No, not a chocolate-flavored wine, but a great wine to pair with chocolate, especially cake and cookies and other co
nfections. ‘Smores, perhaps? No need for stuffy gourmandise when the wine is as fun as a Brachetto d’Acqui.
If you’ve only seen one Brachetto d’Acqui, it was probably Rosa Regale, produced and imported by Banfi.
It has the advantage of being made in relatively large quantities and
being backed by a powerful and effective marketing empire. It’s also
delicious, featuring bright cherry and strawberry flavors and enticing
aromas of rose petals. It typically sells for about $18 – $20.
Brachetto has some other advantages as a dessert wine for your
Valentine’s dinner – it’s bright red color suggests romance, as do
the bubbles of its light mousse. It’s also low in alcohol – Rosa
Regale chimes in at 7 %, which is actually a tad high for Brachetto.
That means it won’t knock you out of contention for any post-dinner
activities.
And oh yes – any leftover Brachetto will do just nicely with breakfast the next morning.
I’ll have more recommendations for Brachetto and
other frothy sweet Italian reds throughout the week, and in this
Wednesday’s column in The Washington Post.
Dave McIntyre's WineLine 