Chinese football like kind of like fling that goes over well at the fancy especially you hit the person something Gary says he still has a lot to teach and won't be satisfied until wine is probably could see the new beer I don't know you know my hopes are that the next generation of wine drinkers are a lot more open-minded you know I love when somebody emailed me and said that was one of the best wines I've ever had I never heard of shenon Blanc before I loved it P. S I drank it at the Nascar event this weekend yes that's now we're making progress I'm Ryan Owens for Nightline in Springfield New Jersey whine at the racetrack that really is progress our thanks to Rowan Ryan Owens and if you'd like to that was my favorite part so basically I built my family business I turned 30 and I was Drive I live in Manhattan I was driving to the store and I freaked out and I was like I hate what I do and screw Frank I can do that [ __ ] so I decided to video blog and that's basically how it went down especially when Lazy Sunday went viral that's when I was like okay people really starting to watch video and that's what I wanted to do and so I really wanted to fix wine is really fundamentally broken in this country nobody has wine self-esteem whatsoever everybody thinks they need to know so many things they don't and nobody Embraces their own pallets and all I'm trying to do with this media and using new technology is to build a culture where people feel very comfortable trying different things like the first one we're having how many people here have had shenon Blanc before raise your hand solid number it's always good to be on the west coast how many people have had Indian shanon Blanc before that's good work nice solid but the fact of matter is a lot of people hav't and so that's the first wine we're starting with and so to me it's almost irrelevant whether you like the wine or not I a lot of people ask me Gary you need to code some sort of schematic and we need to do something so that I know what to order when I'm at a supermarket or on the wine list and I'm always like they're like what should I do like I answer all my fan email which is you know 500 to a th000 a day on the flight here this morning I was very thrilled because the air lasted a lot longer this time for some unknown reason you can't change the battery so I might have to ditch it um for my European trips but you know I got through 7 800 emails it's what I do I mean people email me and say what should I have for dinner or for my anniversary things of that nature I'm very in tune and I want to touch my fans and the biggest question people ask is can you make it easier for me when I go on a date or when I'm going to supermarket and my number one rule if you leave with anything today is if you do want to explore wine promise me that you'll always pick something different and that doesn't mean you're into pin Noir and you're buying a different producer that means you're trying grapes that you've never had before because you need to expand your pallette how do you know if your favorite food on Earth is are White Castle sliders if you've never had them and that's the fundamental thing that's going on in the wine industry right now it's really screwed up because you're listening to Robert Parker or wine spectator and that's kind of it Andor you're buying Yellow Tail how many people here drink Yellow Tail often raise your hand right nobody wants to admit it it's awesome I love it but the fact of the matter is you're buying supermarket brands or whatever is that or whatever easy and that's great I mean listen I'm really not here to tell you why so awesome or anything of that nature I think it's phenomenal because fundamentally once you have Johnny Walker Blue I love Scotch but once you have Lefroy you've had Lefroy every wine changes every year and it changes as you drink it the two red wines we have today especially the Katherine Kennedy lateral which we'll have in a little bit over the next six years on if we taste it on May 17th of every year the wine would fundamentally be dramatically different that's pretty rad you know and I think that's what gets people into wine um I definitely want to go through this first wine we're going to taste it together I really want it to be a Q& A session throughout whether it's about you know wine or more about you know the social media things that we we've done so but the first wine Let's uh let's all grab the first wine I know you've probably had already but let's get into it one of the fundamental things that is being completely missed by the entire world

not just the US market is smelling the wine the bouquet is a humongous factor in the overall process of how you're going to like a wine so you know I really really want you to give this a sniffy sniff all right anybody want to be uh courageous and throw out some terminology that they're picking up on the nose smells like a Chardon okay and that makes you think what oy buttery not so much buttery has anybody ever had star fruit anybody you smell that a little it's got a really interesting star see the Conan clip if you've ever seen we ate things like you saw in that clip a little bit and when I was 17 I desperately wanted to become a master of wine I was like I'm gonna kick everybody's faces in I'm going to be the master of wine on Earth I'm going to Yoda this [ __ ] right I was like so focused and but my parents were really good like really like good about things they're like you're not drinking I was like [ __ ] like this is the family right and so no so I went backwards I read The Spectator and I read Parker and every single thing that I saw in the tasting notes I went out and tasted I'm like what's ciss you know and black raspberries and all this Jazz and dirt and grass and all this wild stuff and I felt like that would train my pallet so when I'd actually taste them and that really helped me I really do believe that is a competitive Advantage I had because in the early years when I was 23 2425 and in a very stooge serious douche baggy wine industry I had to really prove myself and the only way I was going to do that was to win blind tastings and I did that and I built bigger wine store than everybody so that worked too but the fact of the matter is that was hard to break into you know I this is why I love Web 2. 