Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena is at risk

Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena is at risk. Apparently, everybody is aware of the top quality and incredible taste of our delicacy. Abroad, in fact, a lot of people want to reproduce it, labelling it as actual „Traditional Balsamic Vinega“. Keep on reading!

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Lately, there have been a lot of threats coming from abroad and concerning Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena. One of the main producers, Armando De Negris, states that nowadays Traditional Balsamic Vinegar can be bottled up anywhere. For this reason, it is fundamental to circumscribe the bottling to the region Emilia.

Besides, the resigning President Stefano Berni declared that producers didn’t always stick to the rules that were given. More precisely, it was decided that the word “balsamic“ would have been cut off of all the labels of those condiments that weren’t made only with vinegar. In I.G.P. Products, there shall be a 20% to 90% of cooked must, and wine vinegar from 80% to 20%. In order to realize the dark colour, you can also add vinegar aged 10 years and 20% of caramel.

This variable recipe leads to variable prices and to confusion as well. In supermarkets, you can find a 250ml of IGP product at a price of 1 or 2 euros and other vinegars at 30 euros. This creates doubts, labels in fact don’t help with the choice at all. I.G.P., for example, can be either „refined“, which means that it was in wood barrels for 3 months, or „aged“, which means it was in the barrels for 3 years. However, on the labels you cannot write the aging period, you only see the name of the product, so IGP, without specifying the agind.

Foreigners not only buy, but also try to copy these traditional products. Some of them are surprised in front of high prices, when they can find the same product at a much lower price. However, once they taste the traditional product, all their doubts vanish.

Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena is at risk, but it is also encouraged by tours in vinegar cellars, experiences where people can see the actual production of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar, products and processes’ explainations and so on. Most of producers believe that only with clearly stated rules and only by respecting these rules there’s the prossibility to produce better Traditional Balsamic Vinegar and to actually save it from imitations.

L-Originale Balsamic Vinegar of Modena: www.l-originale.com