Wine for the Masses, Courtesy of the 'Average Guy'

June 1, 2007 — -- When most people think of wine, they don't think of New Jersey. Or football. Or dirt.

Gary Vaynerchuk wants to change all that.

The die-hard New York Jets fan and director of the Wine Library, a liquor store in Springfield, N.J., is stripping wine of its stuffiness with his daily webcast, "Wine Library TV."

Swilling, rating and using such descriptors as leather baseball glove, cat pee and vomit to characterize wines, Vaynerchuk has hooked an average of 20,000 fans a day on his webcast. His goal: make a glass of Beaujolais as appealing to the average Joe or Jane as a bottle of Bud.

"It's been so exclusive and it's been trying to keep people out of it that it's fun for me to fundamentally break it down, and while breaking it down, really laugh at it in its face," Vaynerchuk said about the wine industry.

His passion for the stuff is as clear as a crisp Reisling. Facing a camera in his office above the sprawling sales floor of the Wine Library, Vaynerchuk goes off on chardonnays that cost the better part of a paycheck and gushes over merlots that sell for less than a six-pack. He insists a good bottle doesn't have to come with a big price tag. Check out his picks for 12 bottles under $12 here.)

"There are so many wines at $5 and $6 that are phenomenal, but people don't realize it," he said.

Vaynerchuk's tasting sessions range from the outlandish to the insane. In one of his most watched webcasts, he eats dirt and chases it with Cristal. Off camera, the 31-year-old is slightly more sedate, but his love for wine and getting the general public into it remains unbridled.

"I'm tired of going to restaurants and seeing people pass around the wine list like it's got the black plague on it because nobody wants to make that call," he said. "I have no interest in being Robert Parker or the Wine Spectator. What I have interest in is for the next generation of wine drinkers to trust themselves, to have their own self esteem, to not worry about what other people think."