Brescia’s Chiaretto Origin Confirmed by 200-Year-Old Document
The article by Prof. Ottorino Milesi published in the latest issue of the Rassegna di Viticoltura, a quarterly magazine issued by the Centro Vitivinicolo Provinciale di Brescia, currently in distribution, is sure to generate interest and controversy. The topic concerns a rare document about Chiaretto that, on one hand, refutes Pompeo Molmenti’s claims of pioneering research on Chiaretto del Garda, and on the other confirms the Brescia Garda as the birthplace of Chiaretto italiano.
The document, published as an authentic copy, dates back approximately 200 years. Recently, someone falsely claimed—writes Milesi, among other things, in his article on Valtenesi: territory and its wines—that relatively young traditions are only known and documented from the 1920s. Here is the refutation, backed by a document nearly two centuries old, kindly provided by the archive of Bogliaco dei Conti Bettoni.
Content and method described in the document
Many were aware of the document, but no one had given it the importance that Prof. Milesi, as a renowned expert on the subject, has attributed to it regarding the Note for making Claret wine. The process involves selecting the ripest grapes of different sorts, removing any green, dried, or rotten grains, placing them in a vat, then removing them to extract pure grape must for winemaking.
I note that the Musts are perfectly clean and without any odor, and then left to boil for 35/40 days. One of the main diligence measures—the anonymous chronicler writes—is to fill the barrel once, twice, or even three times a day, as boiling causes the cap to recede, and the sediment that often makes the wine sour and unpleasant is discarded.
Advice and further procedures
Of course, the advice given by our anonymous author continues to recommend various procedures, such as extracting the wine around mid-April, noting that when the wine is drawn from a barrel, the entire quantity should be drawn out until it is clear, then bottled tightly.
Naturally, the magazine, which has been completely revised in graphics and content, also features other articles of particular interest in the vitivinicultural sector, spanning from Wine Economics and Politics to Legislation and Protection and Legislation and Business.
Of particular interest are Ampelography, Marketing, and Phytopathology, as well as a section dedicated to Agricultural Technical Assistance. The periodical is distributed exclusively via postal mail and can be requested from the secretariat of the Centro Vitivinicolo at Viale Bornata.