0 or so this whole web movement because it's nice being 21 and looking 14 in the wine industry in 19 you know 95 is sus so um so starf fruit comes through quite a bit for me it's kind of light I mean you know it's not aromatically crazy how about on the palette how many people like this wine raise your hand how many people hate this wine how many people are meh so I think this a pretty good sign like I'm kind of meh on it it's okay you know it's easy quaffing por Chan kind of fun right simple summertime one big thing I can tell you if you want to get into wine you want to learn some subtleties about wine stop drinking white wine cold that is something everybody does I'm in a by the way what I'm telling you right now is in a high minority like a lot of people are very out of all the things I'm doing the insane things I'm doing in the wine industry the one thing that most people hate is that I'm telling people to drink white wine warm because nobody agrees with me fundamentally for me though my whole career was tasting wine evaluating to buy it and when you have a white wine that's warm you can taste it you know I call it the high school beer Theory right the first time you had to drink a beer you wanted that stuff cold as you could get it because you hated the way it tasted that's how you hide flavor so that's a big factor um yes youav I feel that the flavors are exactly the same I just feel I can taste them when they're warm right I mean you can actually taste like you know like this wine actually has a little does anybody get a little hint of banana a peel on this wine like the you know do you know what I'm talking about the inner part you know like it's kind of bitter in a way too like have you ever tasted that come on Joel you've never had the inside of a banana you're scared of the inside of the banana my biggest thing that I'm probably proud of through the 440 episodes of wine Li TV that I've kicked out is that people are starting to talk about wine that's personal to them I had a wine very recently that SM exactly like Brian Chen's living room in 1984 the likelihood of you being in Brian Chen's living room playing Sega Master System just have to bring that part up in 19 or it was 85 actually 85 is zero but it smelled like his house you know how like every house has its own smell that needs to become a much bigger part of the culture of wine in this country it can't be what you read it has to be what you actually smell and taste how many people here consider eles wine drinkers just curious I guess that'd be a good reason how many people really desperately want to get into wine because they think fundamentally on paper it's cool the way they like it but they just don't like the way it tastes it's hiding um uh how many people are drinking pin Noir right now honestly it's okay it's a great grape I love it and now can you keep your hand real high just real quick and honestly how lower your hand if you didn't really drink it before sideways oh you guys were all street cred like that you were all on it right love this love it um it's a trend market and I'm trying to break that because there's a lot of great farmers and you're going to get you guys are going to get this you're going to really get this there's a lot of great Farmers right now who are changing their wine formula to get a good score from Robert Parker they're not letting the teris speak for itself and you know it's funny as our culture in this country gets more green and truthful and nice and right all this stuff the wine industry is actually going completely the other way it's becoming much more commercial people are looking to make more extracted wines are being made in the chemistry room not in the land and that's a problem and that's something I really want to try to reverse and get people comfortable in liking what they like the fact of the matter is the wine self-esteem in this country is Zilo people are sheep they you know they follow other people I mean I'm at some restaurants and I can actually physically see people sweating as they're picking the wine on the list and I'm like this is obnoxious I mean it's gotten that bad um and you know I really really desperately want to change that because Wine's been good for my immigrant family and so I feel like I owe it um does anybody have

at this point some wine questions yeah are you um see you're trying to change the way you know wine drinkers view wine but I wonder now that you're getting popular you're getting pressure from you know wine makers as well sure to you know promote their wines like can you please just talk about you know my wine and say some good things sure um while we're doing this let's finish this and we'll get to the next wine the second wine I want you to drink is the Mero it's one with the white label and we could just pass it on down so before I ever started Wine Library so the big thing that people made fun of me or called me out on early on when I started Wine Library TV is that I was a Salesman that I own this store and I have this show and I'm going to tell you that I like the stuff I have a lot of and you know I guess right and so I was very concerned about church and state early on but before I ever started Wine Library TV I we were one of the biggest independent wine retailers in the country there's enormous amount of I don't call pressure I'm completely on every Winery spam PR list you know and I get hundreds of samples sent to me every day but that was happening before too because we one of these enormous buyers where what what's been tough is I built my business on positivity for example some of you might know that I declare today good people day on Twitter it's getting big just saying um so I built my business on positivity so I had nothing but phenomenal kickass you're our son Gary relationships and now some of those wines have been on Wine Library TV and I've told people to flush it down their toilet and that's hurt our relationship as you can probably imagine so that's been weird that's been very tough for me I don't have the DNA to be a Critic actually I hate being disliked like nothing makes me more sad than making from page dig because I have to read the comments and they're all very difficult to read you know so like it's really not in my DNA to do what I do but for I don't know you know I love it because I get hundreds to thousands of emails a day from people that tell me things like thank you so much for doing this show my dad and I are now friends because we have you know something in common like that's the kind of [ __ ] that's like oh my God you know that's like you know I'm like who cares about anything that's like I want to save that like that that's Legacy over currency which is something I believe in very heavily so um I definitely think I'm on to something you know 87,000 people watched yesterday's episode that's a lot of people for you guys are familiar with the scene it's a non-tech show it's 25 minutes long and uh so it's exciting more wine questions or Tech questions or anything anybody yes uh you were talking that uh you don't like the commercialization of wine um I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the processes uh you don't like the ingredients or what it is that you don't like in commercial wine everybody's trying to