In modern times, in 1817, naturalist Georges Gallesio defined it the RENOWNED WINE, and classified it as a dessert wine, low in alcohol and faintly coloured, which, when aged, tasted like port or sherry. Gallesio also reports that Brachetto, sweet or sparkling, was known and successfully traded on the markets of South America: hence the production at that time cannot have been at all negligible. Brachetto’s first official definition dates back to 1922, when Garino Canina finally gave a true scientific classification: “... In the family of fine wines as a whole, Brachetto belongs to the category of sweet, aromatic red wines. It has a very distinctive bouquet,a moderate alcohol and sugar content, and a pale colour. It is most frequently enjoyed in its bubbly or sparkling version…”
Among the various pieces of information that Canina provided, which are very relevant from the historical standpoint, one of the most interesting has to do with the fact that Brachetto was mostly grown in the areas around Acqui and Nizza Monferrato, and that, surprisingly enough, the saleable production was only 50,000 litres.
What had caused this wine to disappear, when only 50 years before it had been actively exported?
At the end of World War I, the “phylloxera plague” had devastated the vineyards. So, when the time came to replant them, the winegrowers chose other varieties, with greater market appeal, instead of Brachetto, which required special care and attention. Brachetto fell back into oblivion again. Its reawakening is very recent history. Around the 1950s, on the hills of southern Piedmont, where niche production had continued to serve a few connoisseurs, a tradition-loving, farsighted producer by the name of Arturo Bersano developed a pressure tank-processed style of sparkling Brachetto according to the Charmat method. From then on, Brachetto has perpetuated its fame as a protagonist among the great aromatic wines, made recognizable by its unique characteristics and much appreciated by the most refined palates.