Giuseppe Giusti: Modena's Oldest Acetaia, the Medals on the Label and Which Bottle to Buy
The Giusti family has been making balsamic vinegar in Modena since 1605, which makes the firm older than the Bank of England, and the labels on its bottles carry medals won at the great exhibitions of the nineteenth century, when balsamic left the attics of Modena's families and went out to be judged against the world. The medals are not decoration. They are the house's grading system, and once you can read them, the Giusti range becomes the clearest ladder in the category, from a bottle for Tuesday's salad to a bottle you spoon over cheese at the end of a dinner.
Our balsamic guide explains the category, DOP against IGP against condimento. This is the producer guide: the family, the barrels, the medals and what to pour from each bottle on our shelf.
The family and the attic
Balsamic vinegar in Modena is a household craft before it is an industry. Cooked grape must, mosto cotto, is aged in a batteria, a set of wooden barrels of decreasing size and different woods, kept in an attic where summer heat concentrates the vinegar and winter cold rests it. Each year a little is drawn from the smallest barrel, and each barrel is topped up from the next larger one, so that the oldest vinegar is a blend of every year the barrels have been running. The Giusti attic holds barrels that date to the 1700s and are still in use, and the family, now in its seventeenth generation, is the reason the house is often called the oldest acetaia in the world. The company's own history, on its website, traces the founding to 1605 and the current cellars to the family's move to a villa on the outskirts of Modena.
The medals
In the 1800s Giusti sent its vinegars to the international exhibitions in Paris, Brussels, Vienna and elsewhere, and won gold medals. The family put the medals on the labels and, over time, turned them into a code: the more gold medals on the label, the older and more concentrated the vinegar inside. Today the range runs from one medal to five, and a sixth tier, the Banda Rossa, sits above them. The medals are not a legal grade; they are the house's own promise, and they have been consistent for long enough that Modena's restaurants order by them.
The bottles on our shelf, in order
Silver Medal. The entry bottle: Balsamic Vinegar of Modena IGP, young, fluid and bright, with the sweetness of cooked must and the sharpness of wine vinegar in balance. This is the bottle for vinaigrettes, marinades, deglazing a pan and everyday cooking, and it is the one to reduce for a glaze rather than spending the aged bottles.
2 Gold Medals, 8 years. Denser and darker, with the beginnings of the fig and dried-plum character that age brings. Still pourable. For salads that deserve it, roasted vegetables, a steak after it rests, a caprese in August.
3 Gold Medals, 12 years. The pivot in the range. Thick enough to cling to a spoon, sweet and sharp in equal measure, with wood and dried fruit. Use it as a finishing vinegar: a few drops on Parmigiano, on grilled fish, on risotto, on strawberries. Sold in a 100 mL bottle because a little goes a long way.
4 Gold Medals, 15 years. Syrupy, complex, with molasses, cherry and a long finish. This is a dessert and cheese bottle: over vanilla ice cream, a wedge of aged Parmigiano, a ripe peach, or a spoon of goat's milk caramel for a pairing that sounds wrong and is not.
5 Gold Medals, Banda Rossa, 20 years. The top of the house's IGP range, drawn from the oldest barrels, sold in a small round bottle with the red band. It is closer to a liqueur than a vinegar: dense, glossy, layered, with a sweetness that never turns cloying because the acidity is still there underneath. A few drops, alone, on a spoon, is how Modena tastes it. On cheese, on a fine dessert, or as the gift that ends the search for a gift.
The cremas. Giusti also makes reductions, the classic crema and a raspberry version: balsamic cooked down with must into a glaze that squeezes from the bottle. They are not aged vinegar and do not pretend to be; they are for drizzling over pizza, roasted vegetables, a burrata, a bowl of berries, when you want the look and the sweetness without opening the medals.
How to taste it
A drop on the back of the hand, or on a small spoon, at room temperature. Look at how it moves; the aged bottles should coat, not run. Smell for cooked fruit, wood and a clean acidity. Taste for the balance: sweetness first, acid second, length third. Never heat the aged bottles; the volatile aromas that twelve or twenty years built leave in seconds over a flame. Reduce the Silver Medal; finish with the medals.
Which bottle to buy
For cooking: Silver Medal. For a kitchen with one good bottle: the 12 year. For cheese and dessert: the 15. For a gift: the Banda Rossa, or the 15 in its box. For a kitchen with children who put balsamic on everything: the crema, and hide the rest. All of them are on our vinegar shelf beside the wine, sherry and fruit vinegars that do the jobs balsamic should not. They are at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, and ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com.
