The wellsprings of Quality
There are 26 municipalities that belong to the Brachetto area – 8 of them in the province of Alessandria and 18 in the province of Asti – stretching from Acqui Terme and Nizza Monferrato, in south-eastern Piedmont, latitude 45° North. Here in the foot hills of the mountains, long known for their aromatic grape varieties, the vines grow lush on the particularly well-suited soils, as they have since ancient times; still today they are decorated with endless lines of embroidery-perfect rows, protected by the piedmont climate, with quite cold winters, hot summers, and generally mild springs and autumns, which cause the grapes to develop the right sugar content and remarkable aromatic compounds, that give Brachetto its delicate yet intense nose.
Upper Monferrato is characterized by a rather complex pattern of elevations, which create extremely diverse microclimates that play a key role in defining the traits of aromatic wines. Indeed, these traits develop differently depending on a number of factors, such as the vineyard’s elevation and exposure, which cause a different degree of light and heat absorption, or the proximity to a river, which, in some places, leads to persistent autumn fog and thus more humidity.
In this area, the soil contains varying proportions of sand, silt and clay, which affects the individual berries’ characteristics and their chemical composition.
There are white soils, rich in limestone, which yield elegant and refined wines; red soils, that play up the body, the alcohol content and the colour; sandy soils, which produce lighter and more fragrant wines. It is a very sensitive system, where minimal variations in the proportions of each single component can result in profound differences in wines that come from neighbouring vineyards.