Wine Tasting with Steve Leighton

Gary Vaynerchuk: Hey, everybody. This is Gary Vaynerchuk and this is like a behind the scenes Wine Library TV kind of a road, road side. We don’t even have classes. We’re going to share this wine just swigging it from the bottle, just gave a talk to fill up future of web apps here in the UK and London and why don’t you tell the Vayner Nation who you are. Steve Leighton: Well, my name is Steve Leighton. I'm a massive Vayniac, believe me. I have been following it for around about 12 to 18 months. I'm a coffee roaster, so I kind of buy and import coffee from all around the world. Gary Vaynerchuk: Okay. Steve Leighton: And taste is really important to me and that’s where I kind of look at wine because from now I'm no expert. I just know what I like and I kind of enjoy experiment with varietals really kind of expanding my palate. Well that’s what's Wine Library did for me. It kind of gave me an opportunity to come and grow my palate and I was kind stunned to get descriptions that we used in the coffee which I think it can be really inspiring. Gary Vaynerchuk: Power buds. Steve Leighton: So I kind of got into you little bit differently to what most people do. I am a big fan of your keynotes. Thanks for being here, I'm no tech kid. I don’t do any programming you know that’s for my business but I can't do anything. But I look for your keynotes because for me business is about cruising. Gary Vaynerchuk: It is. Steve Leighton: We get it crazy because is it the job that hated. I was prison officer, a prison guard locking people up and with a little bit more inhumane in locking another human being. Gary Vaynerchuk: Sure. Steve Leighton: And it's killing me and I sat there one night, I thought I just can’t do this anymore so I went home and while I was working I bought coffee roaster. I was roasting at my garage at home. Come chugging away a bunch of website with the worst website you’ve ever seen in your life. It came too long and we have a bit on mundane so we put it back into the business but I carried on working and I was up at two to three o’clock in the morning which between and doing that huddle in come on to it. And that’s what it became inspiring to me, it's kind of a thought, this Wine Library TV so I was kind of hooked into that and I was like and I've come to see an opportunity for my business. We taste it and we’re selling the product— Gary Vaynerchuk: Absolutely. Steve Leighton: We get any type there, so— Gary Vaynerchuk: Same model? Steve Leighton: Exactly the same model, so all you do in a website which is called ineedcoffee.com. Gary Vaynerchuk: Mott link that up. Steve Leighton: I'm not so into it. Mott is not going to link loads of it and basically, I took to set that. I thought I'm just going to do it and the first one was awful and it got a bit better and bit better and it’s still awful now but it’s a lot better now. Gary Vaynerchuk: How many episodes? Steve Leighton: 47. Gary Vaynerchuk: And how many people recognize you know in like— Steve Leighton: Who knows and believe with housing, Houston Station in London and I was standing there looking at the platform times when you just got one of this. You’re Steve Leighton and I went, “Yes.” You know that. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yes. Steve Leighton: Yes, I am and it was just like I want to show you my moves in work. Oh! Well that’s cool. I've got to go buy and just disappeared off and it was like, whoa. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yeah, it’s an amazing feeling. Steve Leighton: And we’re not knowing down trees like you are but we kind of we did it rid, clever it well. I wish we did. We manage to monitor the state, we did and we tends to you subscription, so every week of the Friday we send the coffee out to the customers on the Monday when video goes live and they’ve got the coffee mixture with me. Gary Vaynerchuk: Absolutely. It’s such a layout of a business model. Steve Leighton: Yeah, but it just ball people in because then all of the sudden it exploded and we in fact had 170,000 downloads in 11 months and we knocked the Jenny Oliver, you know Jenny Oliver. