Gary Vaynerchuk on Noses

Gary Vaynerchuk is a wine guru with a video blog called Wine Library TV. Vaynerchuk’s family immigrated from Belrus to New York, where his father operated a liquor store in which he worked as a janitor. He realized that when people came in for hard liquor, they knew exactly what they wanted, bought it, and left. However, wine drinkers would often browse the selection and ask for advice, and he saw a potential to grow his father’s business though these drinkers. Problem was, he was still underage:

As a teenager, tasting wine was legally impossible, so he set out to train his palate “backwards.” To study various flavors associated with wine, he tasted obscure fruits and vegetables, along with earthly influences, including grass, dirt, rocks, tobacco, and wood [based on a wine’s description]. “I probably consumed more New Jersey grass in my teens than any lawn mower.” By familiarizing himself with the numerous tastes that contributed to a specific wine, Vaynerchuk was able to detect subtleties that an ordinary palate wouldn’t recognize. http://crushitbook.com/about-gary-vaynerchuk/

The following is a 30 minute long Wine Library TV video blog #148, “How to Get Your Wine Palate Trained”, which shows Vaynerchuk using foods to build up a palate. It is interesting to watch, because he eats something, and it reminds him of a particular wine.

He admits early on that it cost him $180 to obtain all the foods for this segment, but a lot of what he buys are items slow to expire in multiple servings, such as jam and spices, and can be bought over a period of time to reduce the impact on your wallet. Some of these items you probably already have in your cupboard. It is the fresh things that make it more difficult.

There were a few foods he was missing that are listed in the comments, but I’ve also noticed that some are missing from his list that are on the wine wheel. I think I would use the wine wheel to help guide my grocery list of wine tasting.