Lets leave a part for a moment the 12 and 25 year old Traditional Balsamic Vinegars (BV) produced under the supervision of the Consorzio of Traditional BV and bottled in the unique Giugiaro bottle.

The other BV from Modena known as Commercial is regulated in Italy by a production legislation, which in our opinion is misleading.

In fact by law you are allowed to add up to 2% of Caramel to the recipes without even declaring it on the label!!  You can imagine how producers of all sorts have been taking advantage of this possibility as adding caramel you render the product darker and more dense.

This also explains the astronomic quantities, almost rivers, of Commercial BV sold around the world and if you go and visit the majority of the suppliers they do not have the barrel storing capacity for such enormous quantities; it also should not come as a surprise `the fact that one of the largest exporters of BV of Modena is a company based in Naples!

At this stage it must be said that the most responsible producers have started declaring the Caramel  (ie E 150) presence on their labels.

In our opinion it is not fair that the end consumers are not made aware that the Balsamic vinegar of Modena they get can be:

·         Not necessarily produced with the must of Trebbiano grapes from the Modena region  

·        Obtained by adding Caramel to darken the colour and improve density

We at iB Food were not very happy with this situation and in conjunction with Aggazzotti have been working over the last 2 years to improve things for our customers, and with immediate effect we are pleased to inform you that:

·         All Aggazzotti products (Green, Red and Gold) have always been produced only with must from the Modena region.

·         They are produced to the traditional recipes aged in wooden casks without any addition of Caramel

·         Both of the above information are now printed on the labels of the products and you are welcome to inspect the site in Colombaro - Modena where the Aggazzotti’s have been producing BV since the 1700’s.  

The result for the Green label is a slightly lighter appearance but, the extra ageing that Aggazzotti has given to the product, really comes out so strongly flavour wise.

“You said you still like it denser?”

“Just add some caramel as a lot of producers do, but do not ask Aggazzotti to do it for you!!!”