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yeah. Steve Leighton: You know Jenny Oliver from number two in the feed podcast job right above you for those four weeks. Gary Vaynerchuk: Right. Steve Leighton: In the UK, that was like catch in and just kind of just to show people what we did. There was no bluff because I look at that any better, fully is no, no fluff, no BS it was just like this is the coffee this is what I'm tasting, tasting. Gary Vaynerchuk: What do you mean? Steve Leighton: Let’s taste it together. Gary Vaynerchuk: Good for you. Steve Leighton: And it’s kind of turned our business but look, and please this would not be successful considering we’ve been going. I mean I left work three and a half years ago. I was in business since seven so I did three and a half years of working. Gary Vaynerchuk: Take care of me. Steve Leighton: Yeah, I spent kind of three and a half years of working all day, going home and working all night, I would be up at four o’clock in the morning roasting coffee in my lunch break I use to take the parcels to post office to post aids. You know and that’s why the whole kind of key and extra consideration, I mean I've got the two chapters that you’ve released so far and I'm not the daily Gary V. and I was just like— And that’s why I'm here to and to know you did this twit out. And it was like I just—this is a funny story with this one now. When you did that it was two o’clock in UK time I've been over with the boys with this set of face and I’m ready to get in time and it turns at home and that why I see the street mark I'm on new stream so I've dived in You Stream and Gary is there and kind of hosting. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yeah. Steve Leighton: Pushing the book, saying he’s going to buy the book so I just thought, yeah, I'm going to have to go with this. So I say—if I buy 50 books can I come online with Wine Library TV. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yeah. Steve Leighton: And I came here. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yeah, you sure came. Steve Leighton: So I bought 50 books because I was incredibly drunk. I woke up in the morning and I was like “What did I do?”. Gary Vaynerchuk: What did you do? Steve Leighton: And then I checked my email and it said “The receipt to the wrong email address because I was that drunk.” Gary Vaynerchuk: I loved it. Steve Leighton: And I was like “Oh, shit”. Gary Vaynerchuk: I'm now touring and light it. Steve Leighton: Sorry about that, but I spent like the whole, I spent like a thousand dollar on book sale what am I doing. And then I've reset the amount, I'm going to save it just in case it picks it up all naturally. And I know heavily amount you get within 10 minutes it was a talk to your man and was it Mott. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yes. Steve Leighton: Talked to him and I'm not was being at absolutely seeing in this. Gary Vaynerchuk: He’s the best. Steve Leighton: He’s just a talk, talk man and he was just like, yeah, no problems “When do you want to do it?” and part of me was like desperate to come Wine Library and I thought— Gary Vaynerchuk: I’d love for you to come, well what happened one day. Steve Leighton: Yeah. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yeah, he needs to come. You had me conscious in it. Steve Leighton: Awesome. Gary Vaynerchuk: So it’s going to the light. Steve Leighton: Yes, yeah, lets in because, right three wines. I didn’t want to bring wines that would really passionate—you know important to me because if I said bad things about them I’d be devastated. So what I did I've have this one here. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yeah. Steve Leighton: I've got a friend in New Zealand called Kalzar and he was big fan of yours. Gary Vaynerchuk: Okay. Steve Leighton: And when he heard I was coming he’s the New Zealand Barista champion and he was second in the world in 2007 and he is seventh this year. Great guy and he sent me two bottles from New Zealand its Pinot Noir its 2007 and he said you basically you just getting any better. This is something that— Gary Vaynerchuk: And I've heard about the Gibbston Valley central country of Pinot Noir. I have never had it. It makes me excited when I saw you bring this. I was like this is going to be a lot of fun. Steve Leighton: What he said there is specially two things you need to go and try 2007 and 2004 and he sent me two bottles but he sent me two days and then seven by mistake. And he was like—but he says this is the best. Gary Vaynerchuk: Now you’ve got one. Steve Leighton: Yeah, I have here. Gary Vaynerchuk: All right, the one we have here. Steve Leighton: I'm a massive fan of Argentinian wines. I think it’s because of my love essentially of South American coffee. Gary Vaynerchuk: Sure. Steve Leighton: Yeah, I just kind of love that whole new world of those. The