"If your idea of balsamic vinegar is what's available at your supermarket, well... let's just say that the product you pick up for $5 or $10 a bottle at your local grocery store is as different from the real stuff as extra virgin olive oil is from motor oil." - Compliments of Ciao Chow Linda's blog.

Features:

• essenza, considered to be the heart and soul of balsamic, is a concentrated syrup of must from Trebbiano and Lambrusco grapes. The precious nectar is extremely concentrated.

• Traditional balsamic vinegar is made in only two places, both of which are in the Emilia Romagna region - the provinces of Reggio Emilia and Modena. This artisanal, viscous nectar accounts for only 1 percent of all the balsamic vinegar on the market.

• "essenza," also known as "agro" is a vinegar that is bottled before the final maturation of traditional balsamic

• The vinegar moves through a series of smaller barrels made of different woods, beginning with barrels of oak, then chestnut, juniper, back to chestnut, on to cherry, mulberry and acacia.

• imported from Emilio Romagna- Italy