Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
the nineteenth century, a very high-quality Bra-
chetto was described by both Gallesio and Di
Rovasenda in the coastal Nizza area, but we
have no way of knowing if it wasn't just regular
Brachetto. Nonaromatic
Brachetto
s (hence not
true
Brachetto
s at all, but rather other varieties
erroneously called Brachetto) include Brachèt
(Canavese area), Brachetto Valsusino (actually
Lambrusca di Alessandria), and, across the bor-
der in France near Nice, Brachet, a now very
rare variety (also spelled Braquet or Braquet
Noir). Brachetto is an ancient variety the exact
origin of which is unclear, and as we have seen,
the many different cultivars also called
Brachetto do not simplify matters for grape his-
torians and ampelographers. Furthermore,
Moscato Nero, which grows in the same areas
of Piedmont as the various
Brachetto
s, was his-
torically called Brachetto too, a mistake still
made today.
Brachetto's popularity was boosted
immensely by Arturo Bersano's late nine-
teenth-century decision to make a sparkling
version of brachetto using the Charmat
method, a wine that met with resounding suc-
cess—the house of Bersano is still a very
important producer of sparkling brachetto
today. Brachetto then fell on hard times due to
phylloxera and essentially disappeared from
production, only to reappear in full force in the
1980s.
Brachetto has a very large bunch, conical
(occasionally cylindrical), very long, and loosely
packed toward the tip, which is often forked;
Brachetto is easy to recognize in Piedmontese
vineyards because of its very round leaf. There
are three clones of Brachetto (AL-BRA 33, AL-
BRA 34, and CVT 20): of these, the CVT 20 is
characterized by higher sugar concentrations
when ripe and higher levels of aromatic mole-
cules such as geraniol, nerol, and citronellol.
Brachetto likes marly-calcareous soils with
plenty of clay, as in these sites the variety
unleashes all of its considerable aromatic poten-
tial (note that wines made on the left side of the
Tanaro River, in the Roero area of Piedmont,
are not produced with Brachetto, but with the
Brachettone variety). Brachetto Migliardi
(another related variety, well characterized by
Schneider, Soster, and Ricci 1994) is usually
mixed in with Brachetto in vineyards around
Acqui. It is not as rare as once believed; in fact a
good deal of brachetto may be made with large
doses of grapes from this variety rather than
Brachetto tout court. Brachetto Migliardi ripens
a little later than Brachetto and is more produc-
tive and vigorous. The general consensus is that
it is not as high quality as Brachetto.
Brachetto's home in Italy is the vineyards
around Asti and Alessandria, but the recog-
nized
grand cru
for it is Acqui Terme, a delight-
ful spa town that is well worth a visit. There are
actually rows grown in Emilia-Romagna too.
Elsewhere, Brachetto has been planted in Cali-
fornia, Argentina, and Australia.
Which Wines to Choose and Why
The best wines made with Brachetto are labeled
Brachetto d'Acqui and made in the vineyards of
eighteen towns in the Asti area and eight more
towns in the area around Alessandria, but Bra-
chetto d'Asti is often very good too. Brachetto
d'Acqui became a DOCG wine in 1996, while
the DOC wine Piemonte Brachetto was created
in 1994, allowing the wines made in and
around eighty-nine towns to be so labeled. That
an area so vast and so geologically and climati-
cally different could qualify to produce the
same wine tells you two things: fi rst, just how
popular Brachetto and its wine are with locals
(and politicians are never at a loss when it
comes to keeping potential voters happy) and
second, the uselessness of some DOC and
DOCG labels. Though these rules giving every-
one everywhere a chance to make brachetto
may have considerable short-term appeal, they
may not be in the best interests of the variety,
the wine, or ultimately, the producers them-
selves, who are inevitably going to be faced with
falling sales when people tire of yet another
lousy wine.
Brachetto can be made both as a still wine
and as a sparkler. The latter is delicately sweet
and not unlike a red version of Prosecco, though
