Soo…my husband and I were celebrating my birthday last year. Due to my addiction to pasta, we had Italian, of course. We have the most fabulous restaurant in Astoria – real Italians, fresh pasta,  chef named Rocco. Absolutely perfect.

To celebrate, we got the dessert you pay for but they put a candle in (a superbly light lemon ricotta cheesecake), and they brought out complimentary sparkling dessert wine. I wasn’t thrilled because I thought I hated dessert wines. I mean, I already had dessert, so what was the point? My husband wasn’t too thrilled, considering he hates wine in general. But he loves things with bubbles in it. So he tried it. And we both loved it! It was like a sparkling grape juice – light and slightly sweet, but not too sweet.

Brachetto is a red grape grown in Italy, in the Piedmont region (mountains).  Brachetto d’Acqui, which is what we drank, is a DOCG wine.  (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita.) This is a step above their DOC wines. It’s light, strawberry-ish, and really nice. I don’t recommend this with a lemon cheesecake, like I had, but it was fabulous. Love, love , love this wine.

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