reason brought the kind of this one, this is from my friend Rupert who work in a wine store local to us and that I'm big about coffee and I'm not big about no wines. I just want coffee for wine and it’s great. Gary Vaynerchuk: Very nice. Steve Leighton: Too oaked, now I hope this one is not. Gary Vaynerchuk: No. Steve Leighton: So it’s a completely an oaked and I've got some strip of that. Gary Vaynerchuk: Its 30 Malbec, 30 Cab, 30 Syrah, 10 Petit Bordeaux. Steve Leighton: That’s the one, yeah. There is 1300 bottles produced. Gary Vaynerchuk: Okay. Steve Leighton: So it was a very small length and very big Malbec kind of taste coming through which I adore and I think that’s coming in big bold ones. Gary Vaynerchuk: And then the Torrontes. Steve Leighton: Torrontes, again from the same state so it’s actually in local state. Don’t have massive mode about it apart from Rupert said, “It’s your kind of wine” because he watches like everyone as well. Gary Vaynerchuk: Thank you Rupert. Okay, great so let’s get into them so we’re going to swig from the same bottle. Are you okay with that? Steve Leighton: Okay, and that’s good. I'm going to crush in we’ll spend them all. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yeah, okay and what about this, how about mine? Steve Leighton: Shit, it’s never cooled it enough. Gary Vaynerchuk: All right, let’s do it. Lorica 2008 Torrontes as you guys all know I've been pushing Torrontes for a long time. It’s a category of wine a lot of people don’t know about. It’s a great varietal that I think is extremely good with light foods, shell fish and its coming on the scene very hard, how much do this cost you for you guy? Steve Leighton: 30 pounds, so about $10.00. Gary Vaynerchuk: Got it. Steve Leighton: At $10.00. Gary Vaynerchuk: Got it, awesome ready, a little sniffy sniff from the bottle. A little harder than normal, do I get a little lump in the melon. Almost like you take it really smells a lot like cantaloupe. So all right, do the whirl. Steve Leighton: Oh, big melon. Gary Vaynerchuk: No spit bucket. Steve Leighton: Wow, peach smell that. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yes. Steve Leighton: That kind of. Gary Vaynerchuk: Really peachy. What I love about Torrontes and this one has it, maybe a hair low on it is the acidity. But this is really shown pretty fresh. Obviously there’s a little bit of road gang buster when the basement is whole with no glasses. It’s awesome. I'm loving it but without the glasses it’s going to make it a little more unique. So you're going to bare with me Vayniacs. Steve Leighton: This is hardcore. Gary Vaynerchuk: This is hardcore that we got on WLTV. Steve Leighton: Yeah. Gary Vaynerchuk: UK version, but good acid not great. I do get like a golden apple flavor. The peach really seem to me. It’s also considerably floral. There’s a lot of white flower going on in this wine. I like it. I mean but I'm a fan of Torrontes in general. But I think it shown fairly well. It’s not as dull. The Torrontes that I don’t like is the one that’s very water down. It lacks the acidity though I'm a little hit just a little shoulder. I am worried about the acidity of this wine. Steve Leighton: I think it’s a bit warm and it’s got a little bit of heat in there. Gary Vaynerchuk: Well, that’s going to have that because it’s at room temperature. Steve Leighton: No, but I mean a bit of heat nailed alcoholics kind of like I feel a little bit of that. Gary Vaynerchuk: You like that? Steve Leighton: Not all the time. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yeah. Steve Leighton: But I love the peach and now I think the peach is just at the back and that it’s kind of creaminess. That’s why I kind of went peach-melon but because it was just like wow great method. Gary Vaynerchuk: It also has a little bit of like a lemon juice. That little lemon lime thing that I like but not bad I would probably give this like 88 point score and at that price point I think it’s very fair. Steve Leighton: No, I think, yeah, that’s good to that price point. Gary Vaynerchuk: All right, now the Grand Apollo from Lorica. It’s a blend. Once again 30% Cab, 30% Malbec, 30% Syrah and 10 Petit Bordeaux. If anyone it has 10% Petit Bordeaux is already in a score better than normal with me because I'm addicted to the Petit Bordeaux. Steve Leighton: Yeah, I think this is a little bit of where you kind of be a bit too much of the vain. Gary Vaynerchuk: He knows, he knew. Steve Leighton: Its Rupert worth of the fame. Gary Vaynerchuk: Rupert thank you’re for the particular I want some of that. Steve Leighton: You'll also it’s been in out as well. