According to the tradition, Chiaretto origins go back to the 19th century when Pompeo Molmenti, a lawyer and writer who had a vineyard on Lake Garda, started producing it. It was 1896. However, the most ancient local document mentioning the word “Chiaretto” related to wine is the “Crusca Veronese” vocabulary printed in Verona 9 years before, in 1806.
In 1968 Bardolino Chiaretto was amongst the first appellations in Italy to be awarded the Doc in recognition of the wine’s historic tradition and quality. Since 2014 harvest, Chiaretto winemakers have put into effect the “Rosé Revolution”, giving the wine a very pale pink colour and more aromatic and floral notes. Nowadays, Chiaretto is a popular wine, leader in the Italian rosé sector, showing a 10 million bottles production per year. It is mainly sold in Italy and Germany, with an important increase in the U.S., Canadian and Scandinavian markets.
In Italian language “chiaro” means “pale”. Chiaretto means something beyond pale, “a lighter shade of pale”. The light colour is due to a limited contact of the must with the grapes’ skin, where the pigment is found. Chiaretto offers consumers the chance to enjoy a rosé from Italian indigenous red varieties, namely Corvina which is the primary red grape used for Chiaretto along with other grapes such as Rondinella and Molinara. Freshness and citrus fruits are Chiaretto main features. Its fragrances range from flowers to herbaceous tones, from citrus fruits to apricots and wild berries, all accompanied by hints of spice, like cinnamon, cloves or vanilla. On the palate, Chiaretto offers youthful, mouth-watering freshness.
But where does this freshness comes from? The mistery about minerality can be solved when having a closer look at the soil. The morainic hills where Corvina is grown were created by ancient glaciers which took the rocks from the mountains and moved them downwards. Therefore, despite being produced in the very mild climate of Lake Garda smooth hills, surrounded by olive groves, Chiaretto can be considered a wine from the mountains.
Soil and lake breezes, vinegrowers’ ability and high technology have allowed to create a rosé wine that can stand up even to the most demanding wine lovers. Take the chance to taste the only Mediterranean rosé with Alpine origins, take the chance to taste Chiaretto.