Giusti Expo’s Hommage · Limited Edition Balsamic Reserve Collection

Three reserves — Gold, Silver and Bronze — to be tasted in sequence, a few drops at a time, on a spoon or a sliver of aged Parmigiano. Each sits further along the ageing scale: the youngest still bright and fruited, the oldest thick, dark and nearly savory, with dried fig, coffee and old wood. This is not a dressing. It is the last thing that touches the plate.

The Giusti family has made balsamic vinegar in Modena since 1605, which makes it the oldest acetaia still working. In 1861 Giuseppe Giusti carried one of the family’s casks to the Italian Exposition in Florence and won a gold medal for a ninety-year-old vinegar; fourteen gold medals followed at the great World Expos of the late nineteenth century, and they still appear on the labels. Expo’s Hommage commemorates that journey: three reserves drawn from the oldest barrels in the historic ageing rooms, some of them dating from the 1700s and still in use, presented in a leather case with the traditional tools of the tasting — a flask, a pipette, a candle and a spoon, handmade in glass and porcelain.

• Taste in small amounts, comparing each reserve.
• Pair with aged Parmigiano, strawberries or risotto.
• Choose as a milestone gift for a balsamic enthusiast.

• Origin: Modena, Italy
• Includes: Gold, Silver and Bronze reserves, 100 ml each
• Total volume: 300 ml
• Leather presentation case with glass and porcelain tasting tools
• Ingredients: cooked grape must

How old are the reserves? Giusti, like every Modena producer, is not permitted to print ages on the label. They come from the oldest cask batteries the family owns, which are never fully emptied, so each drop carries something of the centuries before it.

How is it served? A few drops from the pipette onto risotto, fresh pasta, aged Parmigiano, strawberries or vanilla gelato — or on the spoon, alone, at the end of a meal.

Does it keep? Indefinitely, at room temperature, even once opened. It is exempt from expiration dating by law.