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Gary Vaynerchuk quits wine videos
Wine video blogger Gary Vaynerchuk is to quit wine videos for good.
The Belarus-born social media savant announced his retirement from daily wine videos last week on the 89th episode of his video blog Daily Grape.
The 35-year-old signed off his final wine video with the line: “You, with such a smaller part of me than you realise, we have changed the wine world.”
Vaynerchuk started the video blog Wine Library TV in 2006, after transforming his father’s New Jersey off-licence into a large-scale wine store of the same name.
The blog quickly took off, attracting a loyal following and turning Vaynerchuk into an internet celebrity and one of the most influential wine critics in the US.
Wine Library TV featured daily wine tastings, reviews and advice on wine appreciation, delivered with Vaynerchuk’s signature enthusiasm.
After 1,000 episodes, the show ended in March, and was replaced by the shorter format Daily Grape, in which Vaynerchuk reviewed two wines a day instead of four.
With just under 900,000 followers on Twitter, Vaynerchuk has been pivotal in getting wine into the social media sphere.
On 27 August, he tweeted: “Miss my wine viewers already, and badly, but also feel super content and happy.”
After five years of wine video blogging, Vaynerchuk mastered the difficult blend of wine and TV and came to define the space with his distinctive, approachable style.
One wine enthusiast described his leaving wine as akin to Steve Jobs leaving Apple, asking, “Can there really be anyone to fill his shoes?”
The entrepreneur has yet to give a reason for his retirement, but it has been rumoured that an inability to make money from wine was a key factor, driving Vaynerchuk to pursue other business ventures.
In March 2009, he signed a US$1 million 10-book deal with HarperStudio, releasing his first book, Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on your Passion, in October 2009, and The Thank You Economy this March.
The deal was groundbreaking in the publishing world, and one of the first attempts to successfully use a low-advance/high royalty business model.