“When in Modena, if you ask someone what is the best vinegar ever, the answer is easy: ‘Mine.’” So says Cristina Sereni, laughing. Sereni is a former master taster of traditional balsamic vinegar and the director of the Museum of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar.
If you are a casual fan of balsamic vinegar, I may have some troubling news for you: Most likely, whatever you are using is not the traditional form, but rather one blended with wine vinegar, something Italians would consider a condiment or ingredient to use in cooking. I have at least three varieties of that in my cupboard and use it frequently in salads and other dishes.
The Real Deal
True, traditional balsamic vinegar comes at a dear cost in a 3.3-ounce (100-milliliter) globelike bottle—a hand grenade of deliciousness, black gold if there ever were such a thing. It’s doled out in precious drops and clearly labeled for authenticity.Much like Champagne, you can’t put “balsamic vinegar of Modena” on a vinegar that is not produced in its home region. But there are two distinctions for Modena: balsamic vinegar of Modena PGI (protected geographical indication—IGP on an Italian label) and traditional balsamic vinegar of Modena PDO (protected designation of origin—or DOP). The former allows for blending with wine vinegar, and is more affordable; the latter is made strictly with grape must (crushed grapes with skins, stems, and all), aged at least 12 years, and even judged for quality.
But the tradition is a lot older than these labels, and it’s been kept alive by generations of home producers.
Home Brew
Sereni guides me through the museum, which is also headquarters to the consortium that judges the DOP traditional balsamic vinegar of Modena. That said, she’s telling me about traditional vinegars you won’t find at a store even in Italy.She shows me a series of five barrels descending in size. This is a “battery,” she tells me. “Tradition says that any time a baby girl is born, we should start a new set. Today, we don’t mind the gender, but in the past, it was just for baby girls.”
The process begins with the fall grape harvest. The crushed must is cooked down by a third or more to raise sugar levels to about 30 percent, then sealed in a large bottle and cellared until spring. When the temperatures reach the 60s, this liquid is poured into the first, largest barrel, filling it about halfway, and the hole in the top is left open or covered with only a cloth to allow evaporation. Thus, natural fermentation begins, and in a few weeks, it is vinegar. This is the mother barrel, and families give them feminine names. In Sereni’s house, they had a Lucia (after her mother) and a Rosaria (after her grandmother).
The following year, a portion of the mother barrel moves to the next smaller barrel, and the new batch is blended into the mother. This process continues annually, and after many years, that small one at the end is eventually producing a small amount of old but blended vinegar, taking more and more flavor from the woods, which range from oak, mulberry, and juniper to ash, acacia, and cherry.
“When girls grew up and got married, they moved their sets into the new house. It was part of the dowry,” Sereni says. And sometimes it still is! “The first time that vinegar [was] used was on the wedding day, to show the guests how good it was.”
I ask about Sereni’s family.
“My grandmother made it,“ she says. ”We had to skip a generation because my mother didn’t like it.”
But she didn’t learn it from her grandmother.
“I lived in England for a while,” she confesses. “When I came back, I had lost my barrels. According to my grandmother, my barrels had been given to my cousin because I was a bad girl [for leaving].”
Sereni bought the barrels back and learned to manage them.
“I wanted to go back to my roots. I came [to the museum] because I could speak English.” She became a volunteer and helped them with foreign tourists, and eventually, they made her the director.
A Source of Pride
Historical records date back to the Roman Empire.“What Romans called wine was, after time, vinegar. To keep drinking it, they cut what they had with honey if they were rich enough. Otherwise, they came to Modena to buy our cooked grape must. So we know we were already known for what we were doing,” Sereni says.
The tradition at the commercial level is basically identical to a local maker’s. For the DOP label, everything must be made in Modena, with only local grapes. And for the pros, everything is controlled, from the vineyard to the bottling phase; producers cannot bottle their own.
“They have to bring it here to the consortium, where five expert master tasters will evaluate the quality,“ Sereni says. ”If they all agree about the quality, then it can be bottled and it will be bottled in a special bottle.” In fact, the museum itself has barrel sets stored in the attic. (Balsamic vinegar likes the seasonal heat and is never stored with wine, which prefers cool cellars and would be infected by the vinegar.)
“Because it is so intense, we use it in drops. We never cook it. Heat would destroy the flavor. On parmesan cheese, a few drops make a very good appetizer.” Or a few drops work well on strawberries, risotto, chocolate, or ice cream.
But interestingly enough, Sereni hasn’t really tasted her own finished product yet.
“When we start a new set, we are not doing it for ourselves; it’s for future generations,“ she says. ”It’s a heritage we are leaving.”
The DOP traditional balsamic vinegar of Modena has been aged at least 12 years. Anything aged at least 25 years is also labeled “extravecchio” (extra old). But there is no exact number of years for them, since the process always yields a blend of different ages.
“We confuse the age of the barrels with the age of the vinegar,“ Sereni explains. ”You will hear people say, ‘My vinegar has been aged 20 years, 50 years, 200 years.’ What they’re telling you, in fact, is the age of their barrels. Probably also the age of their grandma.”
And pride is on the line. “We have a contest every year, [where] families bring a sample.” They had 1,636 different vinegars entered in 2022. The final 12 have been tasted 42 times. It takes quite a long time. After six, you really need to stop and take a break. “The final 12 are tasted in one day—but it takes one day.”
The winner receives a diploma, a medal, and a spoon of gold.
