Beyond Thunderdome: on Gary Vee’s Wine Library TV
When Gary Vaynerchuk asked me on the “thunder show” I was afraid. Not of him even though he’s an entrepreneur, wine retailer, dynamo, and internet phenom. No, I was afraid he would make me eat dirt. (As he made Conan do.)
In the end, that didn’t happen and there was nothing to fear. Not only is Gary a very nice guy, we had a fun conversation too. So if you have 33 minutes that you are wondering what to do with, check out the segment where we talk and taste three wines. (Or see it on his site.) Gary also has a couple of books out, 101 Wines and a business book called Crush It. If you don’t know about Gary you can check out profiles of him in Slate and NYTimes.com.
Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments as well as your answer to The Question: will you be pouring a magnum on Thanksgiving?
On November 19th, 2009 at 7:29 pm ,@nectarwine wrote:
Loved the interview, I’m now a new huge fan! I’ll have to check out your books. I look forward to digging through your archives and future posts.
Josh @nectarwine (twitter)
On November 19th, 2009 at 7:42 pm ,Mr Taz wrote:
It was great to see two of my favorite wine-world luminaries on WLTV together. I hope it brings lots of new readers to your great blog.
BTW how’d you like our Garden State?
On November 19th, 2009 at 9:20 pm ,Evan Dawson wrote:
Nicely done. Classy and understated. I was going to offer you my bronzer, but I don’t think you needed it. 😉
What I like about Gary is that he truly is an acid freak. So often you hear people speak glowingly of racy wines, of nice acid, but when they actually encounter it they’re put off. Gary’s affinity for acid is pretty obviously sincere, so perhaps it was unsurprising for him to declare a wine to be a touch fat…
On November 19th, 2009 at 9:37 pm ,Tobias wrote:
Congrats. You cut a sympathetic figure on the thumbnail screen and it was among the better WLTV episodes.
On November 19th, 2009 at 11:00 pm ,epicuria wrote:
GV has such a manic (=passionate) personality that most guests on the show get tumbled in his huge waves of opinion. Or I guess I should say they get zapped by his thunder.
This is especially apparent when a more cerebral person like you or Jancis Robinson comes on to the show.
The GV monologue never quite moves over into dialogue (I’m not sure one can have a dialogue with thunder). When you paused to frame your response, bam comes another clap. And so you were left too often having to affirm the declarations of the host.
With his hyper enthusiasm, Gary kept stepping on your lines, as he does with most all his guests (it was fun to watch Brice Jones on another episode try to offer his perspective, but even he, the ex fighter pilot, had to work hard to force his comments into the “conversation”)
To use your site’s quote: what transpired was definitely not “wine talk that goes down easy.”
While oenophiles want to see the people behind the names on Wine Library TV, the mighty force of Zeus tends to obstruct the view. Gary, who’s a great warm guy with many talents, is temperamentally better suited to conquering the world than chatting with others he bumps into along the way. 😉
On November 19th, 2009 at 11:04 pm ,Jack O'C wrote:
So happy to see you on the Thunder Show Dr. Vino! I follow both websites closely, and literally dropped what I was doing to watch this episode. Thanks!
On November 20th, 2009 at 2:18 am ,Mark Ryan wrote:
Great interview! It’s always nice to put a face to the name. Gary V. does rise to the challenge when there’s an interesting guest – such as yourself, Randall Grahm, or Jancis Robinson. I wish you had spoken your mind about disappointing bottles, however based on your comments you might as well have just said the three bottles in front of you. 😛
On November 20th, 2009 at 3:40 am ,Mat wrote:
Hey Doctor Vino!
Sorry but im now a fan and your rss is in my feed reader.
Hope you found the time to taste this years beaujolais nouveau.
Im french and i tasted it yesterday
On November 20th, 2009 at 6:20 am ,Erol Senel wrote:
Congrats of gettin in good with GV. He has long been the inspiration for what I do (as have you).
I can’t wait to hopefully meet him when he is up in Boston for the Boston Wine Fest in January. He is putting on a seminar on both Saturday and Sunday.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone (still reeling over WS beating me to the expert Thanksgiving dish & Wine Pairings piece).
On November 20th, 2009 at 9:35 am ,EVO wrote:
Half the fun are the comments of his Vayniacs afterward. At least you weren’t caught off guard by the QOTD like I was.
EVO
On November 20th, 2009 at 10:02 am ,Dr. Vino wrote:
Thanks for the kind words!
As to the worst wine, certainly the infamous Sierra Carche is in the running!
On November 20th, 2009 at 10:56 am ,Steven wrote:
Hey Dr. Vino,
Nice to finally see you in person. Read your book last year (A Year of Wine) and I’ve been a fan of you since. I’m also impressed that you take the time to answer emails (I had asked you about Sommelier classes in NYC), considering your a professor and author (paper and electronic). Keep up the good work and Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
Maybe we’ll ride together in Central Park one day.