extract The Grapes they're you're putting egg whites and they're trying to make the wine as high in alcohol and as big as possible even the Peno Noir that we're drinking today in the market tastes and looks nothing and I know you've been drinking I right looks nothing like the Pino Noir that was out 5 years ago I grew up knowing and loving you could see your fingers through the glass that's Pino it's a light grape the pen Noir we have now you know looks like it wants to punch you in your face it's like so black and bold and it's it's a completely different animal and it's really made for you know a couple of critics that have obnoxious not a little bit obnoxious Market power I we have clients who spent seven figures by themselves on 2005 Bordeaux this year right why look as Parker said it's one of the best vintages in the last 100 years that's it that's the only reason there's no other reason why it's not even out yet we put all that money in CDs it's been really good you know I mean you know it's an amazingly interesting market and you know for me I feel like we're starting to make progress with the show only now because my own fans the biacs they call me out now they're like you're an idiot I hate that and I'm like great thank you know what I mean so um it's pretty interesting anybody have anything else so oh I really kind of didn't give you as much as I wanted to the fact of the matter is everybody's trying to make every grape act bigger right so it's like you know you can't make a penguin a polar bear right but that's what they're trying to do and they're doing it in the chemistry Labs I don't know what they're doing they don't even let me look at the wine making rooms anymore because I feel like there's cheating going I feel like they're pouring different grapes in there they're doing a lot anything they need to do to sell wine it's a business and so that's kind of where it's at like people have just not wanted people just want big fruit bombs and they've gone away from anything that offers any kind of teroa truth from the land so kind of sucks I'm trying to push that hard yes you could take you can let's sniff the next swine or sniffy sniff as I like to say who's brave enough to admit that they started [ __ ] on Mero after sideways and they were drinking it before good for you see that's awesome both wearing green Big Ups to the New York Jets just got to get that in real quick yes so but it's right I mean that's what it is speaking of 2005 bordo um so I personally actually like bordos a lot that's what I not grew up drinking but that's kind of how I got into wine uh my dad was a big fan of bordos so I actually missed most of your episodes on board those so it wasn't until a few weeks ago I've actually found out about the fact that uh 2005 is supposed to be this revolutionary year and I was fortunate enough a couple of weeks ago to try one of the 2005 at some wine tasting and I really liked it now my question is it too late to actually buy some of the good uh good 2005 bordos so let me tell you real quick what's going on with 2005 Bordeaux in this country is sold on Futures you buy it two years before it comes out that's just a really cool thing those guys figured out to trick everybody on Brilliance anyway I mean it's just Brilliance anyway I'm just so smart anyway the prices have exploded there's wines that we're selling right now for $400 a bottle that were $180 a bottle1 13 months ago so you can imagine this brings out all the characters right the Futures market like all the Wall Street guys I mean you can make a lot of money is it too late yes it's too late you lost but not really right you lost in the fact that you're not going to be able to really make a crazy killing on your return can you still spend $60 $50 and get outrageous like classic like I'm going to put this away from my daughter's wedding wine yeah $50 absolutely and more importantly for everybody in this room when Bordeaux is awesome and it has a great vintage it kills it in 15 and under even with the crap ass Euro there's still some really significant good buys between 12 and $18 in 2005 Bordeaux and what's great about Bordeaux as a whole we're generalizing is they tend to be more balanced they tend to they blend a lot more and they're they do tend to be a little bit more towards the Tera and so there's it just not over the toop obnoxious like me it's a little bit more calm so Bordeaux is very classic and very food friendly a lot of these wines that we're getting out of Australia and California right now are just so big they overpower your entire meal I mean have people felt that have you had wines I mean you know that's a big headshake move right there right love but you love it but that's awesome and you should embrace that but the one thing you should not do and I don't want people to walk away from the big fruit bombs from Barosa or California that are massive and taste so good and being seduced by the fruit I just want people to try other things it's like you know how many people here have had shat of the pop raise your hand solid you're quick you like sh up the pop you're like yes um how about shinon from The lir Valley in I mean that's way very good how about borgy from the lir valley of France are you there you go um how about bersak a wine from bersak I mean you know you're going to start getting less and there's these amazing inexpensive interesting wines and what's going on in Portugal right now let me talk about that for a quick second I'm going to give them a huge shout out an absolute opportunity for you guys if you want to drink good wine right now Portugal especially the doto region d o kills between five and 10 I still have not I had a wine the other day it was like six bones I was like all right hold on the euro is a$1 60 how glass is two2 I mean how in the world I'm like are they like are the workers paying them to like make this one I have not mathematically been able to backtrack into this wine and it was real good I'm talking kicks Yellow Tail in its face destroys Kendall Jackson I mean just way better than the stuff that you're buying at the supermarkets every day so a little homework a little exploring can open up a lot of things plus it'll give you an opportunity to really expand your pallette and you'll find what you like I mean I'm convinced that every single person here has not had their favorite great Bridal to date still I mean I had a wine recently from Lebanon that killed I mean just destroyed it was expensive like the guy's like here you should buy this for a store it's amazing the French wine maker great Tera I'm like what is it he's like this Lebanese s I'm like well how much is it well retail for 60 bucks I'm like you know I started laughing at him because that is a non-sellable product but um I tasted it and it dominated and I bought it because I want to put it in people's hands it's still non-sellable product but the fact of the matter is it's something that I want people to explore and I'm not sure if there's like some residue from grenades or something in the vineyard that makes it so good I don't know what's going on there but the wine is like really got a different stylistic flavor profile and it's amazing it tastes like $200 board out so jump back there in the green I was good at memory you are hello um so my favorite

