Marqués de Valdueza Reserva Vinegar at the Deli
Amazing vinegar from a 500-year-old family estate in western Spain
If rare, sweet-sour, super-aged vinegars are your thing, like they are mine, you’ll want to grab a bottle or two of this special new arrival ASAP. It belongs in the same family as long-aged balsamics from Italy, the lovely PX Sherry Vinegar from southern Spain, the little-known but terrific Banyuls from France, and the amazing Rozendaal vinegars from South Africa. Reserva Vinegar from Marqués de Valdueza is a very limited edition. Only about 4,000 bottles were produced for the whole of last year! For context, a large vinegar factory might make that much in a single day.
Marqués de Valdueza is a superb example of what is possible when purveyor relationships are really good! We’ve been getting their splendid olive oil, as well as their wonderful wine vinegar and varietal local honeys, for years now. John Cancilla, longtime lead of the Valdueza team, and his wife Ana have become an integral part of the trips we do with Zingerman’s Food Tours in the Basque Country, Majorca, Andalucia, and now the Canary Islands. Both organizations are much better off from the connection.
While this vinegar will never be Marqués de Valdueza’s biggest seller, it is very close to the heart of Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Argüelles, the seventh generation to lead the family business. Fadrique’s passion has powered this project over the last 15 years. The dignity and integrity with which he approaches his work come through in the quality of the finished vinegar. He could have chosen to purchase raw material from other producers, probably at a far lower cost. But, like Massimo Vignelli, Fadrique has, in his own words, repeatedly “made the decision to pursue quality, even if it was less profitable.” The vinegar is made solely with the estate’s own products. Hand-harvested grapes are crushed to produce fresh juice, known in the wine world as “grape must.” The must in this vinegar was started in 2007. It was then slowly reduced over many years to concentrate the natural sugars and complex flavors. The wood of the barrels it’s aged in informs the flavor, much as the quality of the soil would impact plants that grow in it.
The other ingredient that is carefully blended with the aged must is Valdueza’s very fine wine vinegar. Made using the traditional, natural Orleans method, the wine vinegar was begun more than a decade ago, in 2013. In both cases, the barrels are authentic French oak. Lesser-quality vinegars come from barrels made of easier-to-find wood, and oak chips are added to contribute a bit of oak flavor while still saving money. In the case of this special vinegar, the oak barrels have been broken in by the highly regarded Vega Sicilia winery in the Ribera del Duero region. The resulting vinegar condiment is compellingly bright, almondy, and aromatic, with an amazingly long finish.
What do you do with vinegar this special? Come summer, John Cancilla sometimes uses it on an insalata caprese; he warned me not to tell his Napolitana mother since “No one puts vinegar on a caprese.” This time of year, I like to sprinkle a little onto roasted peppers. John also says it’s great on a traditional salad of salt cod (bacalao) and orange that’s done in the region. Fadrique told me that he adds a bit to gazpacho. He also recommends a few drops on aged cheese or on really high-quality anchovies. Here in the late autumn in Ann Arbor, it would be wonderful on a Waldorf salad with local heirloom apples and toasted walnuts.
If you know anyone who loves great vinegar, buy a bottle of this very fine one from the Valdueza family for them before it is all gone! It makes a great gift for any food lover, all the more so if you pair it with a bottle of the Marqués de Valdueza’s marvelous estate-produced extra virgin olive oil!
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