Book Review: Gary V’s 101 Wines
First off I should tell you that Gary Vaynerchuk is a great guy and a very genuine person despite his somewhat outrageous persona on Wine Library TV. I’ve had the opportunity to meet Gary on several occasions, the most recent at his book signing here in Seattle. Unlike authors at many book signings, Gary was on-time, spent almost two hours talking about his book and answering every question anyone in the audience had on wine or almost any other subject, and signed books with a very personal touch.
Whether or not you agree with his thoughts on wines, Gary is a great marketer, has established a tremendous personal brand, and is doing a great job of promoting wine to the world. I look forward to visiting with Gary again at the Wine Bloggers Conference in California in October.
I really enjoyed reading Gary’s book, Gary Vaynerchuk’s 101 Wines: Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World, and learning more about his background and approach to wine tasting. However, I would think that the objective of most of us who bought the book would be to find some new wines to try that sound interesting to us from Gary’s reviews and descriptions. Here’s where the problem comes in for me. I can’t find most of the wines from the book that I want to try. I earmarked thirteen wines from his book and after a month of searching have finally located a measly two of them. Kori marked a number of different wines when she read the book and has been able to find only a few of them herself.
I tried buying them locally at the two biggest wine shops in Seattle. I tried to find them online from two of the biggest wine vendors on the internet. [Editor’s note: Some of the wines are available from Gary’s Wine Library store in New Jersey, but they cannot ship to Washington State.] The closest I came initially to finding any of the wines I wanted to try was a different vintage of one of his recommended wines. Oh yes, and a friend gave us a bottle of one he had tried, Gary’s #5, the Radikon, Oslavje, 2002. Gary’s description was right on, but I personally do not find “rusty nail” and “spoiled papaya” appealing. I thought it was one of the worst wines I’ve ever tasted in my life. To this, Gary would probably say, “That’s great because all of our palates are different!” Gary’s mission is to get people to try new wines and expand their palates.
In sum, I sincerely thank Gary for all his does for the wine world, but I don’t believe that this book is accomplishing its stated mission, at least for me, because I can hardly find any of the wines. I hope that Gary takes a different tack in his second book and from what I heard at his book signing I suspect that he will. If you haven’t already bought this book, I’d suggest that you wait for book number two since Gary has a two book deal with the publisher. Gary is a very bright guy so I believe his second book will be more practical for its readers.
Have you read Gary V’s 101 Wines? If so, what did you think? Were you able to find the wines you wanted to try?
This is the first in a series of posts on Washington Syrah. We thought it only fitting to begin this series with a report on our recent visit to 
Next on our tour was the 1986 Syrah vineyard, the mother Syrah block in Washington. In fact, it is estimated that 80 percent of all Syrah plantings in Washington have come from cuttings from this vineyard. While Mike has grown over 20 different varietals at Red Willow over the past 35 years, he was quoted in Paul Gregutt’s Washington Wines & Wineries as saying that he believes Syrah is what Washington can grow best.
Then we drove up to the top of the hill to the iconic Monsignor Chapel which was built between 1992 and 1995 with stones from the farm. The chapel is surrounded by more Syrah plantings on three sides of the hill along with a Viognier block that is co-fermented with Syrah in some of the Syrah offerings originating from Red Willow. It is quite a reverent spot where you can feel the spirituality of the Sauer clan.
Our next stop was at 
Our final stop of the day was at 
Last Friday was a beautiful, sunny day in Seattle, the perfect day to enjoy some crisp, cool white wines for summer. Our wine tasting dinner this month was a slight departure from our normal tasting format. This tasting featured six different white varietals instead of six different wines within the same varietal. Since the Wine Peeps generally gravitate toward our beloved New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc when it comes to white wines, we wanted to expand our horizons and see how some other varietals from other regions stacked up in a blind tasting.
While the 2007 
Last Tuesday, Dad (John) and I attended the 
tasted a total of 45 wines, 44 Syrahs and one Syrah blend. We gave a 4 star rating to seven wines. We especially liked the 2006 Cline Los Carneros Estate Syrah and the 2006 Cass “Rockin’ One” Red Blend. We look forward to picking up some of these and adding them to our blind-tasting lineup to see how they stack up against some of our proven favorites. Look for posts on these tastings in the coming weeks and months.
On our second day in Walla Walla, Washington, during our cross-country road trip, we visited five wineries. All of them were new to us, but they had come highly recommended and we were not disappointed. The tasting room personnel were very friendly and the wines were generally very good, although some were a bit pricey. [In case you missed it, you might want to check out my 
After lunch, we visited 
Our final stop on Day 2 was at 
We blind-tasted these four wines: the 2007 Seresin Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand; the 2007 St. Supery Sauvignon Blanc from Napa Valley, California; the 2007 Shaw and Smith Sauvignon Blanc from Adelaide Hills, Australia; and the 2007 Snoqualmie Sauvignon Blanc from Columbia Valley, Washington. They all nicely complemented our light summer fare of grilled halibut, wild rice, and steamed broccoli. In fact, Sauvignon Blanc is our favorite summer white varietal whether we are enjoying it with dinner or just sipping it outside on the deck.
This blog is for busy people who enjoy wine and want to be savvy wine consumers, but who do not have the time or inclination to do the research themselves. We want to be your Wine Peeps. As a regular reader of this blog, we hope that you will learn everything you need to know about selecting, tasting, and enjoying good wine. You’ll be able to impress your friends with your knowledge of wine. 