wine right now is this red that's a got a bunch of different grapes it yep and it's um cloudy like I don't know if that means it's unfiltered and it's physically cloudy yeah it's a red or a white it's a red okay and it's got cabet Frank in it and various other types do you know what it's called yeah it's made by thy it's called ple Sean H Zachary yeah that line is domination totally unfiltered yeah that guy is a killer that guy is it I think one of the first 10 wines I ever had was a Shan H Zachary he makes a wine called Orion yeah I have that too you that is kind of expensive though he's over it's overpriced but PES is great I mean it's unfiltered it's completely unfined unfiltered real throwback process so uh

are there a lot of unfiltered wines and what's your opinion on them I was going to ask um there are a lot of unfiltered wines I mean he's really raw you know he wants it to be like you know as true as possible have you spent a lot of time

drinking wines from the south of France you know ruson the langad do provance you need to go there and now like now you should leave seriously I mean like that's where you need to roll because you'll find wines between1 and $25 that are going to give you the same pleasure level as at uh ples and the fact that you enjoy that wine do you mainly drink New World California wines for the most part the fact that you gravitate towards that wine really indicates that your DNA is in the place of really looking at some of these More Southern rone um have you had a shat enough the pop and what did you think of that I again you could had a suck ass shat enough the pop yeah understood you need to definitely look at langad do and provant especially for everyday wine do you have drink and what do you drink for that usually well you're a baller what was I thinking I don't roll like that so I think it's great what you're doing um at the intersection of the consumer and the retailer sure and kind of bringing them close kind of uh getting rid of that um The Prestige The Chateau the scripty font all that hoyy toyy stuff but you're also telling a story and you're bringing people closer to that what do you think wineries or wine makers could do to get people closer to it um you know you don't have to take go behind the scenes at French Laundry to enjoy that but you want to engage with people on that level what would you recommend I recommend giving a crap about their customers you know physically caring because right now especially uh you know in this state what they want to do is they want to bring you on the weekend and charge you 10 bucks for a glass that's what they want to do and they want to figure out how to get into Walmart and Costco and how to put the right what is the wineries spend more time now spending on what's the right animal to put on the label that's going to seduce you guys to buy it than they do about the product they're putting out and more importantly cuz I don't even mind about the product they're putting out cuz to be very honest with you 98% of the Market doesn't know anyway between a lot of the variables they just don't care about their consumer you know I mean have you looked at a winery website lately I mean where is the good one I mean it's very difficult but there's more and more cool things going on um and clearly you know as technology races ahead you know the wine industry will be five years behind but you know five years behind from today is actually decent that's when some good stuff started happening so I think people are starting to say oh maybe you know I cannot believe there is not a video blog right now about them working the Harvest there's a lot of nerds that want to see that stuff I don't want to see people pick grapes there's a lot of people that do right and so they there's little things they can do you know if they one of these wineries gets a quick phone they might be able to do some damage you know so I mean it's there's just a caring and an understanding of where the marketplace is the explosion explo I created a very nonscale avilable app on Facebook the day the platform came out it was called Ask Gary my theory was Brilliance ask me a wine question and I'll answer it and so but you know very scalable anyway it dominated and but what's funny about it is the questions blew my mind you have to understand 10 years ago I was 21 and I wanted everybody who's 21 to be into wine I'm going to you know make it let's go come with me right and you know I'd come to a party and I'd a bottle of wine everybody be like dude you're such a dork put that down to do a keg stand you know it was like there was no interest whatsoever but now there is far more interest even at the 22 to 28 year old I mean there was a kid from the University of Alabama who asked me a question about Bond do that's unheard of that's unheard of now you know but Technologies changed the game I mean when I wanted to learn about wine when I was 17 18 I actually had to go to the library and get like Hugh Johnson's wine books God forbid I had the internet I would have been a wine freaking Master anybody else uh just a comment about the uh the way wineries treat you when you walk in sure um I would make a recommendation anybody here to look local the Santa Cruz mountains most of them don't charge for their tastings and they make their money through their tasting rooms they don't make enough wine to sell them through Walmart and whatnot so they got to treat you like a person when you walk in the door so sure I mean and it's give and take right I mean or or hit and miss I mean you can't you know Santa Cruz they're going to have some jerk offs too and have some great people right I mean i' I've been to CL chance it's hit and miss right I mean what really bothers me about California to be honest with you is it's very Hometown it's very Hometown and so is Washington I'm going to Washington tomorrow to do taste of Washington I'm like the big favorite there because I've been preaching that wala Washington is better than Napa Valley and then on Tuesday I got to speak at Napa Valley which is going to be pretty tough that copat the mandavi thing they're going to boo me off stage but the fact of the matter is that everybody's too Hometown on the west coast that's the greatness that the New York consumer has because they