I first ran across Gary V in late 2008 as I was getting ready for my annual Christmas trip to visit the parents. I was looking for podcasts to download for the many flights I'd be taking to visit families in central AZ and eastern NM. I think this was somewhere around his 200th podcast on Wine Library TV.
Being a west-coaster, I have my opinions of the stereotypical personas of those on the east coast. He pretty much lived up to all of them. However I came to really enjoy his podcasts as nobody else was talking to "me." Someone new to wine and put off by much of the snobbish "in-crowd" mentality. My wine scale had two levels - yes, and no. He appealed to that in me. He told people to trust their own palates and not those in the usual wine magazines (and including his).
Fast forward a couple of months into early 2009. I was approaching my 40th birthday. My wife and I had decided to take a trip to Spain and Portugal. We enjoyed Port, but didn't know a lot about it. This time-frame likely coincides with my beginnings on FTLOP. At the time, Gary V said he answered all emails personally, although there may be some delay. On January 24th, 2009 I sent him a quick email about our trip for my 40th birthday, with a simple question asking how we should spend my birthday in Porto. I made a joke about being out of the country not counting and that I'd be stuck on 39. Here is his reply to me (and Brandon Warnke and a person that I'm assuming is his distributor to Portugal):
TEAM lets make this happen :) Steve we are on it!
39 forever !!!!!!!!!!!!
Over the course of the next month or so, I had several emails back and forth with Brandon regarding my trip. We had hoped to have some people join us, but it turned out to just be my wife and I. But everything that came next would have applied to our entire group, had there been one.
The morning of my birthday, we met Suasana Almeida and Helder Silva of Sogrape. They co-toured us, sometimes switching off and sometimes together. Our first stop was at Ferreira, where we had a private tour and a single tasting of Dona Antonia. We also got to tour their archival library of Port. Susana said that she had worked there for 9 years and had never been into the archival library, until she was on our tour. While going through the underground walkway, we crossed paths with a man that was explained to us as George Sandeman. Apparently he had some guests in town and was in a hurry to take care of things, so all we got was a quick "hello" as he passed by. Next we climbed the hill to Offley and tasted several different Ports, including Cachucha (which I figured I could find in the US and have failed). There was a table set up for us with various Port to taste, and when she didn't see their 30-yr, she went and got some for us to compare and contrast. Along the way we quickly got behind schedule, but everything was taken care of for us.
Our last stop was at Sandeman, which included a tour that discussed the branding of Port and of course the logo. After that part of the tour, we were led into a glassed in room for a VIP tasting. There were already several different varieties of Port waiting for us, including personalized mats specifically for our visit. We finished tasting much later than expected by a couple of hours, at which point they presented me with a box of Sandeman truffles and a 40yr Tawny (compliments of George Sandeman), to celebrate my birthday (wooden box and all). From there we made our way to a restaurant where they had made reservations for us as well as moving the reservations based on the time we were taking.
We did pay for lunch, but everything else was complimentary. I could not have asked for a more special birthday gift than what I received, and spending it with my wife in such an amazing place. And all of this was the result of a simple email to Gary Vaynerchuk, asking where I should go.
Normally, the story would end there but there's more to it. I've kept in touch with Helder over the last couple of years with the assumption that we would be back sooner or later. Although it wasn't our turn, some friends were going to be in the area much as a result of my encouragement. As a result of this contact, they got to take a similar, although scaled down, private tour. They ran out of time and never did make it to Sandeman, unfortunately. But they were able to receive some second-hand benefits as a result.
Although I haven't listened to many of Gary V's podcasts for a while, I'm guessing there are a lot more stories like mine that nobody knows about.
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