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yeah, give us a little bit of sniffy sniff. So you can get some black berry on here. Obviously with such a small nose, you know whole, it’s really tough to get the sniffy sniff. This is taking sniffy sniff to a whole new level. Let’s give it a whirl. What do you think? Steve Leighton: I was expecting more tannin. I was expecting bitter particularly from the aromas but it’s like it’s not. It’s really made of black fruit bang on. Gary Vaynerchuk: Agreed. Steve Leighton: Black cherry, black grape and a little bit of black Korean tea in there. Gary Vaynerchuk: You get a little tea like flavor as well. Steve Leighton: A little tea and now I think I'm getting from that is the stringency of tea as well. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yeah. Steve Leighton: A little bit of the tea is very drying. I like it. I think with the steak that would just be phenomenal. Good t-bone or rib part. Gary Vaynerchuk: I think his descriptions are point on in a lot of ways. What I would caution people that are looking at this wine is I find it a little bit hallow in the mid palate. There was this considerable depth for me like just you know Casper the friendly ghost. It just disappeared on me for like a few seconds. They are good black fruit early on. Literally almost tasting like cheap wine in the mid palate like a $6.00 jug wine, really just have this kind of cheap Merlot flavor to it and that comes all a little bit stronger on the tannins on the back end. A little too hallow and a little too lacking of that mid palate for me to get too excited about this wine. I'm also a little bit concerned that the fruits are little flabby. I wouldn’t say the source of this fruit has me so excited. I do like the darkness, the Batman of it all, right? It’s a dark kind of wine but even though it’s not oaked it does feel a little creamy vanilla action I should mention that. Steve Leighton: But as it calm down so the creaminess has got deeper. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yeah, the taste of that is a long the way as well. The score of this wine is 83 point. There is a little bit of pass to me. I'm sorry Rupert. I love you and maybe with the glass of airing and decanting there are so many berries there. Steve Leighton: That was one thing you did say to me at this one. This one maybe lack 12 hours. Gary Vaynerchuk: And we did— Steve Leighton: And he talked in like 10 minutes. Gary Vaynerchuk: Right and not in the glass. So we did really give it a shot. Steve Leighton: I mean that ones is around about $18.00, yeah, so it’s— Gary Vaynerchuk: I would have paid $128.00 for the way it is right now but again we didn’t give it fair shot. Steve Leighton: Actually, I taste there was like it goes like bones. Gary Vaynerchuk: Bones, very good, very good and finally the Gibbston Valley Central Otago Pinot Noir 2007 vintage, Central Otago. I like how this says contains approximately 8.6 standard drinks. You have seen that before. I've ten months in a barrel and I'm excited about this. Central Otago to me still right now along with Santa Barbara region in California if I stopped putting Syrah and making them too big, Anderson Valley in California and then obviously Burgundy and then in some parts of Chile Casa Blanca for example but Central Otago and a lot of people’s opinion the number two place in the world for Pinot Noir right now right behind Burgundy. Something will debate that that’s California with Santa Barbara region. You know they’re tack pricey in the Central Otago Pinots, what kind of price was this? Steve Leighton: I don’t know. Gary Vaynerchuk: You have not. Steve Leighton: He’s with me really long. Gary Vaynerchuk: I push it at anything for that. Steve Leighton: Well I've get to used to these call sorry like he’s bit of a hero to me and for this guy to write to me and send me two bottles of wine like to call. Gary Vaynerchuk: Thank you so much. Steve Leighton: And this was lovely. I was probably went into the tops to go right full of May and it comes in free, free regions, incredibly unique and one of his favorites from the cellar, so thank you for sharing one of your favorites from the cellar because this was interesting. Gary Vaynerchuk: It has almost has like this bacon meets bubble gum flavor. If there was a bacon flavored bubble gum that was made by Bazooka, because it’s that kind of style gum that what