Friday, February 12, 2016

Sparkle your Valentine's Day with Brachetto of the Roero with Demarie

Valentine's Day is this month and I'm sure everyone's well aware as the stores quickly move out all the Christmas items and start marketing the next holiday so quickly.  Personally I've always believed it's one of those holidays that is more for retail than anything else, but in light of the holiday I'm going to get your brain going on an idea for some bubbly to add some fun to this years Valentine's Day whether you're celebrating it with a loved one, friends or just alone.  There is nothing like hearing the cork pop on a bottle of wine or bubbly to get an evening started.

Sparkling wines from Italy, mostly prosecco, have really increased in being imported to the United States over the years.  It's usually one of the first things you think of when you think of sparkling wines in Italy.  There are other options as well including Franciacorta of the Lombardy region that rivals the champagnes of France and also you can go for Moscato d'Asti and Brachetto d'Acqui of the Piedmont region.   Today we're going to focus on the brachetto grape with a wine from the Demarie winery of Piedmont that I received from Uva Imports. 

What is brachetto?
Brachetto is a red and very aromatic grape that can be find as a still wine or sparkling mostly in the Piedmont region.  You typically see it labeled as frizzante or spumante.  Frizzante means slightly sparking where spumante is sparkling.  Within Piedmont it’s mostly produced in the towns and areas of the Roero, where the Demarie winery is, as well as Asti and Acqui.    
Demarie Birbet Brachetto for Valentines Day
The Demarie winery in the area of the Roero of Piedmont I've written about previously on my blog when I've sampled through some of their other wines, but today I'm sharing with you their sparkling wine called Birbet, which is a Brachetto d’Alba.  It's a sparkling rose based 100% on the brachetto grape.    With only 6.5% alcohol by volume this wine can be the perfect way to end your meal, especially paired with chocolate.  I have a sweet tooth myself and if you’re full from your meal it’s sometimes nice to finish with a dessert wine such as this that is a lighter style dessert wine and refreshing than some of the other unctuous dessert wines you may have tried before.  


What to pair Brachetto with?
Demarie recommends pairing this wine with dry pastries or hazelnut cake. Any sort of dessert with strawberries and/or raspberries topped with some rich cream.  It pairs really well with chocolate covered strawberries too.  
Wine pairing with chocolate covered strawberries
Plus, check out this amazing Walnut Tart receipe I've made in the past that was simply delicious with Brachetto.
brachetto d'acqui food pairing
You can find wines made from the brachetto grape in hopefully many of your local wine shops so get out there and pick up a bottle of this sparkling wine this Valentine's Day.  Even if you have someone on your list who isn’t a big wine drinker they may be surprised to enjoy this wine because of the lower alcohol levels and higher amount of residual sugars so it may be more appealing to someone with a sweeter tooth.  

Plus, Demarie is one of the participating wineries in a Piedmont Wine Giveaway: 12 bottles of wine in Lazenne wine luggage.  Who doesn't love free stuff, nevermind wine bottles from Italy?



Don't stop there!  There are lots more Valentine Day pairings for you to consider this weekend.   Plus, join our live chat on Twitter Saturday February 13th at 11am @ #winepw.  See you then!

Jade from Tasting Pour:
David of Cooking Chat
Cindy from Grape Experiences:
Join us for a live Valentine's Wine Pairing Twitter chat at 11 a.m. ET on Saturday, February 13, using the hashtag #winePW. And get ready for the March #winePW, where we will share our Open That Bottle Night experiences. Check out the upcoming and past Wine Pairing Weekend events on this page.

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