I'm Afraid to Say This But....

I can't watch Gary Vaynerchuk and find the whole Wine Television shtick embarassing, humorless and clumsily over the top. It reminds me of the old Alan Burke and Joe Pyne shows I used to watch as a young man. Or the late Soupy Sales without a pie.

I suppose its Glen Beck with a spittoon, but it is all about Mr. Vaynerchuk and only a little bit about wine. Yes, Gary Vaynerchuk the phenomena, the moneymaker, the media star, the promotional wizard. Wine seems to be an incidental vehicle to celebrity.

I've never met him and I'm sure he enjoys wine. The problem is that there is no such unitary category....wine. Popularizing "wine" makes as little sense to me as popularizing music or popularizing film or popularizing reading.

Do we need Danielle Steele's so that people will graduate to serious fiction? Perhaps we need Danielle Steele so that people will increase revenues for book publishers, but I don't believe the mechanics of reading a trashy book makes the reader more open to literature.

I also don't believe that Two-Buck Chuck or Yellowtail brings people into the fictitious "fine wine world" on a one-way conveyor belt to Haut-Brion. Haut-Brion and Yellowtail come in bottles, come from fermented grapes, and have alcohol. Other than that, I can't see anything in common.

Mr. Vaynerchuk has praised some of our wines and I'm grateful. He's truly an American cultural phenomena, a product of the reality TV generation, and I can't say I have warmed up to him. It might just be a personal prejudice, but I cringe when I watch his interviews.

My credentials are solid. I grew up a New York Titans fan and watched the Titans play at the old Polo Grounds. I worked for the Harry Stevens organization as a kid to watch the New York Jets play at Shea Stadium while I was selling pretzels and hot dogs in the grandstands. I haven't followed the Jets or Giants since they left New York to become New Jersey teams, but I hope they will sober up sometime and come back.

Emerson Boozer was my childhood hero and I still worship him to this day.

- Joe Dressner 12-23-2009 12:25am

i am continuing my vendetta...

against neal rosenthal, wine shyster.

posted by the sheriff 12-23-2009 9:00am

This hurts but I understand

Joe I really hope we can meet one day, I have been a HUGE fan of your work for many years and I understand your point of view and can respect it. I really hope we can share some vino and some oysters one day and get to know each other, I have always been a supporter of your efforts and will continue to and hope after getting to know me a hair more maybe you won't have to cringe so much :) That said you being a Titans fan alone makes me like you even more after this post! I wish you nothing but Health

-Gary V

posted by Gary Vaynerchuk 12-23-2009 11:28am

Thanks for the gracious response. I'd love to meet over oysters.

Let's meet on January 30th at the Domaine de la Pépière in Maisdon-sur-Sévre. I'm going to be hosting about 20 Americans to an all day Muscadethon with old vintages and the best oysters you will ever eat.

This is a serious offer and I think you'd greatly enjoy yourself. Seeing how a vigneron like Marc Ollivier works would be a great experience.

Please no filming though. The day is about Marc not the American visitors and I fear a television camera would be intrusive. Both Marc and I subscribe to the ancient American Indian belief that cameras rob people of their souls.

Go Titans Go!

posted by Joe Dressner 12-23-2009 12:02pm

Don't forget Joe (the Jet!) Perry!

posted by Steve Edmunds 12-23-2009 12:50pm

It's the best party I go to all year.

But GV would have to sit up straight and not play with his food.

posted by SFJoe 12-24-2009 1:08am

Muscadethon

I am very jealous/envious of this event, and Gary you would be silly to not attend. Josefa always talks effusively of her trip there with Joe, and I sense the extreme fondness & joy in her descriptions of the wine and oysters.

We brought a magnum of Marc's 2005 Granite de Clisson to my company's holiday dinner party and everyone was quite grateful.

Happy holidays and health to all!

Mark

posted by mlindzy 12-26-2009 12:47am

I wish Winelibrary could ship to Michigan. Briords for ~$13? Marechal Gravel for $20? It's a shame.

posted by putnam 12-30-2009 7:27pm

invite

do you need a vlog to get invited? or maybe if i sent more kringle??

posted by Tom 1-1-2010 11:32am

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Joe Dressner - Captain Tumor Man!

Hi, I'm Joe Dressner the famous wine importer and I have brain cancer!

I already have a wine blog and frankly wine is such a luxury business that I hate to mix my cancer problems with my wine observations. I think it would be a general downer for the lifestyle crowd out there.

Furthermore, we in the wine trade always claim there are tremendous health benefits to drinking wine. I've already had cardiovascular bypass surgery over eight years ago and now I got a tumor aggressively rattling in my brain. My colleagues in the glamorous wine industry want me to keep it quiet.

So, I've started this wonderful new blog to discuss wine, brain tumors, my life and to give you hot tips on handling the cancer stricken around you. There will also be practical wine/radiation pairings when I start radiation therapy and chemotherapy next week.

Having brain cancer means I might both physically and intellectually decline. So, I will be using this blog as a venue to pursue petty vendettas against relatives, acquaintances and people in the wine trade.

I might also lose touch with reality and say things that are not true or are only half true. The important thing is to have fun and enjoy this rare and precious time in my life.

One of my pet vendettas is my cousin Dr. Barbara Hirsch. Dr. Barbara Hirsch is a very important Great Neck Endocrinologist, who was raised and nurtured by my parents. Dr. Hirsch waited until my father was near death and my mother was suffering from a rare neuromuscular disorder, to write them a seven page letter denouncing them for being horrible to her for the entirety of her life! Despite my concerns, Dr. Hirsch still refuses to apologize.

Last night, I drank a beautiful bottle of Bourgueil Clos Sénéchal 2005 from Pierre Breton. It was sublime and reminded me that I used to be healthy. Not only that, the vineyard used to be there before I existed. It exists independently of my having cancer and will continue to exist. You ought to buy some.

August 2009 Postscript: Not only does it exist independently of my cancer, it also exists independently of Louis/Dressner Selections. After 18 years, they have dumped us for Kermit Lynch. Oh well. At least I'm alive!

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