PRODUCTION AND QUALITY

A good vinegar is the final product created through the fermentation and oxidization of juices containing alcohol or sugar.

Full value fruit vinegars are vinegars whose juice is gained from fresh fruits. The juices keep the taste, fragrance, aroma and color of the fruit, harmonizing it all in the prepared vinegar. Due to the gentle and traditional method of preparation, these pure fruit vinegars are especially valuable for the human body; besides providing a real culinary experience.

For the making of vinegars, a wide variety of basic materials are used: crushed grape, must, wine, apples and other fruit, wine, brandy, sherry, and even whey or rice. The more natural the vinegar is, the richer it is in other trace constituents. Natural, unfiltered vinegars contain a small degree of vitamins, minerals and trace elements, in addition to pectins and other secondary vegetable materials.

Preparation

Traditional preparation procedures and modern technology can go hand in hand. It is especially in the preparation of vinegars that old and new methods of preparation can be successfully combined.

Vinegar making procedures

Open fermentation

This procedure is most commonly used in households or old plants. Here, the fermentation of the vinegar takes place in a more or less open tank, with a so/called “vinegar mother” floating on the surface of the liquid (this is a jelly-like formation, floating on the surface of the vinegar). The rather lengthy and not always successful fermentation is caused by this layer of fermenting and vinegar bacteria. The vinegar thus produced often falls short of the quality requirements for saleable vinegars. The main problem is that they do not reach the 5% acid content required by law, which may result in repeated complaints and high fines. Although the time needed for the vinegar to reach the minimum acid content (somewhere between ½ and 1 year ) is of no particular relevance for the producer from an economic point of view, open fermentation is still quite common with the so/called Solera procedure (when fermentation takes place in various barrels, one after the other).

Circulator pumping

During this procedure, vinegar is pumped through wood splinters, corncobs or wooden grids. Then it is aired, whereby the vinegar’s acid content approximates the degree required by law. Typically, it has a high ester content (which gives it an adhesive-like smell); at the same time, due to the use of fixing materials, there is a great danger of “parasite fungi” appearing in the finished product. If they keep airing the liquid further, we speak about a perfected circulator pumping procedure.

Submers – underwater procedure

The underwater fermentation process takes place with the help of bacteria kept in a floating state and of continuously controlled airing. This makes it possible that the temperature is regulated and the production of vinegar is fully controlled without a ”mother vinegar” being formed. In the case of large equipments, airing is done by turbines, which is definitely faster but it weakens the aroma, therefore this procedure is used mostly on an industrial scale.

Small equipments do the airing on the basis of the Venturi principle with sprinkling. This procedure takes somewhat longer but results in a perfect aroma. Altogether, we can calculate with a transformation period of 30-60 hours in both procedures. Since it is the underwater procedure that is the basis of the technology, no modern vinegar production plant can do without it.

Aceto Balsamico is produced solely in the region of Modena in the North of Italy.

The origin of traditional balsamic vinegar goes back to centuries, and it is the product of unique environmental conditions, created from locally grown grapes and closely linked to the art of making must and the careful, yearly refilling of vinegar barrels.

After the pressing of the grapes but still before the beginning of fermentation, the must is brewed in cauldrons in the open air, under normal atmospheric pressure until it reaches a concentration of 30-50% (depending on the actual needs of the vinegar manufacturing plant). Following a long decantation period, there begins the natural and simultaneous fermentation and vinegar fermentation of the brewed must, enhanced by the yeast and vinegar acid bacteria. As a result, the product goes through a transformation, called “ripening”, which is of crucial importance in regard to the characteristic aromas of the balsamic vinegar. Ripening is followed by “aging”, i.e. the period during which the distinctive marks of the product are formed.

The three phases take place in different wooden barrels (typically oak, chestnut, bramble, cherry or juniper), in gradually decreasing quantity (from 75/100 liters to 10/15 liters).

Each type of wood gives a distinctive character to the vinegar.

Chestnut wood, rich in tannin, contributes to the dark color of the product. Bramble wood promotes faster concentration, juniper adds resin essence to it, cherry wood makes the taste more tender whereas oak lends a characteristic vanilla taste to the ripened vinegar. The difference in the barrel sizes is necessary because of the yearly siphoning. The purpose of the refillings is to fill up the barrels with vinegar from the “more advanced” barrel, thus evening up the yearly loss due to the siphoning of the end product and to the natural evaporation. Refilling requires competence and careful consideration for the actual development phase of the product, - so that the optimal development can be guaranteed for the coming centuries as well.