Spreading the Thunder - TV.WineLibrary.Com

 

Another blog I frequent almost daily is Gary Vaynerchuk’s video blog at TV.WINELIBRARY.COM.I wrote about Wine Library TV a while back on the topic of steak and wine. I recommended following Gary’s blog back then, and I still, highly recommend tuning in these days.

Sure, I mentioned I found Gary a bit annoying at first (which prompted a funny follow-up comment by Gary), and yeah, he’s a die-hard New York Jets fan, and I guess there’s that whole jealousy thing about how he gets to taste a lot of great wine daily for his huge wine store that he manages as well as for his highly popular wine show while I sit at lab and record from rodent neurons all day, and yes, he gets tens of thousands of viewers a day whereas I only get a few hundred…but his show is great. Really it is.

Anyways - just go check out his show. It really is quite good!

And congrats to GaryV and the WineLibrary TV staff on their 400th episode!

And a HUGE congrats to Mott for his (and Kim’s!) Giants winning the Superbowl!

What is a wine blogger?

When I started a food and wine blog last June, it was basically a personal blog to keep track of my wine and food adventures and have a meeting place for our wine club. At the time, I was aware of a few of the major wine blogs, but really didn’t give much thought as to how many wine and food blogs where were. In just under 8 months, I’ve met dozens of other bloggers, joined in on discussions with many of them, and more importantly, have learned about and become a subscriber to many of these outstanding sources for information on food, wine and everything in between!

With hundreds of wine blogs available to wino’s with a computer and internet access, it’s impossible to keep up with them all. Each wine blog is completely unique and regardless of how well the design of the site is, or how flashy the graphics are, each contributes it’s own important “spin” on the crazy world that is wine.

Some may consider a wine blogger as just another wino, with nothing better to do than waste the infinitesimal space that is the internet with their ramblings, ratings and reviews. I consider a wine blogger to be any or all of the following.

Wine bloggers are historians. We write about wine regions and how they came about. We write about the history of grapes, the papacy and its’ wine, and how wine has been around for 8-10,000 years. We track the good and bad vintages and follow collections of wine that were owned by Thomas Jefferson or Napoleon. We use wine quotes made by the likes of Hemingway and Shakespeare and use obscure historical references to stress the importance that wine has had on the development of civilization.

Wine bloggers are scientists. We speak of different grape clones, explaining what makes a clone versus a completely different variety. We talk about antioxidants, the health benefits of drinking wine every day, and how wine will improve your memory and decrease your risk of heart disease. More importantly, we think critically and perform well controlled experiments. We taste our winds “blind”, to remove bias and often taste in groups to gather consensus data. We draw conclusions based on data we collect in the “field” and publish our findings on our websites open to peer-review and criticism.

A wine blogger is an artist. We do graphics design and photo editing. We design our site layouts and some of us even draw images to express what we feel about a particular topic. We are photographers, taking thousands of pictures each year: tens of pictures of a single wine bottle using different lighting, background and props.

Wine bloggers are geographers, with great knowledge about all the areas of the world that can support a healthy vine. We know the names of small rivers, mountain ranges, valleys and seas. We know the soil types and climate in these regions and the patterns of change that have led to particular landscapes. We understand latitude and longitude, why some vines can thrive in one region while die in another. We have traveled to many parts of the world to experience, what the French call, “terroir” for ourselves. We have stamps on our passports to Italy, France, Portugal, and Argentina. We can name details about small villages in countries across the world that most other people would never think twice about.

Wine bloggers are writers and critics. We love to write and are tough critics. If a wine is good and deserves praise, it gets it. But when a wine is not that good, and we paid $50 for it, we are clear and show no remorse in our analysis of these wines. We appreciate the intricacies that go into producing a good wine, or the mistreatment that results in a bad one. We use our knowledge of what makes a good wine as well as our experience tasting thousands of wines to help the normal wine drinker who doesn’t get to taste a lot of wine, but likes it, decide what’s the best way to spend their money.

Finally, wine bloggers are people who are passionate about grape juice. We admire the simplicity of the ingredients (just a few grapes) that go into wine yet revel in the art, love and hard work that goes into transforming fruit on a vine into an incredible fermented juice that makes a good meal great or brings friends together. We love wine politics and it’s influence on the world, we love arguing about what wines are the best value, when a wine should be consumed, how a wine should be served and with what foods, and some even like arguing that their tastes and ratings are the correct ones! But when it comes down to it, wine bloggers are just people who love wine, like writing and enjoy having others share in their pursuits for great wines while sharing wine and stories with new friends and old.

As blogs are becoming a major part of mainstream media, wine blogs are becoming a major part of the wine world. I tip my hat to all of you wine bloggers who spend countless hours each day or week, without substantial pay or other financial compensation, just so everyone else can have an unbiased, expert or otherwise, free analysis of everything that is in the world of wine.

WineLibrary TV - Steak and wine

The most popular video wine blog out there right now is WineLibraryTV. Host Gary Vaynerchuk, who’s family owns The Wine Library in New York City, takes a different approach to wine, one that is laid back, informal, and often involves references to professional wrestling and the New York Jets. I started watching WineLibraryTV a few months back and find myself keeping up with most of the new episodes as well as going through the archives for topics that interest me. I’m not going to lie, I found Gary to be a bit annoying at first, but the more I watched, the more I realized he knew what he was talking about and was just being himself while having a great time doing it.

Monday night’s episode of WineLibrary TV dealt with wines that pair well with steak. Gary featured a few reds and one Riesling that he paired with a nice medium rare steak (see the episode here). He concluded that the Riesling he chose was the best match of the four wines he paired with his steak. As always, the show ended with a Question of the Day (”QOTD”) which is intended for viewers to leave their answers in the form of a comment on the episode. The question was simple: How do you like your steak?” I rarely respond to his “QOTD”, but this time I had incentive: those who responded (all 1000 or so of us) were entered into a random drawing to win a 6 liter bottle of 1992 Silver Oak Cabernet, signed by the winemaker.

My reply to the question was: Rubbed with olive oil, salt/pepper, seared medium-rare served with a slice of lemon and a Chianti or Barolo.

Motivated by my own reply to the question, I felt compelled (hungry) to make a steak and pair some wines with it myself. So last night I made a 20 oz bone-in Ribeye steak using this simple formula:

Let steak (1 1/2″ thickness) sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before cooking.

1. Rub 1 teaspoon of olive oil all over steak. Liberally sprinkle with Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.
2. Heat a large pan (All-Clad or some other high quality metal pan) over high heat. Place steak in pan and let cook for 4 minutes.
3. Turn steak over and cook and additional 4 minutes.
4. Remove from pan, place on cutting board and drizzle with fresh lemon juice. Place foil over steak and let sit 5-10 minutes.
5. Serve with lemon wedge.

It’s that easy. The outside will be perfectly seared (see image), the inside medium-rare to perfection.

I’d pair this with a Rosso di Montalcino (or perhaps Chianti Classico) or a Barolo. A nice Burgundy would also work, as would a Malbec or Tempranillo. The best way to figure out what pairings work and what don’t, is to make a few steaks, invite some friends over, and open 5-10 different wines and see what you like the best!

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