Photographs by Richard Perry/The New York Times

We are all familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk and his gen-crazy style of marketing and wine tasting. But the truth is, the guy is incredibly successful. He is a tour de force in the wine world, gathering more new wine lovers than any other wine critic or writer in the world, I’d dare say. The following is an article in the New York Times. Check it out.
The Pour – This Wine Critic Can Drive People to Drink – NYTimes.com

One of my favorite episodes contained this description, which is also mentioned in the NYT article.

[W]hen he talked about another pinot noir from the Sonoma Coast, a 2006 Kanzler, he seemingly went off the deep end in describing its flavor:

“You hit a deer, you pull off to the side of the road, then you stab the deer with a knife, cut it, and bite that venison, and put a little black pepper and strawberries on it and eat it, like a mean, awful human being. That’s what this tastes like.”

I’ve got to love his ingenuity, his uniqueness, his passion. Gary Vaynerchuk makes me laugh: bottom line. And for that reason, I will continue to support his crazy antics. And I can guarantee that I’ll learn something along the way.

So there you have it, folks. Thanks to domaine547, those of us who were rejected from every category of American Wine Blog Awards still have a badge to proudly display.

Check out the discussion over at Winecast on the topic. I think it’s pretty interesting. Does popularity alone lead to awards? Or is there more to this?

To be fair, I don’t think I even qualified to be nominated. But this badge kicks some butt. Jill Bernheimer definitely deserves a hat tip for graphics!