Four Giuseppe Giusti balsamic bottles with their medal labels lined up in front of a row of small dark wooden barrels in an attic, with a spoon of thick dark vinegar and a chunk of Parmigiano beside them

Giuseppe Giusti Guide: Reading the Medals on Modena's Balsamic

Published 9 Sep 20264 min read

Filed under Vinegars Giuseppe Giusti Emilia-Romagna

The Giusti family dates its house in Modena to 1605, which by that reckoning makes it older than the Bank of England. The medals on its labels sort the house's range of Balsamic Vinegar of Modena IGP, and the range runs from a vinegar for a weeknight salad to one spooned over cheese at the end of a dinner.

The balsamic vinegar guide explains the category, DOP against IGP against condimento. This is the producer guide: the family, the medals and what to pour from each bottle.

The family and the salumeria

Giusti's own timeline begins in 1605, when Giuseppe and Francesco Maria Giusti were entered in the Modenese duke's ledger of local businesses. Giusti describes itself as the oldest balsamic-producing family in Modena. For generations the vinegar aged in the attics above the family's salumeria in the city. In 1990, by the company's account, the acetaia moved out to a farmhouse in the Modena countryside, which is still the company's headquarters.

How Modena IGP balsamic is made

Every bottle in Giusti's medal range is Balsamic Vinegar of Modena IGP, a protected designation with its own consortium and its own production rules. Under the specification, grape must makes up at least 20 percent of the total, and wine vinegar is added at a minimum of 10 percent. The vinegar then rests in barrels, casks or vats of fine woods, among them oak, chestnut, mulberry and juniper. The minimum refining period is 60 days, and a vinegar that stays in wood for more than three years may carry the word Invecchiato, aged, on its label.

Within those rules, the house chooses the recipe, the woods and the time, and that is where the medal bottles part ways from one another. Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena DOP is a separate product, with its own consortium and its own rules.

The medals

By the house's account, in 1861 Giusti won a gold medal at the Italian Exposition in Florence for a ninety-year-old balsamic, and between 1873 and 1900 it took its vinegars to the universal exhibitions, from Paris to Antwerp, winning diplomas and medals. Medals have surrounded the family's logo since it was created in 1900.

Today Giusti classifies the five vinegars in its historic IGP collection, made from different recipes and aged for different lengths of time, by a rising number of medals: one silver, then two to five gold, with the Banda Rossa at five.

The bottles, in order

Shop Giusti Silver Medal. The first bottle in the range, a Balsamic Vinegar of Modena IGP with, in Giusti's words, a rich aroma and a pleasant, rounded acidity. Giusti suggests it both raw and in cooking. Vinaigrettes, marinades, a deglazed pan or a reduced glaze are good places to start.

2 Gold Medals (sold as an 8-year) (shop Giusti 2 Gold Medals). Good density and a fine sweet-sour balance, with notes of ripe fruit, licorice and black pepper; Giusti suggests it raw or in cooking. It belongs on roasted vegetables, a steak after it rests, a caprese in August.

3 Gold Medals. Made from dried grapes and aged in oak barriques; dense and sweet, with plum jam, red fruit, honey and vanilla. Giusti suggests it raw, as a dressing for savory and sweet dishes alike.

4 Gold Medals (sold as a 15-year) (shop Giusti 4 Gold Medals). Long aged in acacia barriques; deeply aromatic, with ripe fruit, tobacco, roasted coffee, wood and honey. 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 (see the caramel guide) for a pairing that sounds wrong and is not.

Shop Giusti 5 Gold Medals, Banda Rossa (sold as a 20-year). The top of the house's IGP range, in a 100 mL round bottle with the red band. Full-bodied and complex, with black cherry, sweet spices and the scent of old wood. Use it on cheese or a dessert, or give it as a gift.

The cremas. Giusti also makes glazes, the classic crema (shop Giusti Crema Classic) and a raspberry version (shop Giusti Crema Raspberry). They do a different job from the medal bottles. Giusti suggests the raspberry glaze with vegetables, fruit, cheese and desserts, so think roasted vegetables, a burrata or a bowl of berries.

How to taste it

Put a drop on the back of the hand, or on a small spoon, at room temperature. Watch how it moves, then smell it before you taste. Taste for the order of things: sweetness, acidity, then how long it lasts. Taste two tiers side by side and look for the house's notes, the licorice and pepper in the 2 Gold Medals, the coffee and tobacco in the 4 Gold Medals.

Which bottle to buy

For cooking: the Silver Medal. For a kitchen with one good bottle: the 2 Gold Medals, which works raw and in the pan. For cheese and dessert: the 4 Gold Medals. For a gift: the Banda Rossa. For drizzling straight from the bottle: the crema. Wine, sherry and fruit vinegars, for the jobs that call for a sharper vinegar, are covered in the vinegar guide.

Start with the medals, then look at what is on the plate.

For reducing balsamic into a glaze at home, and when an aged bottle needs no reducing, see the balsamic glaze recipe.

See also: Italian gift basket ideas, with a Modena balsamic basket.