Goodbye: Gary V leaves the world of wine

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Goodbye: Gary V leaves the world of wine

So, Gary Vaynerchuk has left the world of wine. After 1000 episodes of winelibrary.tv (which he retired from earlier this year), and then 89 episodes of the daily grape, the wine world loses one of its most colourful, entrepreneurial and charismatic figures.

He’s announced that he will no longer be doing what he is best known for: snappy, zany, engaging videos of him tasting wine.

It’s how he came to fame. After building his family wine business up from $4 m to $45 m turnover, he began tasting wines in front of camera, and was amazingly good at it, building up a huge following and spawning a legion of imitators.

But after five years, he’s finished. Moving on to new things. ‘It was never on the cards for me to spend my entire career for me to be a wine critic,’ he announced. ‘I love wine, but I am an entrepreneur first; I’m ready to do some new things.’

Gary V has been great for the world of wine, in my opinion. He’s drawn lots of new people into wine, by communicating enthusiastically about it, but also having an informed opinion and a decent palate. Heck, I’ve been on the underground in London and seen fellow passengers watching Gary V episodes on their iPhones and iPods. He’s very, very good at what he does.

But it’s clear that his ambitions stretch far beyond wine. ‘I feel ready. I have a lot of ambition in life. There are a lot of things I want to accomplish.’

He’ll be missed by the world of wine.

13 Comments on Goodbye: Gary V leaves the world of wine
wine journalist and flavour obsessive

13 thoughts on “Goodbye: Gary V leaves the world of wine

  1. A definite void has been created in the wine world (some seem to think that’s no bad thing: http://bit.ly/n95GYo) but a big presence in various senses, who despite Steve’s (Heimoff) impression, seemed to an almost unbelievable degree to reach out personally to fans and followers. This suggests a greater degree of humility or at least appreciation for the forces that ‘made him’ than some, perhaps envious detractors, would allow.

    I’m sure you’ll be missed by tens of thousands but good luck Mr V – Big Shoes to fill, let’s see the contenders stepping up to the plate!

    Pip &c
    Tom
    http://www.winechap.com

  2. A sad loss, as he has really been one of those who have ‘stood out from the crowd’ and you can see his effect on a lot of other online wine reviewers who try to bring the thunder… (generally not too well!)
    But people in the wine world should not only be inspired by others in wine. So Gary’s attitude and passion will continue to motivate and inspire me and many others.
    Cheers!

  3. Discovered Gary V about three years ago and have been a regular follower ever since. A ‘vayniac’. It’s a pity we don’t have a UK equivalent.
    He – and a little bit of us – have truly changed the wine world

  4. I won’t plug who I work for here, but I would like to say that I was an avid follower (most of the time) of Gary’s shows. I’ll miss them and have to be content reminissing over the past episodes from time to time.
    All the best Gary, I wonder if you will miss it too much and return one day!

  5. I disagree with the “there’s no money to be made from it point” in the sense that he was always either deliberately or effectively monetsing the family’s own wine business – Erik at The Vineking has started doing a few videobolgs -he has a good wine business. Gary’s videoblog success massively drove sales up from $4.5m to $45m. Also, I’d pay money to see a daily blog from Jancis or from Jamie for that matter!!! Anyway point is there is lots of money to be made from an energetic and entertaining Daily Video if you’ve got a shop where you sell the stuff!!!

  6. I like Gary and agree very much with you Jamie that he’s been great for the wine world – he’s brought life into the wine business by making it accessible to today’s generation.

    Gone are the days when wine was only enjoyed by posh British crusty old farts who thought the only half decent wine worth drinking was Claret or Burgundy. The exclusivity of wine has been long dead, yet Gary was the first to really open it out using today’s technology and free social media.

    But I wonder what Gary will do, and whether he will be able to get away from the image he has built up as being a wine expert.

    But I wish him the best of luck, I’m sure he’ll be successful in his next venture. I’ll miss him and his video’s.

  7. I think that some people dismissed him because of his over the top personality, but his palate was very very good, except for his apparent inabilty to detect TCA.

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