Since my 2018 goal was to explore more varietals and try lots of wine for research, I decided to connect with Direct Cellars to achieve this goal. This wine club has relationships with premium vineyards and wineries that produce many varieties of wine around the world. They have wine buyers in 10+ different countries, partnering with top wineries. Each month, they send pre-selected bottles of wine. A nice perk is that if you sign up three friends for the VIP Club, the next monthly shipment is free (which is always nice).

I was so excited to get my first box featured, which featured Colinas Blancas Malbec 2016 and Caracoler Vermentino 2016. With the all the summer heat in Miami, I decided to pull out the latter for a taste first.

Vermentino (already a new one for me) is a white wine grape best known in Italy—and, to a lesser extent, France. Significant plantings of Vermentino can be found in Sardinia, the northwest of Italy, and the south of France (where this wine is from). The Vermentino (also referred to as Rolle in France) grape has a thin, light-colored skin, producing wines that are usually very aromatic, light-bodied and refreshing.

The wine is pale yellow in color and sticks to the glass, but the legs aren’t very defined. The nose was fragrant with notes of green apple, citrus, and white flowers. It travels onto the palate with grapefruit, melon, with slight nuttiness. It’s smooth and has nicely balanced acidity. The nice thing about Direct Cellars is that they also suggest a pairing with the wine—for this they recommended pan-fried grouper. In a perfect world, I would have cooked the grouper, but my new home renovation has been killer, so I just drank it straight up while working on the house sans comida. I really enjoyed it and was glad to try another varietal. I’m excited for the next bottle.

Interested in trying Direct Cellars out? Check them out here.

Part two of my delivery coming soon!