Description
Grape must and wine vinegar obtained from our Gewürztraminer grapes, cooked and then aged 3 years in oak barrels only.
We obtain our delicious sweet and sour condiment from fresh grape must which is cooked for 18-20 hours at 85 degrees.
Caramel and dyes are not added at all: the fresh grape must, in fact, is colorless.
Only through the long cooking, which makes the sugars naturally contained by the grapes caramelize, the must acquires the typical brown color.
In this processing phase, about 2/3 of the product evaporate: from 1000 liters of raw must they are therefore obtained between 380 and 400 liters cooked.
Once the must is cold, it is placed in a first barrel – called mother or abbess, which contains the acetic bacteria that make the cooked must ferment and the acetifera – of a battery composed of eleven barrels with capacities ranging from 200 to 20 liters and are made of eight different woods (oak, mulberry, cherry, chestnut, acacia, ash, juniper, pear tree).
Every year in spring, then, take the balsamic from the largest barrel to top up the smaller ones.
It is through the fermentation that the aroma and essences that characterize the same woods are extracted from the different types of wood, which are then also found in the aromaticity of the finished product.
During the years in barrels, however, the balsamic evaporates (It is lost between 5% and 7% of product per year) and focuses, becoming more and more sweet and thick, until it reaches the consistency of honey.