A Love of Wine ... and Football?

Oct. 4, 2007 — -- If Wayne's World had a wine aficionado, he'd be it.

Gary Vaynerchuk, a 31-year-old rabid football fan who is devoted to the New York Jets, is on a somewhat unlikely mission. He's trying to uncork the mysteries of wine.

"You, with a little bit of me … we're changing the wine world, whether they like it or not," Vaynerchuk says.

From the office of his wine store in, of all places, New Jersey, Vaynerchuk records a wine Webcast five days a week. He says each day he averages close to 40,000 viewers.

So far he's done more than 300, each with a theme. At his Web site, tv.winelibrary.com, he sucks rocks, licks leather, eats dirt -- anything to explain what you should look for in a bottle.

"When I describe wine, I describe it as a it truly tastes to me," he says. "And a lot of people want to use the terms, like 'cassis' and 'terroir.' But if it tastes like Big League Chew to me, then that what it's going to be."

For example, given the choice, which would you think tastes better -- a $60 bottle of Silver Oak cabernet or an $18 bottle of 20 Rows? His answer may surprise you.

To prove the point, he taste tested the two wines. Vaynerchuck said the cheaper wine was better.

"I mean yeah, if you want to go out to dinner and smell it all night, then maybe this is the way to go," he says. "But if you want to drink it, I just think this is a great example of where price has no impact."

Vaynerchuk's 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. He worked in the family business from the beginning, and he got hooked.

He started reading Wine Spectator magazine in junior high. By high school, he was giving shoppers advice on cabernets and chardonnays.

"I honestly believe a lot of people were coming here to buy wine from me because I was a circus act," he says.

Before long, Vaynerchuk turned his parents' small store into the three-story "Wine Library," which now rings up $60 million a year.

Americans bought more than $27 billion worth of wine last year. That's almost twice what they drank a decade ago. And this immigrant's son has found a way to capitalize on that. Half his sales are Internet-based -- wine boxed up and shipped around the country.

"When he first starts talking to me about the Internet and all this stuff, you know, who the hell ever dreamed?" says his father. "How you going to sell wine on the Internet? He brought a very different dynamic to the business."