get the whole flavor they really do I mean California consumers are we we're going to do $1 million in sales in California this year and a lot of it's California why not we ship back and I laugh at that but what's exciting is a lot of people are buying wines that are um from Europe I mean there's some really great stores in California whether it's you know K& L or you know or Premier crew or Woodland Hills I mean there's a lot of good people doing things but the selection and the opportunity and the thought process of a lot of people here generalizing of course is that there's a lot of consumption of local wines here which is great I'm down for support us I'm huge on USA but the fact of the matter is that you've got to try different things because there's so much awesome stuff going on South Africa who's drinking South African wine at all who's loving South African wine right I mean pinotage anybody like pinotage I mean if you like bacon bananas and copper pennies that's yours I mean that's all you and so that's a process that I really am trying to get people to engage into trying different things because and really trusting themselves right not being embarrassed like if you want to rock out white zendel God bless you please Yellow Tail two buck Chuck I did an episode on Two Buck Chuck everybody asked me to do that and you know everybody expected me to do I don't know whatever uh oh dmat do something password is it Google that would have been awesome how about this wine how many people uh let's do this let's SN you finished it already I'm that's good work so did you ladies are doing well over you did as well good all right um how many people liked this wine raise your hand how many people hated this wine tell me why you hated it sir don't forget your palette is right kind of tasted metallic to me metallic you ate more metal than I did strong an well I I get an as well I mean what it has very bitter backend tannins and your mouth is much drier than it started so this is a dry wine I do get a little metal little aluminum bat right a little bit um so this is not crazy fruit this is kind of balanced for Mero it's got a very heavy dark black chocolate finish on the end are you guys picking that up at all do you get the little cocoa chocolate kind of thing going on the nose a little bit let me just show you this I think you might get a kick out of this right when I hit home here it doesn't work so great how do I get this to slide over slide top bar thanks thank you notice I'm very big un friend you me up so this episode so like tuck Chuck right how many people here have had tuck Chuck awesome how many people were obsessed with tuck Chuck for a few minutes nice so I'm really big on showing this show because mainly because of my hair but um hello everybody and welcome to Wine Library TV I am your host Gary Veer Chuck and this is Wine Library TV huge episode Michael Goldberg challenged me to the Charles Challen wrot openting Chara wine tra Joe's exclusive lab Michael was do this for him on the show and many it was the worst wine I think I've ever had I get every single day if I remember two bck Chuck Three Buck Chuck four Buck Chuck depending on what state you live on in United States of America so we're going to tackle this massive wine issue and because I get so many questions a day that just shows the enormous effort that Fred frania from the Bronco Wine Company the fact of the matter is there many people that are worried what other for cre at this point when I did this show I was already the front page of the Wall Street Journal New York Times and Time Magazine things were going really well for me and a lot of people would have been scared to come out and say I like Two Buck Chuck when you've got at that point I don't know 25,000 people listening to you and you're next Robert Parker blah blah blah but for me that wraps up my message more than anything which is that you just have to like what you like and I honestly think that if you make a commitment to just go into the store and try a varietal you've never had before how many people here have had Greco DFO yes zero all right let's write that down or email yourself I know you're techy you know Greco DFO how many people here have had penio how many people like pinio yeah it's good it's a good summertime drink pinio sucks globally compared to Greco DFO globally of course I mean I look at a problem product like Santa Margarita that is the biggest waste of 20 Bones on Earth better you're better off going seen the worst movie on Earth and buying popcorn than drinking a bottle of Santa Margarita there you go getting rowdy already um yes oh um you actually sound like Jim Kramer a little bit on the video but yeah that's what my agents keep telling everybody he's right um so whenever I go to to a restaurant and um since I'm French and I go there with my friends and they all look at me and say like oh why don't you piig the wine like I already know better reverse stereotype right like they're prejudiced against you so um you know frankly most of the time I really have no idea of what I do but you put up a good facade right of course yeah of course good work so I'm screwed with everybody here but at least could you tell me like could you give me some tips on how to get really The Good the best wine on a menu because it's not necessarily the most expensive one yeah cheapest one either sure I mean price has no impact whatsoever I mean I went to uh crew which is a Big Time Restaurant in New York City has anybody ever been there awesome right you like that I mean crazy wine list did you have a good time there it's nice right how about baratas has anybody been to baratas in New York you been there really I mean these are crazy wine lists and I ordered a $630 bottle of red burgundy from 1990 which is the killer vintage decamped for two hours did all the right things the wine was so boring it was devastating for lack of a better word there is no perfect science right you know like I said before really if if I had my way when they gave you that list and you'd look at it and you'd say KRW I've never had krew you probably have because you're a French right and you've drank some wines from the Rome Valley but you know whatever it is if I can get to a place where you look at a wine list and say petite forough 100% petite forough I've never had 100% petite forough I want to order that and you can remember what you like then I basically accomplished my Global mission that to me is that's the place you need to be because if everybody does that and cares enough about wine that they're kind of into it and remember what they like and didn't like well then in six months to a year you're going to have everything you need to go everywhere and make decisions I mean there's nothing I can do besides this secret software I'm working on with this kid where you take the picture with your iPhone and it gets emailed and then based on your friends selections and your selections it Aggregates and your favorite wine and the wines you've liked in the past will email you back within 3 minutes if I can pull that off then I'll have something but other than that um it's really best off that you just try a different wine every time ask so let's talk about ask God you saved me thank you so here's a here's my fundamental Global rule about a

