Eric LeVine of CellarTracker – Wine Person of the Decade! [poll results]
We started with five days of your nominations for the wine person who most personified the decade 2000-2009. (Although if you read Frank Rich or Paul Krugman, you might not exactly want to epitomize this decade, the Naughties.) Wine lovers had an optimistic analysis for the decade as they chose from eight finalists who personified different story lines. And in the end, after 2,842 votes were cast, the winner was clear: Eric LeVine, founder of CellarTracker.com!
Second place in the voting was Gary Vaynerchuk, a wine retailer and internet phenom. With nearly 850,000 followers on Twitter, would Gary summon the VaynerNation to do his bidding? Eric and Gary crossed champagne sabers here and on various of the wine forums. Here’s a taste from Twitter:
Gary: @cellartracker hey are u whipping my butt 😉 LOL congrats bro …have a great new years!
Eric: Happy New Year’s to you too! You could whip me in 1 sec if U wanted. Love the Misha [Gary’s daughter] pic, daddy!
Wow, they are at each other’s throats!
If you are not familiar with CellarTracker, check it out or feel free to review all the comments on the previous thread. For your convenience, since some might say that CellarTracker is Zagat to the single critic’s Michelin, here’s a summary of what people said:
“CellarTracker…represents the rise at the beginning of this century of the power of the consumer critic…The fact that the users have essentially created an instant database of every wine under the sun is astonishing. The value and power of it will only increase as more people use it…Not only has he provided a well thought out system for tracking one’s wine experiences, it can be free (if you choose not to donate), it records tasting notes from thousands of different palates (not just one, i.e. Gary), and it has changed the way I purchase old and new wines…a game changer…CellarTracker changes the way wine is stored, appreciated, reviewed when it first appears, and reviewed as it ages. Eric gets my vote…My grown kids laugh because the site is my “home†page…it represents what’s right about the web…I can say unequivocally that I would not be the wine drinker I am today without CellarTracker…I would be lost if you took my CellarTracker away!…Long live CT! … And Eric LeVine is one the most rational and most interesting commentators on wine boards.”
Well done, Eric! The early betting shows that you are the one to beat for next decade’s title as well.
On January 4th, 2010 at 8:47 am ,rj's wine blog wrote:
congrats to eric – cellar tracker continues to amaze, intrigue and organize. looking forward to the new release.
On January 4th, 2010 at 10:00 am ,Wine Person of the Decade, With Semantic Argument – Louisville Juice wrote:
[…] Vino’s readers have voted Eric LeVine of CellarTracker the wine person of the decade. From the summary of why people chose […]
On January 4th, 2010 at 10:07 am ,Kristian T. wrote:
Congratulations to Eric – well deserved. CellerTracker is definitely also my number one wine site.
On January 4th, 2010 at 10:45 am ,Eric LeVine wrote:
Thank you so much, everyone, for the kind comments throughout the nominating and voting. I am really humbled at the impact that CellarTracker is having already for some people, and I think the best is yet to come.
Sincerely,
Eric LeVine
-CellarTracker.com
On January 4th, 2010 at 1:01 pm ,Gary "Iron" Chevsky wrote:
Congrats to Eric and to Gary Vee.
My friend Richard Jennings is the #1 (most prolific) reviewer on cellar tracker. Amazing feat. Others I know avidly enter reviews. Everyone reads them. The “blogging” capability (with photos and links) is great too. The site now has critical mass of usage, and there are so many more cool features that could be created to make my wine learning and picking even easier. Eric, if you can make good money from that business, you are truly blessed to have combined your passion and your profession into a singular success!
Happy New Year!
— Iron Chevsky.
On January 4th, 2010 at 1:05 pm ,Eric LeVine wrote:
Hi Iron Gary, despite being free with voluntary payment, CellarTracker ‘the business’ is doing very well. I am very fortunate that my interests in wine and technology have combined in such a fulfilling way. In terms of ‘blogging’ and interaction, check out what is coming soon:
http://www.cellartracker.com/newsletter/12-29-2009.htm
Thanks,
-Eric
On January 4th, 2010 at 1:11 pm ,Weston wrote:
Glad CT won, its everything one critic isn’t a collection of “critics” which is good, I can get a fair understanding of wines hopfully they review the wines the same hah
Can’t wait for CT 2.0! Looks Sexy
On January 4th, 2010 at 1:51 pm ,EVO wrote:
Congrats Eric.
New version looks great.
