Gary Vaynerchuk’s Thunder Cruise A Roaring Success
Ξ April 27th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Wine History, Wine News |
The MSC Orchestra pulled in to the Port Of Fort Lauderdale Saturday. Three thousand passengers disembarked, among them 200 contented participants in what is promised to be but the first in a series of yearly Thunder Cruises planned by the Wine Library’s relentless, innovative Gary Vaynerchuk. It was, by any measure, a great success. But you don’t have to take my word for it. In fact, it was the startling uniformity of opinions expressed by folks attending, to a person, that the last sentence of this high-seas tasting adventure be punctuated with an emphatic exclamation point.
Imagine the great uncertainty felt by many before we set sail. Imagine not knowing whether there were 10 or 100 fellow wine enthusiasts on board. Putting your life on hold for a week in these uncertain economic times and jumping on board a massive cruise ship, essentially lost to your familiar world, is no easy decision. For myself, such a cruise put me well outside of my comfort zone. I am used to instantaneous communication, the predictable rhythms of the neighborhood, the thousand and one reassuring repetitions of daily life. To decide to set that all aside for a week’s sailing with an internet personality simply promising a great time is not to be taken lightly.
And from Mr. Vaynerchuk’s perspective, with his track record of successful business insights, his multiple TV appearances, his knowing full well he is the face of WL, its brand, how great the downside should the cruise go bust? It takes a special kind of business savvy to put so much at risk, to make oneself so available to public scrutiny. And is it not true that in the blogoshere the knives are out for failure?
But all of these diverse concerns may be put to rest. The guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Mr. Vaynerchuk pulled it off with style and distinction.
The main event was the Grand Tasting, of course. There were other activities, however, offered earlier and throughout the week. He hosted a seminar titled Social Networking-Personal Branding in the Web 2.0 World, “Wine 101″ for beginners, naturally the seminar How To Monetize Your Content, a Food and Wine Paring exercise, How to Train Your Palate, and a very informative Q & A Session, and a Port Tasting, with or without cigars, two rooms were provided.
Each of the sessions were very well attended, though by different groups of people. And each session was opened for questions, perhaps the most productive part. Very fast on his feet, Mr. Vaynerchuk is quite attentive to detail, his knowledge, quite extensive, though it can be said he occasionally associates too closely his own personality with technological innovation.
As may be sensed, the activities addressed all levels of expertise and experience. But Mr. Vaynerchuk was especially sensitive to the learning curve of those new to wine or, perhaps it is more accurate to say, those who needed a push to taste outside their comfort zone. Indeed, when the Grand Tasting finally rolled around, the wine list for which I’ve already posted on this blog, apart from the Europeans and those from Latin America, the American wines, though well ‘hit’, were not the sole focus of the group. It must have been especially gratifying for Mr. Vaynerchuk to see so many at the Portuguese table, for example. (BTW, the wines of Portugal, in my opinion, were the stars of the evening. Those of Bordeaux, superb.)
A word about the Grand Tasting Wine list. Mr. Vaynerchuk’s selection method, it was explained to me, was to have contacted numerous distributors representing wineries from around the world. Provided they answered in a timely manner they were included. So, for example, South Africa was absent because of some mix up. There were other ‘holes’ in the list, as Mr. Vaynerchuk put it, that he promises to fix on subsequent international tastings. There was also the problem of a wine simply not showing up. A modest number went missing owing to vagaries in the chain of custody.
All in all it was a delightful cruise. It is important to remember the ports of call the ship made. Cayo Levantado, an island off the coast of the Dominican Republic, Philipsburg on St. Martin, Saint John and Nassau. Extremes of wealth and poverty were visible just beyond the heavy bands of touristic services and shops surrounding the docks. I explored many neighborhoods off the beaten path. I can tell you all is not well. For those interested in reading my daily reflections on island life and other matters please see a WL Forum thread set up for the cruise.
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