restaurant wine list you come in you sit down whether it's a waiter or a somier comes over and you say I I need some help you know they usually they say would you like some help you go yes if uh what do you ask them what do you think it's very important we we say it that way if the psalm he or she recommends to you something you never listen to that person for the rest of your life because fundamentally they have no idea what you like and that goes true for a wine store as well I actually fired an employee not too long ago because he not listen to the C I mean is my cardinal rule you can't have somebody come in and say Hey you know I need some help what would you're like I'm looking for some six red bottles of red wine you can't go and recommend something cuz you have no feel for the pallet of the person in front of you have to ask them what have you liked in the past I built my business on people coming to me and saying I like Silver Oak I like Kus I like chatow Montelena and I would give them things similar but different and that's what should happen if you ask somebody and they come over and they say you know what do you think and they say well you should try this it's a great Mero we just got it in they're out order something else and that's but if they ask you what do you like now you're going in the right place so asking is great especially if they ask you back you know what do you like I mean how many people here like red zendel not the pink stuff I mean that's a spicy racy wine do the same people that like white zidel do you guys like sanio basy like super tuskin you know I mean there's parallels some will fall off but it's a progression to the next step right not the next step better or worse just a similar labor profile a little different how many people here who raise how many people like red Z vanill and have had red Zill raise your hand real quick how many of you have had Primo from Italy good number clear somebody did something right it's good do you guys does anybody have a preference how many people like the privo a whole lot really question well it's the same grape varietal but it's to but it's not true question at all because Primitivo Tera where it's produced from is so fundamentally different than Napa or Robos or wherever the SS that we sell are it's such a it's a totally different animal it can be except when a lot of producers in Italy now go into the room and try to make it taste like the California stuff that gets 93 points CU turly Zin is hot you know so all right one more time how many people hated the last wine I'm just trying to get a feel for myself this is important data you hated it huh why Dusty it is Dusty that's so I like the seller dust aspect of this wine but that's a great call I understand you can stick your tongue out but I'm still going to like it um but yeah it does have a Dusty seller that's great call that what I call attic you know like kind of like I used to like to garage sale a lot and be like can you go in your attic that's where the good stuff was so very you know Dusty and cob cool all right let's try the next wine third wine is it out here yep lateral Katherine Kennedy anybody have any other wine questions or any other anybody want to talk Jets football no damn we have a great draft picked so you mentioned your uh Epiphany came when you were driving you know on the road one Sunday right and you said you were just Sunday it was November 14th 2005 so why were you so miserable

before and are you still miserable or are you much you know what's so funny I wasn't miserable at all right I repositioned my family on November 13th I thought I was the happiest boy on Earth it just hit me it was just like you know this is not what I want to do anymore something else and basically I walked in and told one of my stock guys go to Circuit sitting by a camera it's like you know it's just you know there's a lot of things I believe in life and one is if you do what you love and you don't lie to yourself you'll always win regardless of what you're doing I just don't lie to myself and that day I was driving to work I'm like I'm 30 years old now do I like where I'm at am I closer to buying the New York Jets no all right I don't want to do this anymore there's too much cool stuff going on a million people just watch Dy Samberg who came from the internet do a skit on SNL wine has no hero or somebody that's doing something interesting and so I just you know I'm I was happy then I was only not happy for about 28 minutes you know what I mean it was just that drive that I just knew that I had to do something different and I did yeah so I have more of a question about the website that you built and um you know the social media part of your business so are you do you have an engineering background and you know how did you uh I built my Empire and control C control V that's what I always say nice so I did something very smart luckily uh when in 2000 when things were tough in 2001 especially in New York after 911 I hired two devs pretty cheap and one of them Eric hner he wrote spell with flicker that was his first big internet theme um behind my back during store hours God damn it I actually pay him to read RSS feeds at this point he's like he's can't stay focused that's why every product we launch is like nine months late I hired a couple devs and uh and uh you know we all sat in a very I mean we had a I had a small family business I mean right you saw that big picture that you guys just saw of the store now but before it was 4,000 ft and our entire office which we were doing like $20 million in internet sales was like this big and like nine of us sat there and he sat right next to me and on his first day in 2002 oh this is awesome first time there's some really good this is going to be good I'm happy to tell the story um the first day he started was like January 2002 he looked over at me and goes why are you using Yahoo go to Google and this is true it gets better I go to Google and I go this is stupid [ __ ] it's a blank page this is not do [ __ ] you know I mean so but he you know he's like you need to read Jason Codi I'm like what you know we read waxy what you know here's Flicker and so we had this great culture and I was so zoned in on selling stuff which is so anti what this culture was but every