On November 20th, 2009 at 1:12 pm ,Tim McDonald wrote:
Dr. Vino, Nicely done I must say. I have not watched Gary V in a few days and your appearance prompted me to click play, Happy Thanksgiving and yes a Cru Beajolais for the side dishes…Cheers!
On November 20th, 2009 at 2:24 pm ,castello wrote:
Wher can I get a Magnum of Cru Beajolais for turkey day?
Great show! Many Vaniacs will now interupt your comments with rudeness, in a good way.
On November 20th, 2009 at 2:26 pm ,Erik Wait wrote:
It was great to see you on WLTV, wish Gary would take a breath for a minute and let you finish a sentence.
On November 20th, 2009 at 2:28 pm ,Katie wrote:
While I subscribe to the Wine Library RSS feed, I never watch unless its someone like Jancis Robinson. Now I’ve found you and will be eager to read your blog and your books. Thanks for taking the risk (of dirt or other intimidating gastronomic gauntlet!). Happy Thanksgiving.
On November 20th, 2009 at 3:51 pm ,Kathy Rees wrote:
You did a great job! If your readers don’t have time to read Gary’s new book Crush It, they can get the cliff notes here http://cliffnotebooks.com/crush-gary-vaynerchuk-cliff-notes/
On November 20th, 2009 at 7:55 pm ,Gary Vaynerchuk wrote:
Katie sorry you dont like the show without another person 🙂 but I am glad u found the Doc, he is a very nice man and has a great passion for the vino and I hope you will enjoy reading his blog.
On November 20th, 2009 at 7:56 pm ,Gary Vaynerchuk wrote:
Thnx for coming on the show buddy! take care, you did great and sorry if I cut u off a few times, i get too excited at times!
On November 20th, 2009 at 8:36 pm ,The Wine Mule wrote:
When Gary first started, I watched because I admired the artlessness of it all: He’d go off camera to get a different glass, etc. Now his relentless enthusiasm makes me nervous. And cynical. It seems to me that lately Gary is mostly into promoting Gary. I’m not surprised by this; in a way, he’d be nuts not to promote himself.
On November 21st, 2009 at 7:33 pm ,Greg wrote:
Seeing both Gary & Dr. Vino side-by-side really illustrates the diversity in today’s wine world. The Doc is the quintessential cerebral taster who reflects on the nuances in the glass, while Gary represents the new breed of winos who’re brash opinionated & in-your-face. It’s great that there’s room at the table for both styles of tasting.
Oh and I loved how the Doc pointed out how goal-oriented Gary is! It was a back-handed compliment but so meshes with Gary’s ego & ambition. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him running his own Omnimedia empire in 10 yrs.
On November 21st, 2009 at 8:09 pm ,Noelle M wrote:
Dr. Vino and Gary V I wish I had watched this video segment prior to purchasing a bottle of Domaine Du Viking Vouvray for a celebratory occasion. After a fruitless attempt to purchases a bottle of Pinon, a wine store associate suggested we try the Domain Du Viking as a substitue being the store did not have Sparkling Vouvray. We found the smell and taste of the wine to be very “green” and felt like we were sipping a vegtable garden. Needless to say we are not fans of this wine.
We wished we checked out your blog before choosing to go with this wine.
On November 22nd, 2009 at 10:00 pm ,Dr. Vino wrote:
@Castello – depends where you live but I have gotten mags of cru Bojo at Astor, Appellation and Crush in NYC. The good ones do tend to go fast.
@Gary – Thanks, it was fun!
@Noelle – have you tried the sparkling Vouvray from Pinon, Clos Naudin, or Huet? I’ve had great ones from them over the years.
Thanks for all the kind words–and welcome new subscribers!
On November 27th, 2009 at 9:12 pm ,Kevin Kossowan wrote:
I was shocked and surprised to see you on! I’m a regular vayniac, I suppose you could say. And although no magnums appeared at our CDN thanksgiving, I’ve had a couple this year at parties, and really enjoy the celebratory nature they provide.
On March 18th, 2011 at 10:25 am ,Gary Vee unplugs from Wine Library | Dr Vino's wine blog wrote:
[…] 1,000 episodes of Wine Library TV (I had a good time with him on episode #771), Gary Vaynerchuk has decided to hang up his signature Jets bucket. Well, sort of. Many of his fans […]
On August 23rd, 2011 at 2:52 pm ,Gary Vaynerchuk quits daily wine videos | Dr Vino's wine blog wrote:
[…] final wine video. (He had previously announced stepping down from his position at Wine Library.) I was once a guest on Wine Library TV, aka the “Thunder Show,” and the show had a fun run for five years. I wish Gary sunny […]