When Cork & Knife catches up with Gary Vaynerchuk, star of Wine Library TV, he is in Las Vegas at a tea expo (just try explaining that one to your grandma). He notes, as we begin to chat, that there are interesting similarities between tea and wine. This is more proof to us that this person’s hunger for knowledge just doesn’t stop.

As many of you know, Vaynerchuk is the guy who licked rocks and ate dirt in the name of training his palate so that he would learn how to taste wine.

“Let’s give it a sniffy-sniff.”

That’s what he’ll say on each and every “Thunder Show,” as he has dubbed it, prior to swirling and getting a read on a wine’s nose. After a mini-storm of descriptives, he’ll then “give it a whirl,” and viewers can look forward to more wonderfully quick, sharp observations about a wine’s smell and taste.

To the uninitiated, we are describing Gary Vaynerchuk’s wildly popular WineLibraryTV.com, an Internet show with a devoted following of 80,000 viewers daily.

The show has spawned a book: 101 Wines Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World. We are reading the book and planning to meet him in person when he comes to the Washington area this month (check the events calendar to find out when he is coming to your town) as part of his book tour.

We spoke with Gary recently to find out a little bit more about him, and to get his take on the changing wine world.

EXTRA: Learn Gary’s Top 3 Issues with the Wine World

If you’re a devotee, then you know Vaynerchuk was not born with his ticket in hand; there has been a journey. The son of Russian immigrants who owned a liquor store, Vaynerchuk went from working as a clerk in the store to becoming the businessman — and personality — that made Wine Library go from being a $4 million business to a $45 million operation.

This native of Springfield, N.J., who spits into a Jets bucket as he tastes, looks back often on his upbringing and thanks his lucky stars. “I think that when you come from zero,” he says, “where you understand the value of a buck,” it can be easier to stay humble.

“I have two massive advantages,” Vaynerchuk says. First off, he watched the family’s liquor store business, which he renamed Wine Library, go from small to big. “Number 2, my mom instilled a lot of good things in me, including treating every individual as an individual — and that affects how I think about wine.”

As you watch Vaynerchuk perform, you are struck by how truly psyched he is to be sitting there; this is not a reluctant celebrity. “It’s flattering to be recognized. I love it … I’m very proud of the hard work that has led to this point.

“There are pros and cons, but I’m a very social kind of person, so (the attention of) lots and lots of people get me fired up. The more people watching me, the more my energy skyrockets.”

There is something especially fun about WinelibraryTV.com being sort of an “underground” venture, he says, even though for Web foodies it is mainstream. “People that watch an Internet TV show realize there’s not that many people watching,” and that’s part of what drives his unusual breed of fandom.

The excitement Vaynerchuk projects really affects his audience, and we asked whether he aims to cut away at people’s insecurity about wine by goofing around and having an over-the-top energy level.

“You nailed it directly out of the stadium,” he says after a pause. “That is the core of WinelibraryTV.” He is quick to add that his pumped-up style is natural for him “because I really am that ridiculous. It just works because it’s authentic. People can tell what’s real and not.”

It isn’t something that comes easily to everyone. “After I did Conan the first time, he turned to me and said ‘Are you a comedian? You have good improv skills.’” But Vaynerchuk hasn’t had a life on stage or camera. “No plays, nothing. Never any of that stuff.

“I was always the class clown that the teachers liked,” he explains — the one who knew how to be funny and silly while also knowing where the line was, and knowing not to cross it.

Of course, that same goofy schoolyard sensibility helps Vaynerchuk be a fun person to drink with, whether people are experienced wine-drinkers or new to the game. What, we wondered, are his go-to wines for different crowds?

“I don’t have a separation of what I serve my wine-nerd friends compared to friends who have no wine knowledge whatsoever,” Vaynerchuk says. “It’s amazingly fun to give complex wine to newbies … and it’s equally fun to watch friends who are major sommeliers and give them “commodity wine” - maybe a $17 sauvignon blanc. Doing that helps bring people back down to earth, he says: “Let’s talk about this wine and not be a jerk-off.”

Someone having this level of success online can only be “indie” for so long, though, right? Won’t the big channels come calling? “I’ve been offered a lot of TV deals already,” he confides. “If something feels right in my heart I’ll do it, but nothing has crossed my path that has done that yet.

He’s a believer in Web TV shows, and feels no urgency to go mainstream even as a career move. If he did decide to go to cable, he says it would be “so my mom could run around and tell people her son is a TV star.”

Vaynerchuk is generally resistant to the idea that he should speculate on life beyond The Thunder Show. “The only thing I truly know about where I’m going is I’m going to buy the N.Y. Jets,” he says. “Everything between that and now is just a stepping stone.”