day I'm sitting there and I'm learning and I'm watching and I'm learning right and so uh you know YouTube was huge because we caught YouTube crazy early and watching it because the day American Idol debuted in America I registered becoming famous. com during the show I was like this is Hu this show is going to be huge which I was right but I'm going to make a website that's going to replicate it but I had very evil intentions like you were going to sign up and I was going to own like 15% of your life even if you were like a third grader who sang right but you know this was my intention and so when YouTube came out we caught it real early and I was like wow this is kind of what this hurts when I think about but you know back then bandwidths were insane so anyway um we I watched YouTube really care really carefully and my grammar is obnoxiously horrible so I missed the whole blogging thing right and I watched that go and I was like this sucks you know just watching it and so as soon as video felt and I wasn't big on the you know I didn't get on the podcasting you know Odio and all that you know kind of let I let EV have his mistake and then you know but when video was right I jumped in pretty hard so the thing that you know you have to understand what is what's going on now right what's really happening now is that people are interacting and socializing right social media I my fundamental DNA is I love people like if I can hang out with people all the time that's I just like people a lot like bad people too right like I feel like they're good I feel like you can fix them so this is kind of this whole movement is kind of built for me and I'm also very much into hustle 2. 0 which is I answer every email everyone and that's like you know big time and keeps me in tune with the fan base and my friends and so um no I have no skills whatsoever you know I wanted to learn how to code in Ruby on Rails I had this like Epiphany one day morning the other day it wasn't like a the same kind of epiphany by the time I got into the store I was out so but I was hot on it for like 18 minutes uh I have a question

about uh storing wine most places will tell you to store it in a cool dry place like a seller unfortunately a lot of us don't have S correct of what's the next best especially you're worried if you're not worried for long-term storage well if you're spending money it's like are you going to buy an antique car and leave it outside so if you're going to spend dough some bones on a wine collection you better make sure it doesn't go bad the fact of the matter is though if you're going to consume the wine within even the first two years I'm almost comfortable and saying this kind of outlandish but you know kitchen counter is probably going to be fine unless the sun's hitting it if you're consuming it in the first year or two you don't need that little fridge that you made that big investment on that you think you needed that's longterm stuff peeps that's longterm that's like five seven nine years so I have another question uh you're sort of upset with the homogeneity of the wine especially influenced by Parker and wine spectator but people when they go to the stores they choose what to buy and as a owner you see what people buy and I'm guessing that a lot of people like it like the scores well like the uh fruit bombs they like you hell yeah so at some level you know if their palet is right God bless I have no problem you have to understand though in 1998 I was the kid that was standing for fruit bombs when nobody was drinking them so I just didn't capture it on video you know if Wine Library TV if this movement started we'd watch video and I looked really cute in 1998 it would have been awesome and so I was yelling at people saying you know what Bordeaux is not the best wines in the world why can't Australia and Spain be good I think brosa Valley is going to be huge so you know at some level I think there's a little bit of that in Wine Library TV too that I like that I'm documenting a lot of things like there's a great video I did about 2005 Bordeaux when 2005 Bordeaux really first hit the scene Joel you you're a wine guy you know this a lot of people contemplated the prices were too high it was a stupid investment the wines came out very expensive they raised the crap out of them and everybody's like don't buy it'll get better the Euro was 125 and I real like it's going to come down right that didn't work out um and went on Wine Library TV multiple times in a short period of time yelling and screaming at everybody who watched to buy 2005 bordo because I went to France I tasted the wines and I knew what they were and so that's kind of cool to like look back and be like see you know so that's kind of fun the documentation of it so but in 1998 I was screaming at people who had no interest in drinking anything but California and French wine and telling them you have to drink these Australian wines they're so Lo loaded with candy and spree and like overthe top fruit people are going to love this stuff and they did the problem is you know I'm always trying to just get a little bit closer to the middle that's all I have no problem just two days ago I did a show on how I even am getting back into the fruit a little bit more and did an Australian show and one wi was really good one wi was terrible but so you were too successful 19 yeah I mean you know there's a lot of things when I look back at that it was like I mean I didn't drive the market Parker did you know I bought all these Australian wines my dad wanted me to like punch me in the face really he was like what are you doing I was buying $50 Barosa shiras that nobody's ever heard of with outlandish names like wild duck Muk like these crazy sick names and but I was in a store I worked every hour so I knew I would handell them and then sure enough Parker came out and gave like everything 98 99 977 points which was on her up higher than California and that was really my first big you know that's when all the guys on Wall Street were like oh we're going to listen to him he was right he made us a lot of money you know cuz the wines went up a lot and what have you anybody have any other wine questions or Tech questions or and we got and I want to break down this last wine because that's really okay yeah I'll do that quickly I'll do it quickly though is this isn't good enough to be the last question I was just wondering like so both these Reds are good especially this last one it's got a lot of flavor but almost no smell and maybe that's a function of the glass being too small but am I nose impaired or so let's get into the wine because you went into something really great and we could talk about young

