Since different cultivars (either with aromatic or neutral flavour) are designated Brachetto, it is hard to relate the historical information about Brachetto to the one we are dealing with here. A Brachetto 'with a special aroma' described by Giorgio Gallesio (1817-39) must be identified with a different grape variety giving rise to the famous dessert wine Bellet, produced near Nice in France. During his journeys across Italy for the inventory of fruit and grape cultivars, however, Gallesio noticed the presence in different areas of the Asti and Alessandria province of an aromatic Brachetto, whose grape concisely described when he saw it near Costigliole d'Asti in September 1834 (1995, posthumous publication). This is the first mention of a grape variety named Brachetto in Piedmont. An aromatic Brachetto grown in the Alessandria province was also quoted a little later by Demaria and Leardi (1875). Although incorrectly believed identical to the Brachet from Nice, the description given by these authors seems to correspond to “our” Brachetto. This variety is included in the National Register of Grape Varieties and officially described by Dalmasso and associates (1960).

About the homonyms Brachetto, Dalmasso wrote: "he is one of those varieties that gave much to do to the ampelographers, because more than one of them had confused it with other grapevines completely different" (Dalmasso et al., 1960).

More recently at least four distinct aromatic grapes named Brachetto have been observed and described in Piedmont (Schneider et al., 1990, 1994): Brachetto (or Brachetto from Acqui), the only officially recognized; the so-called Brachetto Migliardi, named from a common surname in the town of Montabone (Acqui), cultivated in the same areas of the previous and often mixed up in the same vineyards; the “Brachetto with long cluster” (or Brachettone) present in the Roero, north of Tanaro river; and finally a late ripening Brachetto from Nizza Monferrato. Among the non-aromatic grapes named Brachetto, the Brachet from Canavese (syn. Chatus), the one from Valle Susa (syn. Lambrusca of Alexandria) and the Braquet from the surroundings of Nice (France) behind the reputed wine Bellet, have to be mentioned.

The Brachetto described here is the one mostly planted, currently accounting around 1200 ha all gathered in the south-eastern Piedmont (ISTAT, 2010). It could be this acreage also includes some of the Brachetto Migliardi previously mentioned. Nearby Canelli, the ‘true’ Brachetto (Brachetto d’Acqui) is called with the misleading appellation of 'Borgogna' (namely 'Burgundy').

Brachetto is an early ripening variety, whose grapes present an aromatic flavour with prevalence of geraniol and nerol, good acidity, and an anthocyanin profile where malvidin and peonidin dominate (Mannini et al., 2012).

Brachetto gives the dessert sparkling wines Brachetto d'Acqui, displaying fragrant floral and fruity aromas, and more or less pronounced residual sugar. Since 2011 a DOP Brachetto Passito can be produced.