All genuine Balsamic Vinegar is produced in the small area surrounding the Northern Italian town of Modena. One can compare it to olive oil in that there are two distinct categories: classic and commercial. Essentially you get what you pay for. Try the best balsamics from La Vecchia Dispensa dropped onto slithers of parmesan with an aperitif, on strawberries or on vanilla ice-cream. Remember that a little goes a long way.

The Italians in their wisdom no longer allow the age of a balsamic to even be alluded to.  Rather the bottles are labelled with different colours (?), yellow being "in old money" the 10 year old. This vinegar is complex, with rich flavours of oak, blackberry and dark fruit, partly due to the family’s barrel-aging all their vinegar in very small batches. After 10 years, the vinegars are finally poured into the handblown glass bottles with hand-scrolled labels as beautiful as the vinegar inside.

Size: 25cl