Description
Traditional Balsamic Aceto from the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna is one of the most attractive gourmet products in the world, whose origin is lost in the dark corridors of gourmet history.
Due to the intense and effective marketing of Italian producers, many consumers equate balsamic vinegar with the Italian product, when in reality the aromatic vinegars called “balsamic” have been produced throughout Europe for centuries.
Balsamic vinegar, which uses concentrated grape must in the production process, can be made in different ways, and many times, the final product has a unique flavor profile that varies greatly from the sweet Italian Aceto Tradizionale.
In Spain, for example, traditional sweet and sour vinegar is made by aging grape must in individual oak barrels, rather than using the solera system imported to Italy from Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz) in the second half of the 19th century.
The solera process of passing the must through a ladder of barrels with new must added each year to the first barrel (the ones on top) and from there to the ones below until reaching the row of floor where the oldest must is found. or older, and it is from these barrels that the must is extracted to mix it with vinegar with a high acetic content to achieve a balance and obtain a balsamic vinegar.
The process and products in Spain are uniquely different. At Marqués de Valdueza the main difference between our bittersweet-balsamic vinegar and a balsamic vinegar is that we only use our red grapes (never mixed with white varieties) from our vineyard. Both the grape varieties and the production process are radically different, since we age our must in individual barrels (not in a solera system) with a large contact surface with oxygen for at least 12 years to reach the desired concentration before mixing it. with our own high acidity vinegar (around 12 degrees) to finally achieve a mixture of about 6º acidity, which is what is required by law to consider it vinegar and not a condiment or sauce.
We hope that the effort and commitment that we have put into this project for so many years is to your liking and that you enjoy it every day on your plates.
