Winter for balsamic vinegar

Winter is coming... in Modena. Modena winters are super cold; the average lows for December are 34 degrees, and January continues to get colder, and its an important time in the maturation and aging process of balsamic vinegars. After the flurry of activity of the fall - the harvest, the cooking of grape must, and the changing of the barrels, now is a quiet time for the vinegar to begin to sit and settle in for the rest of the year as a new cycle of aging, maturation, and fermentation begins.

The smells in the attic are mellowing out as the cold chills the vinegar. The vinegar begin to soak in the new flavors of this new barrel and new environment. There is something rhythmic and beautiful to the process, whose main engine is simply time.