Gary loves dirt. Sometimes he even eats it.  Sounds like your average 6 year old, right?

But Gary Vaynerchuk is actually a wine critic. My mission is to build wine self-esteem in this country. I want people to know their palate is a snowflake. We all like different things,” he said in a recent New York Times article.



As the visionary wine expert behind the immensely successful Wine Library TV Vaynerchuk has used social media to introduce hundreds of thousands of people to the world of wine in his own way.

When sniffing, sipping, swishing, and spitting wines, Vaynerchuk  – like most wine critics – works to uncover the flavors and ingredients behind the grapes. In wines, he tastes the other fruits, the wood of the barrels, and even the soil from the vines.

But that’s where the similarities between Gary other other wine critics end. Vaynerchuk often goes straight to the source to expand his palette and experiment with flavors — his references include grass and sweaty socks.

And yes: he eats dirt.  He even convinced Conan O’Brien to eat dirt on network TV.

In DIRT! the Movie, Vaynerchuk walks us through a vineyard, munches on soil microbes and shows us how great wine begins with great living dirt:

 “Dirt might be more alive than we are,” he declares.