One of the discriminating factors between falling in love and love is time. It is easy to fall in love with traditional balsamic vinegar, however it takes more to love it, just as the same when you decide to dive in the deep after having being fascinated by the beauty of the sea. After having met vinegar, even by chance, it takes culture, curiosity and an open mind, the will to understand the meaning of long time, patience of waiting, the will to mix a piece of your vital processes with this product, taking its origin from nature which however needs attention and care (just like us), in order to make the decision to take it with us in our journey.

 This is what happens to a young accountant with a degree from Bocconi University (Milan, Italy) and having a pretty marginal interest for wine and its products, when Modena's balsamic vinegar crosses his way. From that meeting born an initial and discrete interest, however enough to light the sparkle of a growing curiosity. It is then revealed a story dated back to the fifteenth century, of a food the brides of the higher society of Modena and Reggio Emilia brought with them as a dowry. A story made of ancient traditions and that patriarchal families passed from a generation to another, passing the invaluable heritage of the set of small barrels required to make vinegar according the recipe every family secretly kept as a distinctive mark. A truly fascinating story which led our young accountant to write his own story to be added to such an important story: an attempt of personal production (and with the risk of ending up being ambitious) in Lodi, his city, in Lombardy, Italy, in order to replicate the legend of Modena's balsamic vinegar.

 He studies a lot, he gets the wine and three small barrels (the minimum number required by vinegar productive laws) and begins his adventure. Life sometimes does not care about our will or our expectations, sometimes has different plans for us. It will be then his father, with his sorrow, to let his son's dreams come true, made of projects and sketches, in order not to send them in the dark of a tormenting sorrow. It may seem not that much, but it is the only way left to him in order to continue considering himself a father, to take care of his son's dreams and to put all of his efforts in those projects and, in my opinion, the will of passing to his granddaughters the interest for ancient traditions. He has no doubts: he sets up a proper loft, with no heating system, as set by the production disciplinary and, after having completed it, also sets up seven barrels made of different woods and with a decreasing size. In the bigger barrel will be kept the younger product, in the smaller one the mature vinegar. A set of barrels made like this: cherry wood (50 liters), ash wood (40 liters), oak (30 liters), acacia (25 liters), mulberrytree (15 liters), juniper wood (15 liters), oak (10 liters) and destined to the evolution and aging of vinegar.

The set of barrels used for the production of traditional balsamic vinegar

 He contacts a vinegar maker in Modena and therefore gets some cooked must - obtained from the indigenous Trebbiano di Spagna grape - which will be kept in the barrel, currently defined in Modena as “Badessa” (Italian for “abbess”), the bigger of the set and destined to feed and support all the other ones. The method, in fact, provides for the integration of the liquid fractions evaporated with time or drawn off from the last barrel (the smaller of the set) by replacing it with the product of the preceding barrels, with an equal quantity of vinegar. The system is similar to the Soleras method used for the production of Sherry (Jerez) or Marsala.

 After having obtaining the supervision of the productive phases, production techniques and the control of the many processes, the story started by the son can finally be written, with scruple, daily attention and a loving care. Finally, traditional balsamic vinegar, born in Modena and adopted in Lodi, reaches in 2009 the goal of the minimum aging of 12 years and it is now ready for tasting by drawing it off from the smaller barrel. Here they are the organoleptic notes I written in its identifying card, fruit of the very personal tasting I did as a sommelier and without any claim of being official. In fact, in this case it would be needed the title of traditional balsamic vinegar expert taster, a title I don't possess. It is just a simple attempt, made with the humbleness of a passionate lover of His Majesty Modena's traditional balsamic vinegar:

 Appearance: dark and brilliant brown color, very limpid, good and syrupy density;

 Smell: fine aromas, pleasing, balanced and persistent supported by a good acidity promptly balanced by a round touch;

 Taste: sweet and sour, harmonic; the attack is acid and seems to prevail over the rest, rapidly replaced by round flavors and producing a balance for a very long time in which can be perceived balsamic and spicy flavors with a correspondence to the aromas perceived to the nose;

 Overall: a product still young and in evident evolution, with a strong attack followed by a round sensation on a pleasing acidity hard to forget.

 Our traditional balsamic vinegar produced in Lodi, has something more than its noble brother of Modena. To the taste-olfactory sensations is added the charm of the heart: the meeting of someone capable of being a generous and discreet fellow, capable of sharing his life and to mix up personal stories, different and sometimes complicate, in an unique vital project in continuous evolution, thanks to a mutual exchange of energy and emotions. For this reason, it cannot be, and does not want to be, considered in any way as a commercial product, as it is just a product of personal sentiments and of disinterested relationships in order to show, once again, the strong connection between wine culture and history of man.