Family, tradition, passion, craftsmanship. These are the key words that animate the entrepreneurial history of Acetaia Marchi. We are in Modena, but from the heart of Emilia we move to every corner of the world. At the centre is the quality of the raw materials, the respect for the specifications, the centuries-old tradition, and the family history. Giampaolo Colletti interviews Maurizio and Massimiliano Marchi, father and son, third and fourth generation at the helm of Acetaia Marchi for FARE INSIEME
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Photocredit: Giacomo Maestri e Francesca Aufiero
How much is excellence
worth? Minimum 25 years. Well, to understand the value of time in one of those
fields that the whole world envies us, like the one linked to the production of
Balsamic Vinegar, let's start with a number that really makes an impression.
Minimum 25 years, to be precise. This is the time necessary to have an extra
old Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena PDO, while for a refined PDO it
takes – so to speak – only 12 years. That is, 25 or 12 years in which the
product ages in “batteries”, i.e. a series of barrels made of various types of
wood and with increasing capacity of 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 and 50 litres each. It
is a story of numbers that we are about to tell you, but not only. Because it
is a story of passion that is passed down from generation to generation, it is
a story of method because maximum attention to the specifications is required,
it is a story of love for one’s land, for what it produces, for what is done
there and for how it is done. We are at the entrance of Modena, the world
capital of Balsamic Vinegar and of many other excellent products of the land
and the table, and this is the entrepreneurial story of Acetaia Marchi, one of
the first companies in the area to supply Aged Balsamic Vinegar of Modena PGI,
a product matured in wooden barrels for at least three years and which is very
different from larger volume Balsamic Vinegar.
Company
profile. It is a miracle of the earth in the most secular sense possible.
Because here the temporal factor is linked to the environmental factor with the
need to constantly monitor heat, cold, humidity and many other elements, such
as the position in the attic, the extreme oxygenation or the humidity in the
summer. Maurizio and Massimiliano Marchi explain this well. A story from father
to son that best describes the generational passage. «From the very distant
beginnings I remember my father's passion, the care he had for each barrel, the
attention he dedicated to each single tasting and the hope that one day the
family tradition would continue», says Maurizio Marchi. «Of more recent times I
remember the very intense period in which we moved from producing only
Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena PDO to a wider range of products. In
addition to the logistics and to having to reorganise all the production
spaces, there was the need to communicate, in a market dominated by large
producers, that even Balsamic Vinegar of Modena PGI can be made following very
high quality standards», echoes Massimiliano Marchi. But in this story – as in
many others in this Emilian district of excellence – there is no what without the how and the where. We are
in Strada Fossa Monda Nord in Modena, here since 2017 after the restoration of
an old farmhouse. This new location houses the offices, some rooms for ageing
the Balsamic Vinegar and the spaces for packaging the finished product. A
company store and a tasting room complete the picture, to be able to offer
visitors guided tours and tasting experiences. The second location, not far
away, is dedicated to the cooking of the musts, the assembly of the raw
materials, another space for the ageing of the products in wood and the storage
warehouse. Then there is the agricultural company, also owned by the Marchi
family, which deals with viticulture, arable land and the fruit production. The
family is supported by 6 employees for a turnover that has continuously grown
in recent years. At the moment the company sells about 60% in Italy, the rest
to foreign markets.
Products
of excellence. The proposals are
excellent products subjected to rigorous controls, step by step. Consider that
for the sole Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena PDO, which is produced
starting from only cooked grape must, the production is regulated by a strict
specification and the quality is reaffirmed by the tasting phase conducted by
master tasters before bottling. But to understand the quality we must return to
the numbers, considering instead the Balsamic Vinegar of Modena PGI, in which
cooked must and wine vinegar are the basic ingredients. Acetaia Marchi does not
produce low density PGI: the minimum density required by the production
specification - i.e. the specific weight - is 1.06. Here they have set
themselves the objective of a minimum density of 1.12. «Low density also means
that the main ingredient of the product is wine vinegar and not cooked grape
must, with much higher properties and economic value. Our “Linea Sigilli” also
features the “bronze seal” in its entry level bottle, whose density is already
1.23. This means that we want to give our customers products with a significant
percentage of cooked must and a greater fullness of taste even if their
spending possibilities are more limited», says Massimiliano Marchi. Inside the vinegar
factory it is possible to discover the entire production process with guided
tours. «The word that we like to use is creating a culture of balsamic, that
is, being able to understand the many nuances of Balsamic Vinegar in its
various declinations, having an open and mutually constructive comparison with
the consumer and at the same time having direct feedback on our products during
the tasting phase», says Maurizio Marchi. The philosophy has always been that
of continuous renewal, while remaining anchored to the values: family,
tradition, passion, craftsmanship. A vocabulary that for successful
organisations draws from the past and carries into the future.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
Read the other interviews
