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Villa Manodori - Massimo Bottura - Balsamic Vinegar - 250 mL
Regular price $44.99 USDRegular price -
Villa Manodori - Dark Cherry Balsamic - 250 mL
Regular price $45.00 USDRegular price
About Villa Manodori
- Based in
- Modena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
- Founded
- 1995
- Known for
- Massimo Bottura's balsamic vinegar of Modena
Massimo Bottura opened Osteria Francescana in Modena in 1995, and the same year he began bottling balsamic vinegar under the Villa Manodori label, a family project. The name comes from a 16th-century Este family villa at the gates of Modena where his sister lives. The vinegar works sits in a restored 1969 building beside his guesthouse Casa Maria Luigia and holds about 1,400 barrels.
Every Villa Manodori vinegar is made only from white Trebbiano di Spagna grapes, a variety the Modenese call Tarbianèin. The vinegar range is aged from 12 to 25 months. Bottura compares his approach to that of winemakers such as Gaja, and he uses different barrel woods, juniper and cherry among them, for different results.
Some of the vinegars are aged in cherry wood barrels made from Vignola orchards. Aged balsamic vinegar goes on Parmigiano Reggiano, strawberries or grilled meat, or over vanilla gelato or duck.
Villa Manodori questions
What is the difference between balsamic vinegar of Modena and traditional balsamic vinegar?
Both start with grape must, the freshly crushed juice of grapes with their skins and seeds. Balsamic Vinegar of Modena IGP blends must with wine vinegar and needs only two months in wooden barrels, while Traditional Balsamic Vinegar DOP is made from cooked must alone and aged at least 12 years. IGP and DOP are European labels that tie a food's name to its home region, with DOP the stricter one. Villa Manodori makes its vinegars from white Trebbiano di Spagna grapes grown around Modena.
Why does the wood of the barrel matter in balsamic vinegar?
Balsamic vinegar ages in wooden casks, and the wood leaves its mark. Makers use oak, chestnut, cherry, mulberry, ash and juniper, and the finished vinegar carries hints of wood from the casks. Traditional producers move the vinegar through a battery of smaller and smaller barrels, each year topping up each one from the next larger cask.
