The Wine Named After a Lemon Blossom: Why the Vermentino Zagare Is Nectar Edinburgh's Answer to "Do You Have a Dry White Wine?"

We get this question more than almost any other at the bar.

Do you have a dry white wine?

The honest answer is yes, several, and most of the whites on the Nectar list are technically dry. But over the course of the first year I have understood what this question actually means, and it is not a question about sugar content or winemaking technique. It is a question about feeling. The person asking it wants something light, crisp, clean, and easy to drink. Something that feels like the right choice for a warm evening rather than a considered intellectual exercise. Something that tastes like it knows what it is there to do.

The conventional answer in almost any bar is to offer the house white. At Nectar, the house white is a Pinot Grigio, and it is a perfectly good Pinot Grigio that sells more than any other wine on the list. But the conventional answer, in my opinion, is not always the best answer. And when someone tells me they want something dry and refreshing and asks what I would recommend, I almost always take them somewhere else first.

I take them to the Vermentino Zagare.

The grape and where it actually comes from

Vermentino is not a grape that most people in Scotland have encountered, and that gap between how good it is and how widely it is known is exactly the kind of opportunity I find most enjoyable to introduce people to.

Vermentino is Sardinia's greatest gift to the wine world: seductively textured, crisp, and lemony, increasingly popular in the bars of London, New York, and San Francisco. The grape's heartland is the Italian coastline: its main homes are the island of Sardinia and the Maremma area of Tuscany, and because it grows in the sea breeze it carries an appealing, almost saline minerality that makes it the finest partner for seafood.

The Zagare version comes not from Sardinia but from Sicily's west coast, which tells you something specific about why it tastes the way it does. The vineyards face the sea to benefit from light reflected from the waves. Vermentino thrives near the sea, such as on Sicily's west coast where these grapes are cultivated. Fermentation is in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks followed by a short period on fine lees. The stainless steel, as with the Viña Salort Albariño, preserves the natural character of the grape rather than adding the vanilla and caramel of oak ageing. What you taste is the grape itself: direct, clean, and entirely coastal in character.

Vermentino has naturally high acidity, which diminishes very little during the winemaking process. The high acidity expresses itself as lemon and lime juice with some grapefruit pulp on the finish.

The name

Zagare means the white flower of the lemon tree in Italian.

The moment you know that, the wine makes complete sense. The blossom of the lemon tree is the stage just before the fruit: intensely fragrant, delicate, and carrying the promise of the citrus sharpness that follows it. It is one of the most distinctive scents of a Mediterranean spring morning, and it is exactly the aromatic register that the Vermentino Zagare occupies: floral, citrus-forward, alive with the kind of freshness that reminds you that the sea is not far from the vineyard.

The name was not chosen by accident. It is a description of the wine more precise than

most tasting notes.

What it tastes like

A glass of Vermentino will offer lively aromas of pear, white peach, lime and pink grapefruit with subtle notes of crushed rocks and citrus zest. On the palate, Vermentino is almost always dry and somewhat oily with flavours of grapefruit and citrus, with a crushed rocky minerality and saltiness.

The Zagare is particularly expressive in the lemon register, which is the quality I have noticed from the first tasting: you taste the lemon properly, not as a background note but as a defining presence. The flavour profile is dominated by a lively, almost electrifying acid structure that gives the wine its characteristic freshness. Citrus aromas, above all lemon, lime and grapefruit, form the aromatic backbone, accompanied by green apple and white peach. What truly distinguishes Vermentino is its salty minerality: on the palate a fascinating salinity unfolds that recalls sea salt and oyster shells, lending the wine an almost maritime quality.

Ripe stone fruit aromas with preserved lemon characters and floral notes. The palate has bright citrus peel and peach characters, an appealing texture and minerality, fresh acidity and a gently savoury finish.

That savoury finish is the detail that separates Vermentino from other crisp whites and the quality that makes it so extraordinarily well-suited to food. It does not simply provide refreshment and then disappear. It lingers with a slightly mineral, slightly salty quality that makes you want to eat something alongside it. And then, almost automatically, it makes the food taste better.

Why it is the answer to the Sauvignon Blanc question

The other version of the dry white question at Nectar goes like this: do you have a Sauvignon Blanc by the glass?

We do, technically: the Assyrtiko Sauvignon Blanc from Greece is one of the most exciting whites on the list. But it is sold by the bottle only, because it is the kind of wine that rewards being opened and allowed to develop over a full evening rather than being poured as a single glass in isolation.

The Vermentino Zagare is the by-the-glass answer for the person who wants that same register of fresh, crisp, mineral, citrus-driven white wine. Citrus of lemon and grapefruit, white flowers, and herbs: crisp and dry, with a refreshing lift welcome in the warm season. It is not Sauvignon Blanc, and it does not pretend to be, but it satisfies the same instinct and does so with a grape and a story that are considerably more interesting than the more familiar alternative.

In summer especially, this is the wine that flies. People want something cooling, something that provides an immediate physical sensation of refreshment rather than warmth and weight. Vermentino embodies the Mediterranean lifestyle and brings the essence of sunshine, sea and Italian joie de vivre directly into the glass. On a warm Edinburgh evening, which happens more often than visitors expect and which the Nectar terrace is designed for, that quality is the most desirable thing a wine can offer.

How we chose it and what it goes with

During our first wine tasting before Nectar opened, we tasted the Vermentino Zagare alongside a simple salad. The combination was, in retrospect, completely obvious: the wine's acidity and its slightly herbal, citrus-forward character sat alongside the freshness of the salad in a way that made both taste more like themselves. No competition between the food and the drink. Just two things that belonged together.

Since then it has been on the menu paired with the lighter dishes, and it has consistently earned that position. The kolokithokeftedes, our zucchini patties with mint, feta, and spring onion, are the current pairing. Vermentino thrives alongside the green flavours of the Mediterranean. The mint in the kolokithokeftedes and the herbal quality of the wine echo each other, and the feta's saltiness connects to the wine's own saline finish in the specific way that a good pairing does: each element amplifying something already present in the other.

The absolute pairing with Vermentino is grilled sea bass with lemon and sea salt. The wine's citrus notes act as a liquid garnish, while its oily texture complements the flaky richness of the fish. For anyone building a table at Nectar that includes the sea bass, this is the by-the-glass white to consider alongside it, alongside the Viña Salort Albariño which performs a similar role from a different angle.

The cheese filo pastry also works beautifully: the honey and the sesame provide sweetness and warmth that the wine's acidity cuts through cleanly, and the feta in the pastry mirrors the saline finish of the wine in the same way it does with the kolokithokeftedes.

The wine for people who think they know what they want

There is a particular pleasure in recommending the Vermentino Zagare to someone who came in asking for a dry white wine and expecting a Pinot Grigio, watching them try it, and seeing the slight surprise that follows.

Not because it is dramatically different or challenging. But because it is better than what they expected, and better in a way that is immediately legible. Crisper. More alive. More specific in its citrus. More present on the finish. A wine that actually tastes of somewhere, of a coastline and a sea breeze and the blossom of a lemon tree, rather than a wine that simply tastes of dry white.

Most people who try it on the recommendation do not go back to Pinot Grigio that evening. That is the most reliable indicator of quality available in a bar: not reviews or scores or tasting notes, but what people order when they have a choice and have already tasted both.

Book a table at Nectar Bar and ask for the Vermentino. Tell us you want something dry and refreshing and see what we say.

Opening hours Tuesday to Thursday: 5pm to 11pm Friday: 5pm to 1am Saturday: 12pm to 1am Sunday: 12pm to 11pm Monday: Closed