La Vecchia 30th Anniversary Balsamic

Complex and thick, this is a wonderful way to treat yourself and the best way to impress your food friends. Experience over the centuries has shown that balsamic vinegar should always be the last ingredient added to any dish, except when used to dress salads. Balsamics aged 20 years or more becomes denser, their fragrance and flavour are enriched, and it can be appreciated to the full on flakes of Parmesan cheese, on strawberries or on ice cream, or sipped at the end of a meal. This Balsamic Condimento was bottled to celebrate the 30th anniversary of la Vecchia's balsamic production for commercial sale, and it can trace its roots back thirty years. It is not as thick as some much younger condimentos, and this indicates a great degree of skill on the part of the producers. The must was not cooked down as much as in the case of many condimentos, allowing for a greater expression of fruit flavors. It has a backward nose that reveals only a whiff of caramelised sugar and acid. The flavor opens with woody notes and hints of raisin before blossoming into a very complex fruit filled mid palate with a cascade of blackberry and black cherry notes. It moves quickly to a nice nutty finish with a pleasant amount of back-of-the-palate acid. Leaning slightly to the acid as with most La Vecchia Dispensa Balsamics, we found this to be an exceptional "sipper", and one that would go well with duck, venison, and game birds. It s also a great price - very few balsamic producers put balsamic this old and flavorful in a 100 ml bottle. Balsamic vinegar takes centre stage in the output of LA VECCHIA DISPENSA since the company considers it the resulting jewel of its labors. It is still made in the traditional way, by fermenting the must of Trebbiano grapes in barrels of costly woods - oak, mulberry, chestnut, cherry and juniper - which over the years gradually give the vinegar its inimitable fragrance and flavour.