EVO
On January 4th, 2010 at 3:40 pm ,castello wrote:
Now I get it Eric, and congrats also. Your demo on the new cellartracker really simplifies it for me. I was intimidated by the old one because it was so busy/hard to read. I’m sold and will be entering my small collection and 2 cents as soon as you release the new version.
Thanks Dr Vino for letting me talk through your site.
On January 4th, 2010 at 5:10 pm ,Pablo Orio wrote:
Congrats to Eric and to Gary Vee from Spain. Maybe next Decade Spaniard guy will win ;P
On January 4th, 2010 at 5:15 pm ,Wine Rack Boutique wrote:
Thanks for this and Happy New Year!
On January 5th, 2010 at 10:42 am ,Victor Honoré wrote:
Bravo, Eric!
VÃctor Honoré
On January 5th, 2010 at 11:28 am ,Cliff Alligood wrote:
Congradulations to Eric and a great choice for “Wine Person of the Decade”. Cellar Tracker is an invaluable tool for me in managing my cellar and my first stop in researching wines. A great day when I fell on Cellar Tracker a few years ago. BZ (Bravo Zulu – an old Navy term) – Eric.
On January 5th, 2010 at 3:41 pm ,Karl Laczko wrote:
The right men came in first & second! Eric is a deserved winner as CellarTracker is one of the best wine resources on the Internet to date, I’m more than happy to pay my yearly offering as it is – but the new revision looks fantastic.
As for Gary, he’d have been a good winner too (and as Eric points out, one tweet and the title would have been his!) but makes for a very noble runner up.
Happy 2010 (that’s twenty ten) to you both and to Dr Vino for putting this together.
On January 5th, 2010 at 5:31 pm ,Wine Personality of the Decade v 2.0 Has No Personality – Louisville Juice wrote:
[…] response to Dr. Vino’s Wine Person of the Decade, Jamie Goode proposes a Wine Thing of the Decade: the screwcap. After […]
On January 6th, 2010 at 2:16 am ,Lisa Oelsner wrote:
Congratulations Eric!
Well deserved! Can’t wait for the new release and keep up the great work!
Gary Vee – a good showing and still love you – your book was my gift to my Dad last year! Keep us well educated, entertained and laughing.
On March 5th, 2010 at 9:20 am ,Wine trial vials, Chile, Grape Stories, class action – sipped and spit | Dr Vino's wine blog wrote:
[…] a new look Eric LeVine, who won the voting here to become the wine person of the decade, has rolled out a gorgeous, comprehensive redesign with new functionality of cellartracker and on […]
On March 7th, 2010 at 11:17 pm ,User-generated wine ratings CellarTracker, Cork'd, VinCellar, and Snooth | DrHo.ro wrote:
[…] Levine’s focus on CellarTracker has been impressive–so much so that he was named the Wine Person of the Naughties by voting on DrVino.com. But, you have to wonder if it’s really going to be possible for […]
On October 29th, 2010 at 9:06 pm ,Norm Hink wrote:
I am a user of cellartracker! and am very annoyed that I cannot get a page by page print report of my portfolio. I am also annoyed that I cannot find a source to access and learn how to produce such a report. Clearly this is not rocket science stuff — how hard is it to print a multipage report? Why do you make it vertualy impossible to find help?
HELP!
On October 29th, 2010 at 9:48 pm ,Eric LeVine wrote:
Norm,
I am sorry you are annoyed.
The best way to get support on CellarTracker is, well, on CellarTracker. You can always email me eric@cellartracker.com or post in my dedicated support forum at http://www.cellartracker.com/forum/tt.asp?forumid=2
Or when on CellarTracker, to get help, well at the upper right corner of every page is a link that says HELP.
You have actually posted on someone else’s entirely unrelated website that happened to write a blog about me, the founder of CellarTracker.
Thanks,
-Eric LeVine
CellarTracker.com
On March 10th, 2011 at 7:28 pm ,Love wine festivals wrote:
Congrats Cellartracker though I find the site a bit congested.
On March 15th, 2012 at 10:27 am ,Deep throat reveals Cameron state dinner wines | Dr Vino's wine blog wrote:
[…] fact, it turns out that we had our own “deep throat” at the event: none other than the wine person of the last decade, founder of Cellertracker, Eric […]
On June 27th, 2012 at 8:02 am ,2008 Gauchezco Malbec Oro : 87 Points | malbecmendoza wrote:
[…] He lives in Seattle with his wife Suzi, son Sidney and daughter Talia. In 2010 he was voted Wine Person of the Decade on DrVino.com. In 2011 Seattle Magazine named him as one of Seattle’s Nine Nerds of Note, and […]