AskaNewYorker: Hi Gary. What to you do?
Gary: I’m revolutionizing the wine world. At this point I’ve built
up our family business. We do great on-line and in the store. Everything is
great. I love people. That’s what I’m about…and www.winelibrary.tv
has given me that opportunity to reach out to people and to get people to open
their minds. Everyone is so uptight and thinks it’s crazy and complicated
but it’s not.
AskaNewYorker Where’s the store?
Gary. The store is in Springfield, NJ. We actually do more business in New
York City than we do in NJ, even with a 40,000 sq foot store. Our pricing is
sick.
Ask a New Yorker: Tell us more about www.winelibrary.tv
Gary: www.Winelibrary.tv started in
late 2005, and in 7 short years I took our family business from a local store
to a national player. Lots of business. Money was good. Employees went from
8 to 100…things were exploding and I was miserable. I didn’t feel
I was innovative. I did winelibary.com in 1997 ….I was bored. I was sad.
The video component, from a financial stand point, we haven’t really broken
down because it’s a pet project. But I can tell you that we ran some numbers
of the 1000 wines that have been on the show we have actually lost sales because
I’ve panned 64% of the wines that have been on www.winelibrary.tv, even
though we carry them. That truthfulness has really gotten me over wearing two
hats. Because I knew there was no “separation of church and state”,
if you will. I own winelibrary.com and I’m reviewing wines I carry on
winelibrary.tv. It scared people who thought it was going to be an infomercial
so I new it was going to take a long time…now that I’ve amassed
250 episodes, people know what I’m about.
Ask a New Yorker: So your creativity sprang to life with winelibrary.tv. Previous
sadness gone. You’ve got a real hook as an opener to each episode. What’s
that about?
Gary: I’m a huge personality, for sure. I was always that guy in the
class who was talking all the time. I like people so much, that by the end of
the day it’s the #1 thing beside the health of my family–people are huge
for me. I love it. I love opening doors for people. I love letting some else
take the cab instead of me. I love it. I think that comes through. I’m
a people person.
As a New Yorker: Single?
Gary: Married…but I’ve got plenty of girl fans now…I married
the best girl of all time.
Ask a New Yorker: Have you insured your pallet?
Gary: I think I’m going to insure it for a million dollars!
Ask a New Yorker: Tell us about this Robert Parker (who is a wine advocate,
see http://www.erobertparker.com/)?
Garry: Robert Parker is amazing.
I have a lot of respect for him and his integrity. He doesn’t take advertising.
He has done all the right things. Has a great pallet, has his own pallet. What
Robert Parker has done is amazing and phenomenal. What has been the underlining
thing, is that all the people like him so much, that they have all tried to
become Robert Parker. What I’m trying to do is not to have people become
Gary Vaynechuk but to embrace their own sense of style, which is their pallet.
Ask a New Yorker: So what wine are you ordering today?
Gary: It’s a Tokaj. In the 1800’s the czars of Russia and the Kings
of England would trade for this stuff. They would pay a lot of money for a bottle
of Tokaj. It was the predominant wine, more upscale then Bordeaux back then.
Their desert wines, sweet. I’m trying to get them back into people’s
attention.
Ask a New Yorker: So how do you get chocolate, mahogany, raspberry, leather,
tobacco taste out of a grape?
Gary: You get it from what’s called terroir which describes the essence
of the land, the wine maker, the barrel, the yeast. All the components that
the person uses to make a wine. I grew up in the liquor industry, selling wine
very feverishly at 19 years old and I still never tasted those components. It’s
a little like push-ups. I just started working out about 2 months ago. In two
months with push-ups and all the things my trainer has me do, I’ve actually
have amassed some muscle, a little bit, and it’s the same thing with wine.
I drink 40-50 wines a day. I taste them. I don’t drink them. So the flavors
that you mentioned are there. They really are! This is not stuff people make
up. I used to think they were made up, until the time I tried an Amrarone at
a tasting and I legitimately tasted a Hershey’s chocolate bar. It tasted
exactly like Hershey’s. I remember calling my mom to tell her I got it!
Ask a New Yorker: Recently I read an article in The Wall Street Journal about
a very exclusive vineyard in Napa Valley called Screaming Eagle. The article
described how special and expensive the wine was. Isn’t the terroir of
the vineyard across the street similar? What separates one vineyard from another?
Gary: Robert Parker. It’s the truth. Robert Parker scores the wine 100
points. They don’t make a lot of it. If he was in a different mood that
day and score it 95 Screaming Eagle would not be the brand it is today. Because
there is such a small production of it, and it gets that kind of scores, it
became hysteria. Once marketing kicks in, all of the sudden all the people that
can read The Wall Street Journal who can afford to pay $500 buy the wine. It’s
good old fashioned Americana supply and demand. Lot’s of hype.
Ask a New Yorker: Switching gears here. Where were you born?
Gary: I was born on Belarus, a part of the former Soviet Union. We lived in
Queens, New York in 1978. Myself and nine of my family members in a studio apartment
in Rego Park. In my gut I can tell you this honestly because I’m so entrepreneurial
I would either be in jail or dead if I lived in Russia right now. And in America
I get put on the front cover of The Wall Street Journal.
Ask a New Yorker: So how did you get into the wine industry?
Gary: My dad needed a side job besides construction, and he was a stock boy
in a liquor store, then became manager, and even part owner. Amazing. He did
an amazing job for our family. I felt it was my duty to take it to a whole other
level. He brought us to a county with out speaking English and $100 bucks and
gave me a middle class upbringing to upper middle class. He did an amazing job.
Ask a New Yorker: Say something in Russian. What did you just say?
Gary: I know something great is going to happen to you.
Quote from Gary: ‘I’m the sickest New York Jets fan. If you cut
me I bleed green. I’m going to buy the New York Jets”.
This I would not doubt. Thank you for this interview.
