Thanks to Wine Chap Richard Payne, for introducing me to Brachetto, my new favorite summer drink. A sparkling red from Italy, Brachetto has a creamy fizz, strawberry flavor and burgundy hue that place it somewhere in the beverage pantheon among, oh, I don't know, rosé and Cheerwine. (And I say that with the true affection of a lifelong Cheerwine devotee.)
Legend associates Brachetto with Julius Caesar, who allegedly used the wine, made from grapes harvested in Itay's Piemonte region, to court Cleopatra. With its sweet-but-not-too-sweet taste and relatively low alcohol (around 6 percent), you can imagine Brachetto going over well at all-night toga parties and earning its reputation as a wine for passion and romance. (In British slang, fruity alcoholic beverages applied thusly are known as "knicker-droppers," an expression I'm sure the Wine Chap—himself a Brit—knows but was far too genteel to use. Instead he recommended it as "a sparkling red that goes well with anything chocolate." Sold!)
The particular Brachetto I tasted was a San Pancrazio 2008, which retails for $17 at The Wine Chap in the new Hill Center in Belle Meade, and the Chap stocks a variety between $17 and $23.