it smells like. Steve Leighton: When you start to it bacon because we did bacon a few times. That is bacon and with smoking bacon this is just great. Gary Vaynerchuk: It really is. Steve Leighton: A kind of move crunchy bacon in the cellar. Gary Vaynerchuk: Right. Steve Leighton: Yeah, what do you think? Smell it. Smell that. Gary Vaynerchuk: Of course, is that wild? Steve Leighton: Gary V. No, that is just like it is that dried crispy bacon. Gary Vaynerchuk: It really is. Steve Leighton: Yeah. Gary Vaynerchuk: Let’s give it a shot. What do you think enough here? Steve Leighton: Very different wine, incredibly different. It’s like a little bit of soapiness on the front end which is really strange. It’s got a massive acidity. Gary Vaynerchuk: You're getting greenness. Steve Leighton: Yes. Gary Vaynerchuk: Some like green olives. Steve Leighton: Yeah, almost like it’s not— Gary Vaynerchuk: Avocado. Steve Leighton: Avocado I'm kind of more, I don’t know its like pea kind of greenness. Gary Vaynerchuk: Green pea. Steve Leighton: And I don’t like it to start off with it’s just like too much. Gary Vaynerchuk: And this is where it gets really funny. This is where we’re going to tap it to my palate. This almost tastes to me like an imaginary blend of Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley. It has so much of a soil, barnyard soil for it like soil. Steve Leighton: Soil. Gary Vaynerchuk: Like soil. Steve Leighton: Yeah, very much. Gary Vaynerchuk: Definitely, I get almost like this avocado, if you eat avocado like I do which is you have no patience and you're completely clumsy in the kitchen and you just take it and bite it and just open it and take out the ball. I don’t know if you can and you just eat it. You get part of this skin a lot of time so you get this bitterness that this brings to the table as well. The bacon flavor comes through as well. They're sour but ripe cherries on this. It’s very complex. It’s green and earthy to an oak degree. This is probably the most Burgundy and water-ish central type of Pinot that I've come across. Steve Leighton: Do you know what I like it then because my palate is challenged. I'm kind of like what is that? I kind of quite like that one. Gary Vaynerchuk: You kind of the school girl that likes the bad boy. It's like a challenge. You want to convert it. Steve Leighton: Similar to coffee so you know, I kind of find this coffee when we’re coping on the table and I'm just like, whoa. Gary Vaynerchuk: What is that? Steve Leighton: What didn’t I get stopped because it's a naturally processed and something funky going on and that’s that. That is just a mark to it. That is the mark to a coffee. That’s a dry process to love, it's challenging, it's kind of like— Gary Vaynerchuk: And I kind of drop with a couple of nuggets here, you had too. You have to drop a little bit there. Steve Leighton: But no, I was kidding. But now I think that is challenging. It's big. It's got loads going on and that is a little bit of pepper as well may come in this. Gary Vaynerchuk: What kind of business article is? You and I need to drink some wine together because I totally agree with you. This is your style, this is my style. This is a wine that I would never let Wine Library employees buy for the store. It is absolutely not the norm in palate. It has just like you said, you started it off but disliking it. Now you're fascinated. Steve Leighton: You start to talk thinking it was like, whoa that it should taste soapy but then it just kind of— Gary Vaynerchuk: You're fascinated by flavors and scents with coffee and into this subject matter. You know, you're passionate about wine and curious about it and you're going to give it the benefit of doubt for all the things that has going on but for like delicious factor there’s a lot of people that would let me turned off by this wine. It's very kind of mean. It's kind of like that bitter old man that really is like batch up bad boy thing, it's like that bitter old man but you're like, if I can cut through the façade. Steve Leighton: He’s got all day. Gary Vaynerchuk: He’s got some crazy WWII stories. I hope we make friend. You know like if that classic movie with the grumpy old man but he is like really a good dude that’s what this wine is. It's very complicated and difficult but I feel like that if you put this away with three to six years if you do let this, if you got a nice lamb dish that paired with the wine like this. Its bitter tannins that it comes with it and then it's greenish which I think would blow over with they can't get aged. Well, it really shows that beautiful red fruit that it has on the back end and I get those stuff. It was like a bowl of mixed of regular cherries and sour cherries and I like it a lot. I agree with you. It’s a complicated wine for my palate. This is a 91 plus point wine. Again you for the masses we wouldn’t even carry this wine. So if you understand we’re getting in this— Steve Leighton: This is where were going to need the back cave. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yeah, this is the wine north cave and it gets you absolutely. This is definitely that kind of wine. I'm curious if that’s like in 20’s or 30’s range in the US that would be a really fun wine for that. Steve Leighton: And I wish because it is very young I think, it really needs to— Gary Vaynerchuk: It needs to. Steve Leighton: What would it be for it like? Gary Vaynerchuk: Absolutely. Steve Leighton: It could have been at hard of it. Gary Vaynerchuk: Yeah, and you said to us, Steve question of the day? Steve Leighton: Now I have to think, it was days or weeks. I'm thinking about the question to that but I want to do a little definite I want to do you got to do an action of the day. Gary Vaynerchuk: Wow. Steve Leighton: As well as question of the day. Gary Vaynerchuk: You know what it's your show. Steve Leighton: The action of the day go and find family, friend, loved one, somebody that you work with and go give them a big hug because I think I like hugs. Gary Vaynerchuk: You loved more than anything. Steve Leighton: Bigger than hug. Gary Vaynerchuk: I love where you go with that. Steve Leighton: So go and hug somebody who you haven’t hugged. Gary Vaynerchuk: And put a link underneath in the comments. We get prompt to that, right? Take a look at to your hug. You got to sneak out to somebody who like “Hold on”. Steve Leighton: And my question of the day is, I remember in 2002, I have my picky moments in coffee. I was in the cooking table and I cooked this one coffee and it wasn’t the best coffee in the world. It wasn’t the most stunning but it did everything right. It did every single box, you know, it wasn’t overly acidic. It wasn’t overly sweet but if you just balance and control and it still made what I've mentioned every single coffee that would buy against. I'm sure it's not the wine right. It just something went put that and makes sense. Gary Vaynerchuk: I have a wine that really made me understand that I loved wine. It was the first wine that tasted actual things besides red wine. You know it's already deeply in the wine business and the entrepreneur but at 22 I haven’t tasted a lot of stuff yet and I had a common name that really tasted like a Snickers bar chocolate. I've so much like called my mom so I always think about that wine is being the first wine that I actually tasted something. It was a listing, you know, as early day where I was case of wondering. What do you get? And I'm like you know white wine, red wine, when I tasted that I was like “Oh! Crap this whole industry is not full of crap, there are other things.” Steve Leighton: Exactly, now that was this coffee because it was just everything it wants a bit. But we still stock it now and love it like passionately. It's like anybody says to me what coffee should have tried this. Gary Vaynerchuk: Okay. Steve Leighton: If you're not sure what's that, for me that was my epiphany moment. So what was your epiphany moments and why. What was the moment wearing wine you can certainly went, do you know what I'm going to go and search things net for regard to those video podcasts so I can expand my palate and learn more nothing, you know that that whole kind of epiphany moment where your become passionate about something. And it might not be wine if you need off, maybe this is an epiphany moment to do something else, but I just think that would be a really full story to read. Gary Vaynerchuk: Thank you so much. Steve Leighton: Yeah. Gary Vaynerchuk: You're a great guy. You with a little bit of me— Steve Leighton: You used to finish with “you with a little bit of me we’re changing the wine world.” Gary Vaynerchuk: Whether they like or not you want me to do that? Steve Leighton: No, I don’t do that for like so long. Gary Vaynerchuk: It's been like a year and a half. Steve Leighton: I love that ending. Gary Vaynerchuk: You with a little bit of me were changing the wine world whether they like it or not. Thank you. Steve Leighton: That was awesome. Gary Vaynerchuk: Thank you, brilliant, awesome.