A lot of you are here for one reason, and one reason only: Gary Vaynerchuk linked to a post I wrote about him being a market maker.

I have some gestating ideas about the response to that article, but they’re not developed enough to share with you yet. In fact, I want to ask you guys a question or two to help me sort out my thoughts.

You certainly click when Gary tells you to — I know this because I have seen significant traffic boosts subsequent to his tweeting of my URL. And according to at least one winemaker, you buy when he says to buy. What I’m wondering is, are you just replacing one guru (Parker) with another (Gary)? If so, forget about the sea change many of you have noted in the comments to that last post.

Take the following poll and help me get to the bottom of this, and I will be eternally grateful — so grateful that I will reward you with a coupon code for free shipping on any order in our little store by using the coupon code “Gary” during check-out. Honor system of course, since I have no way of knowing whether you’ve actually taken this anonymous poll or not!

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BONUS ROUND! If you’re familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk, you know that he finds and comments on any web post mentioning him…let’s make a little contest out of this! Guess exactly how long it will take Gary to find this post and comment on it, and the person coming closest will win some nice wine accessories, including an everyday wine carafe from d547. It’s about 9AM on Monday morning, and I’m guessing his Google Alerts will send him here by about 11PM tonight. Perhaps faster. Your thoughts?

I just got back from a trade tasting in which I tasted the wares of a Sonoma producer (sorry folks, I’m keeping this a blind item) who I’d heard received raves from Gary Vaynerchuk a little while back. I told the Winery rep that I was guessing he hit pay-dirt after Gary’s vlogcast.

He imparted the following on me: a few months before, the winery had received accolades from Robert Parker, scoring a 91 and a 93 for two of its offerings. Subsequently, over the course of a few weeks, the winery received approximately fourteen orders that it could directly attribute to the Wine Advocate scores. Within 24 hours of the Vaynerchuk vlogcast, in which Gary scored one of their wines a 93, they received more than 400 phone calls and orders.

14 vs. 400? It’s pretty clear who the market maker is these days and it’s not Robert Parker.

There is little doubt that Gary is selling wine with his “reviews.” It’s worth noting, he’s not always selling it on behalf of the Wine Library, who I’m guessing probably only had a few cases of this item in stock. Undoubtedly, supplies dwindled at other retailers, and the winery is clearly a direct beneficiary of Gary’s dedicated following.

Interesting times.

We’ve been thinking about this a lot. Forget the whole discussion of who’s a critic and who’s not. What matters is who you trust. We all have various methods for making purchases of all sizes, and wine is so subjective, so variable, that a guide you trust in navigating this world is truly invaluable.

We realize that you might have several go-to sources when deciding whether to buy a particular bottle, but for the sake of simplicity, please select the ONE that is most likely to seal the deal in your wine purchases. As always, your participation and comments are much appreciated.

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Well, we didn’t participate in this edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday (#44). But we’re sure that despite our absence this will be the biggest turnout yet, no small part due to the designated host this month, Gary Vaynerchuk. You can see Gary’s special WBW episode of WLTV here (like this guy needs any more links to his show…):

However, we’re happy to report that we’ve participated by proxy, as several wine bloggers have reviewed wines from domaine547 in their WBW entries, and you can find some great tasting notes from Dr. Debs, Amy (aka SBWineAdvocate), Penny the Mustang Winemaker, and Tim from Winecast (we’ll try to ignore Tim’s “buy this wine” link that clicks to winezap, where our products aren’t listed but where he must have some sort of affiliate deal). UPDATE! Patrick (aka Oenophilus) from Iridesse Wines has also reviewed a wine from d547. Click here to read his take on the same wine that Penny drank…

Thanks to Lenn for creating this event, thanks to Gary for hosting, and thanks to all who tried wines from d547 for the occasion. Next month, there’s no way we’ll be sitting out.