wine I mean I get some things on the bouquet I mean I definitely get wood chips you know like landscaper wood chips like big time I get a little Oak monster be careful of the oak monster he will get you big time um but you're right it's it's aromatically challenged which is always a problem for me cuz I'm big on the nose of the wine the fruit is really pure and clean it's good so you know I just did something while we're here we got a couple seconds take your next sip really mouthwash your palette I want you to or before you do that I know I got you in Midstream drink it the way you drank it before or if you just drank it try to at least cap out in your mind now mouthwash it I guarantee you'll be shocked by the difference of flavor profile you're going to taste get real loud don't be scared front row I like how everybody's looking does anybody see a significance and I mean it's it's substantial you've seen the charts in health class right there's a lot of you really want to get it as many parts into your palette so to answer your question it's based on youth do you taste what you're tasting now which is kind of bitter and very dry in your mouth that's the tannin That's What's blocking the bouquet over time if you age this in three or four years if we'd open this up the secondary flavors on the nose and the flavor profile of this wine really heavy on Plum the strawberry fruit will start coming through because if you really get in there you can kind of get that strawberry flavor underneath if depending on how strong your sense of smell is but you know yeah mine too but you know um over time three four five years of Aging that's when things really open up the wine will soften and kind of level out I am sick on decanting if you do any if you want to watch any episode of Wine Library TV after this you're like oh that guy was kind of weird let me watch one show on the top just put in the number sign 18 it was the 18th show I did first result for decamping on Google um and watch it that decanting episode decanting wine too many people think that decanting wine is only for a $100 bottle of wine decanting wine that is like $7 to $10 is magical it's a huge Factor guys I'm serious you'll be so pumped buying a $20 decanter is like one of the best things you can do I mean if you don't want to do that use a vas something just seriously it is a big time play that will make you enjoy your wine investment so much more hour uh decanting I'm very big on see but I nerded up a little bit maybe I'm big on an hour as a global rule right like I have this Global rule of an but for me when I DeCamp my number one thing especially if you're really kind of interested in wine I mean you came here so you might be somewhat right I mean taste it along the way pop a bottle drink it while you're cooking or getting ready okay got that try to go back 25 minutes later go back an hour and a half later like the development will teach you so much especially if you do it like four or five times you're going to start getting patterns the fundamental thing to really break this down and get to a great place though is to try different great varietals I'm telling you that is the secret the biggest secret because like Greco theufo oh a zero in this class a big goose egg no hitter and it's really solid stuff and dollar for dooll and Quality Base it destroys penio it's like comparing Google to dog pile see I resonated there so you know seriously you have to try Greco DFO if you like pinio cool go ahead I'll what happened to the um dominating the master SMA Ambitions you know my my dad was very smart at understanding that I had some skills and the first year I ran the business we went from 3 million to 10 million and that changed the culture of our family life and that kind of kept me busy like so you know and at the same token you know I was a lemonade stand kid and a baseball card kid I mean I did definitely want to have a great palette and I have obnoxious respect for the wine I mean the biggest problem honestly the marketing guys and the people that get mad at me for panning a wine don't bother me at all I mean really I mean it bothers me but whatever I mean what am I what can I possibly do without doing the right thing I do feel bad for the farmers and the people that really Ian people put their heart and soul into this product this is a farming product it's tough and to sit there on a on a platform where there's close to 100,000 people watching you and listening to you which is why if you watch Wine Library TV you know once a week I'm saying don't listen to a single word I say don't please don't buy this even though I love it you know I want people to embrace themselves I feel bad for the farmers uh but the Ambitions of being I my palet is extremely strong I hang out with Master somes not masters of wine a couple though and I can hang can I beat them on the written test probably not but when it comes to blind tasting that's where I kind of you know I'm in the trenches I made my name kind of there I feel very comfortable if somebody wants I think that's why the wine industry has been shockingly quiet at yelling back at me publicly because I'll be like let's go on Ustream right now live blind tasting let's see who's got the chops and I do and a lot of them don't and they know it because they knew who I was before Wine Library TV so I still want to challenge somebody on Ustream anyone want to step up that's it or I'll keep asking keep asking so how you should go to Ask Gary on application how reliable is your palette sort of you know over time I sometimes find that I love wine and then two months later it just is terrible sure I think your palette changes all the time is there a food that you used to love that you hate now maybe that's the answer I mean I've done a really crazy thing with tomatoes I went from loving to hating to loving sea urants real crazy was super down on sea urant now it's the only thing I order so I think your palette changes right I mean think about when you're little you like three things you like eat chicken wings right or like McDonald's and you're like I'm not eating you know so your pallet constantly evolves especially in this era now where you know you guys are lucky you have S FR and so many awesome restaurants and like even like chill like medium tiers I mean it's cool it's awesome so you know I think Wine's the same way I think you know I mean in 1998 all I drank was Barosa Valley shz for like a year and a half now I make fun of it every single day but I mean it's just where I'm at so I think people change I think your pette changes and I think things change so yes so we're running out of time uh the cameraman have to be elsewhere but if you guys want to stick around and ask more questions to Gary he's going to be right over there by the extra wine and um am yeah just thanks again for coming awesome thank you so much guys this is awesome thank you