One way to understand the difference between ordinary vinegar and it's royal cousin TRADITIONAL BALSAMIC VINEGAR, is simply to look at the difference in the method of production.  Vinegar is succintly...sour wine..."vin aigre" in French...wine gone past it's prime....a fermentation of natural sugars to alcohol and then a second fermentation to vinegar.  

TRADITIONAL BALSAMIC VINEGAR can only be produced in the regions of Modena and Reggio Emilia. It  begins with must which is made by boiling grapes before they ferment.  Traditional grapes are harvested at the peak of sweetness and cooked in open vats until they've boiled down to one third it's volume. This concentrated juice is transferred to a series of wooden barrels.  The barrels are made of different woods that impart their own complexity of flavor and aroma....oak, chestnut, mulberry, cherry and juniper.  Each barrel has a hole in it to encourage evaporation.  They are progressively smaller to compensate for evaporation.  The barrels are kept in attics.  This is vital to the aging process.  The heat of the summer intensifies bacterial activity and evaporation and the cold of winter slows bacteria and allows sediment to settle to the bottom of the barrel. 

Production of TRADITIONAL BALSAMIC VINEGAR is regulated and safeguarded by a Consortium.  After critical tasting, barrels of TRADITIONAL BALSAMIC VINEGAR are graded .If they receive enough points, they are  bottled and labeled under the protective eye of the Consortium and earn the Italian Governments designated D.O.C. label and are assigned a color cap based on the number of years the vinegar has been aged. This is not a speedy process...in fact in Modena, they say "one generation makes balsamico for the next".

At GUSTIAMO, we prefer to use our TRADITIONAL BALSAMIC VINEGAR uncooked....a few drops on a small shard of Parmigiano, poured over vanilla ice cream, macerating fresh strawberries or just as one of the prime ingredients in the perfect salad dressing.

Along with Reggiano Parmiggiano and Prosciutto di Parma, TRADITIONAL BALSAMIC VINEGAR is part of one of Italy's Holy Trinity of food . All three are labor intensive and expensive, only the vinegar is used so sparingly that you could amortize it's purchase over a number of years.