Acqui Wine Days
Three August evenings when Acqui's old town becomes an open-air tasting room — Brachetto d'Acqui DOCG and Moscato d'Asti poured among Roman ruins and Renaissance courtyards, with tango under the stars and a wine-and-astronomy night at the castle.
Why it's special
This is Brachetto d'Acqui's home ground — the sweet, fragrant red DOCG that few places outside the Acquese make well. Acqui Wine Days pours it (and Moscato) where the town is prettiest, curated by the Enoteca Regionale Acqui 'Terme e Vino'.
Programme · 2026
Three days of tastings, guided tours and music across the historic centre and the Castello dei Paleologi, curated by the Enoteca Regionale Acqui "Terme e Vino".
- The Saturday 'A Taste of Acqui' walking tasting sells a fixed number of glass-and-pass tickets — buy ahead through the Enoteca Regionale.
- Monday's Calici di Stelle at the castle is the quiet, romantic one; the tango night on Sunday is where the town turns out.
Brachetto d'Acqui is the wine most people can't quite place — a light, sweet, faintly fizzy red that smells of roses and strawberries, and that almost nobody makes well outside these hills. For three August evenings Acqui pours it (and Moscato d'Asti) exactly where you'd want to drink it: in Renaissance courtyards, beside the Roman theatre, under the arcades of the old town. The Enoteca Regionale Acqui "Terme e Vino" runs the wine side, so what's in the glass is the real regional roll-call, not a random pour.
Saturday's "A Taste of Acqui" is the anchor — a walking tasting that leads you glass by glass through the Palazzo Levi courtyard, the archaeological museum and the Birdgarden, each wine set against a bit of the town's history. Buy the pass ahead through the Enoteca; the numbers are capped.
Sunday belongs to tango — "Calici di Tango", a milonga under the stars in Piazza Italia — and Monday closes quietly up at the Castello dei Paleologi with Calici di Stelle: wine, music and someone pointing a telescope at the August sky. It's an adult sort of festival, unhurried and a little romantic. More on the town at Acqui Terme.