Gary Vaynerchuk, host of the video blog Wine Library TV, was at American University last week promoting his new book, Crush It! Why Now Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion. Considering the entrepreneur’s background, the title couldn’t be any more appropriate.

After immigrating from the former USSR to New Jersey, Vaynerchuk honed his wine skills at his family’s liquor store—also called Wine Library—and used social-media networks to catapult the bodega into a $60-million brand. Yet it wasn’t until Vaynerchuk launched his daily Web cast three years ago that his buzz propelled him onto Decanter magazine’s 2009 Power List. Today, Vaynerchuk’s straightforward—and often hyperactive—online reviews (he recently broadcast that one varietal “reminds me of Skittles” and that another “tastes like asparagus pee-pee”) has led him to become a wine guru for some 350,000 followers on Twitter and more than 90,000 “Vayniacs” who tune in to his Web cast each day.

Mike Carroll's Leesburg Vintner offers hard-to-find Virginia wines.

Here’s a sobering statistic for the Virginia wine industry, which has had a lot to celebrate, with awards coming its way from national and even international sources: Only 5 percent of wines sold in Virginia are produced in the state.

Why is that?

The old complaint that Virginia wines are overpriced is no longer broadly applicable, and local and East Coast wines have been rising in reputation for years. Part of the problem is that Virginia wines are hard to find unless you take a trip to the wineries.

Leesburg Vintner in downtown Leesburg (29 S. King St.; 703-777-3322) is a wonderful exception. It also happens to be one of the best wine shops around.

Mike Carroll opened Leesburg Vintner in 1988, a decade before Virginia wines began to emerge. Today he devotes 16 shelves to Virginia labels, including varietals from such stellar wineries as Barboursville, Chrysalis, and Linden.

Did the long lines scare you away from Hello Cupcake’s free-cupcake offer this morning? Here’s some good news: There are more free goodies today! The Gibson, the speakeasy-like cocktail lounge near DC’s U Street, is giving out free gin rickeys from 8 to 9 tonight. We wouldn’t be surprised, though, if the line snakes down U Street and gets tangled up with the Ben’s Chili Bowl queue. So we want you to tell us and your fellow readers where else to go for a cold, refreshing cocktail that’ll cut through this suffocating humidity. Who has the best cocktails—or better yet, which bar/restaurant with great drinks also has a breezy deck or patio?

Let us know in the comments!  

Interested in sipping a complex Malbec? A powerful Syrah? Sniff. Pass. Don’t you know that beer is the new wine?

At least that was the message at Savor on Saturday evening at the National Building Museum. The massively popular craft-beer festival offered beer-and-food pairings from more than 60 breweries as well as panel discussions with experts who shared their knowledge on everything from Colorado beer to “ancient ales.” (We attended a panel on Belgian beers with Rob Tod of the Allagash Brewing Company and Peter Bouckaert of the New Belgium Brewing Company, two rock stars of the beer world.)

In need of a sure thing for a dinner party? Looking for a wine that will excite you and not just impress you? Head to Paul’s of Chevy Chase (5205 Wisconsin Ave., NW; 202-537-1900) and scan the shelves for whatever’s in stock from Terry Theise.

Theise is the Silver Spring–based wine importer who won a 2008 James Beard Foundation Award, and his name on an Austrian or German white is as close to a guarantee as there is in the world of wine.

Ideal growing conditions in Virginia’s vineyards led to a superb 2008 harvest and a bumper crop of grapes. Prodigious yields, plus increased vineyard acreage statewide, means the cellar runneth over. So wineries with more grapes than fermentation tanks are offering Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc to home winemakers.

The Virginia Wine of the Month Club offers oenophiles a chance to taste one ($14.95 a month plus shipping) or two ($24.95 a month plus shipping) of the state’s best bottlings each month. You can buy 3 to 12 months of reds, whites, or a combination of the preselected wines. Last year’s picks included such premier wines as DelFosse, White Hall, Barboursville, and Veritas.