Banfi Rosa Regale Brachetto d’Acqui 2007 & 2010

I’ve been holding onto a little 2007 350 ml since February 2009, never quite sure of when to pop it. In fact, I’d held onto it for so long that I’d begun to wonder if it would be any good.

Produced in the town of Acqui in the Piedmont region of Italy (DOCG), Brachetto d’Acqui is a slightly sweet sparkling red made from the Brachetto grape. It has a soft effervescence, produced by the Charmat method, where the secondary fermentation occurs in tanks just before bottling. Typically, this method is used for wines that are meant to be consumed young, hence my nervousness about having held onto it. Continue reading

Sweet Wines for Your Pumpkin Pie

Sweet wines have a bad reputation in the United States as cheap, watered-down alternatives to the more refined, dry styles. Keep your sticky white zins to yourself, I thought when I began getting interested in wine. I’ll drink my zippy sauvignon blancs and tannic cabernets. Continue reading