Brachetto

Brachetto is Piedmont's fragrant sweet red, the grape behind Brachetto d'Acqui — a lightly sparkling, low-alcohol dessert wine that smells unmistakably of ripe strawberry and rose petals. Pale cherry-red with a soft pink foam, it is delicately sweet, gently frizzante and remarkably light on its feet, usually only 5.5 to 7 percent alcohol. Made in the aromatic mould of a red Moscato, it is a wine of pure perfume and easy charm: floral, berry-scented and lightly fizzy, meant to be poured cold and drunk young. Long a romantic house pour of the Monferrato hills, it is the friendly, festive face of Italian dessert wine — sweet without weight, and irresistibly aromatic.