Bright Cellars Review

You guys know I love my wine. I’m not an overly picky wine drinker. I know what I like and I tend to stick to a few tried a true varietals, regions and wineries when I do my wine shopping. (I’m also not against a cheap bottle from Trader Joe’s, either.) But sometimes it’s nice to have a little variety and try something new, which is why I recently decided to give Bright Cellars a shot.
Bright Cellars is a new monthly wine club created by MIT graduates that uses an algorithm to match you with personal wine recommendations each month. It’s easy to get started: you take a quick quiz to find out which wines are best suited for you and after that it’s up to you to decide whether or not to sign up.
They tend to run pretty amazing sign-up specials. For my first month, I received five bottles of wine for a measly $38. The usual fee after the first month is $68 for four bottles of wine, but you can cancel anytime. So far, I’m really enjoying our Bright Cellars matches, and coming up with delicious food pairings for each bottle.
The first wine we tried was completely new to me, a 2014 Macabeo from Spain.
This wine was fresh and clean with a lot of crisp fruit flavors, exactly the kind of white I love to drink. We paired it with a delicious grilled crab leg dinner, the perfect pairing for an acidic white.
We also enjoyed a 2014 Adrift Reisling from California. Sweet wines are not my favorite, but they go great with spicy food – and we eat a ton of spicy food.
We had the reisling with a Blue Apron recipe for Pork Tteokbokki, the sweetness of the wine was a perfect complement to the Korean flavors of the dish.
I love Tempranillo, so I was excited for this 2015 Místico Tempranillo from Spain. It turned out to be my favorite bottle of our delivery, with lots of ripe fruit flavors and a round finish. We had it with an unphotographed Greek pizza, which wasn’t exactly the perfect pairing but tasted great anyways. My motto with wine pairing is when in doubt, drink what you like with food you like and it’s all good.
We had the Cambridge Sunset Zinfandel with friends after a night out. It was our least favorite, but only because it’s the type of zinfandel I just don’t enjoy, leathery with lots of oak and a flavor reminiscent of root beer. Not bad, just not my preference.
We haven’t tried the Captivation white blend from California yet, but I have a gnocchi dish in mind for later this week that will go great with it.
But don’t worry if you’re new to pairing wine with food. Bright Cellars provides a lot of great suggestions for what to eat with each bottle. And of course, wine is equally delicious on its own.
If you love wine but get intimidated by all the choices at your local wine shop, if you’re in a wine rut or want to learn more about wine, I definitely recommend checking out Bright Cellars. Use this link to get 50% off your first shipment, which is a great deal for wines of this quality.
I was not paid by Bright Cellars or given free wine in exchange for this review. I just like passing along cool new things I’m loving to you, my lovely readers. Cheers!