Happy Friday! It’s a good day to talk about wine, don’t you think?
About a month ago, I received the opportunity to review VinoVersal wine club, and I of course jumped at the chance. I enjoy wine clubs as a way to make sure our wine fridge is stocked with different wines.
The first wine club tasting parcel featured wines from Salento, Italy, a region I knew nothing about. In addition to six bottles of wine, the parcel comes with a beautiful magazine highlighting the region and connecting the wines and wine region to the recipient.
Isn’t this lovely? I learned that Salento is in the heel of Italy, that it is gorgeous, and that it produces some velvety, lush wines, my favorites being the Pietra Caya Malvasia and the Tenuta Boncore Negroamaro. They were all good though. Tasting notes (from VinoVersal) are at the end of the post. 
I got to meet the VinoVersal team and taste all of the wines at the Boston Wine Expo as well, which was great. One of the things I love about travel to wine country is meeting the people behind businesses; wine people are always so nice! While chatting with the team, I learned that someone actually visits each wine region for extensive tasting research (tough job!) and chooses bottles for the parcels. I love the connections that wine brings, and I found it really nice that they wines aren’t just randomly included. These wines were all high quality and introduced me to grapes I never look for.
Would I order it for myself?
Absolutely. At $95 for six hand-selected bottles of wine, including shipping and including the fun and informative magazine, it’s a great deal and a great gift. Wine clubs like this encourage people like me (who tend to gravitate to certain wine regions all the time) to expand the palate and to learn more about the wine world, something I love to do but am not always proactive about.
The wines included in the first tasting parcel are as follows.
Negroamaro Salento
The scent is a powerful impression, rustic but perfumed. Starting with traces of licorice, figs, and eucalyptus. The taste is full of dried fruit, sweetness and yet earthy and slightly spiced. A distinctly acidic, full finish wine. The color is deep and robust.
Primitivo Salento
With up- front fruit and a blend of dried strawberries, olives, and freshly cut hay this wine has a taste of sweetness from the sun-ripened Primitivo grapes with accents of fig and lavender. The color is medium but packs a punch for this red.
Primius Primitivo Di Manduria
The nose is typical Primitivo with ripe cherries and chocolate. This wine is balanced and refreshing. With only 6 months in oak; don’t lay it down or ponder over it’s possibilities. “Release the Brakes” Enjoy this medium color balanced wine.
Pietra Caya
Rustic describes this wine with forest berries and lavender. A big glass of fruit but delicate velvety selections of acids and tannins. The color seems medium, but the flavors have depth.
Salice Salentino Riserva
The aroma is inviting with dark chocolate, licorice, caramel, and fig. The same impression follows thru with balanced acids, tannins and a slight sweetness from some over ripened grapes. 24 months in oak give this wine something to talk about over dinner.
Contrada Del Falco
First impression in the vineyard and the grapes, think cigar box, dark chocolate, a little dust and some ripe stone fruit. Now taste the broad mix of ripe fresh fruit and sun dried raisins.
VinoVersal provided me with a complimentary parcel for review. All opinions are my own.
