Il Slovenian government has decided to launch a standard with which any mixture of wine vinegar with concentrated must can be called, e sell, as “balsamic vinegar”. The choice, already notified to the European Commission, represents a serious threat to one of the leading products of Made in Italy with evident quality contrast with the current Community rules that protect PDO and PGI and regulate the consumer labeling and information system.
Together with the balsamic vinegar – Coldiretti warns – it is therefore below I attack the entire Made in Italy quality system and the same primacy ofItaly which has 312 Dop/Igp/Stg specialties recognized at community level, as well as 526 Doc/Docg and Igt wines.
The matter was promptly intervened by new Minister of Agriculture, Stefano Patuanelli who ensures that «The protection of the Italian food and wine heritage is one government priorities, therefore, also in this case, we will do everything possible to defend the Balsamic Vinegar of Modena against these undue attacks».
For his part, Paolo De Castro, MEP and former minister of agriculture, presented a priority question to EU commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski: «Slovenian balsamic vinegar is clearly an evocation that can mislead European consumers, because it competes with protected food in the same market segment, and cannot do so. Now it is the commissioner who must defend the PDO».
The damage that Italy would suffer if the Slovenian government's decision were to pass would be enormous, the Italian balsamic vinegar market is valued at around one billion euros.
Among other things, it should be remembered that in May of last year the same European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, solicited in a letter by Paolo De Castro, S&D coordinator in the Agriculture commission of the European Parliament to clarify a sentence of December 2019 of the European Court of Justice, which defined the term 'balsamic' generically, he expressed himself in these terms: "The 'Geographic indication 'Aceto Balsamico di Modena Igp' is not only protected as a whole, but also against any possible evocation that could mislead European consumers. In short, there cannot be a balsamic vinegar 'made in Germany', or in any other EU country who wants to usurp our Italian excellence”.
Among other things, the Slovenian initiative, in addition to representing a threat to our product known and appreciated all over the world, also risks increasing the international market of fake made in Italy which already has a turnover of over 100 billion euros improperly using words, colours, localities, images, denominations and recipes which, according to an analysis by Coldiretti and Filiera Italia, refer to Italy for fake products which have nothing to do with the national reality.
An increasingly thriving counterfeit industry which paradoxically has its main centers in advanced countries, starting from Australia to South America, from Canada to the United States where an important boost has come from the punitive duties on Italian cheeses and cured meats they favored the local "draft copies".
The Slovenian maneuver on balsamic vinegar therefore risks becoming a dangerous precedent. For the record, the Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena DOP, the Balsamic Vinegar of Modena IGP (Protected Geographical Indication), the Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Reggio DOP, and the Balsamic Vinegar of Reggio Emilia are recognized and protected by the European Union PGI.
These are products obtained in compliance with specific production regulations handed down over time for generations which must be protected against low cost imitations which have nothing to do with the original products.
Finally, it should be remembered that theBalsamic Vinegar of Modena was invented by the Benedictine monk Donizone, lived between the eleventh and twelfth centuries. A condiment that pushed theEmperor Henry II to write to the Marquis Bonifacio di Canossa, Matilde's father, “because he wanted that vinegar which had been praised to him and which was made in the fortress of Canossa”.
From the site of Coterie of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar we also learn that when the Estensi moved from Ferrara to Modena in 1598, they brought all their vinegars with them, but there they discovered another, unknown to most, produced at a family level and in restricted circles for who knows how long ago. It had different characteristics, an incomparable harmony of flavors and aromas and its excellence was soon recognized compared to the products known at court until then. In the duke's palaceso he took up residence in the attic of the west tower, towards San Domenico, a vinegar cellar fed with must «purged and reduced according to practice», as Latour, sub-bureau of the Panaro National Assets during the French occupation, wrote in 1803.
Over time, an exceptional product matured in that tower which, for the first time in 1747, in the registers of the secret cellars of the Estense Court, it was called 'balsamic vinegar', the same which was known as 'vinegar of the Duke', a denomination that was a sign of distinction and preciousness.
Moreover, the Dukes must be credited with having made Balsamic Vinegar known in many European Courts
