What is Vincotto?
Apulian Vincotto is not a cooked wine In the local dialect is referred to as Cuettu or Cotto Is a product registered in the Typical Products from Apulia (PAT) Is not a vino cotto or vin cotto (alcoholic product typical of Abruzzo)
Vincotto PAT file
History Destemming Filtering the grape must with a linen dish rag
Cartellate Vincotto jar belonging to an ancient pharmacy in Gallipoli Pittule
Vincotto during Roman times Ancient Romans called Vincotto sapa or defrutum Was used as sweetener Mixedwithwater wasa restorative drink Was mixed with wine in order to create a very high alcoholic wine Was used yo enhance the flavor of meat and other dishes
Cuettu 100% cooked grape must Terra Apuliae production
Vincotto Salentino
In the second part of the XIX century in Salento vine bacame widely cultivated Due to very poor storing techniques acetic fermentation was easy to start The spoiled wine was cooked with Cuettu (cooked grape must) Capasuni
Take fifty sestari of high quality grape must and one hundred sestari of high quality wine cooking one third of it Cassiano Basso, Geoponica book VII (VI century B.C.)
Vincotto Salentino today Vincotto PrimitivO Cooked grape must, Primitivo wine aged 2 years, red wine vinegar No added sugar Terra Apuliae production No additives, colorants nor preservatives
Vincotto Salentino is characterized by both a sweet and a sour component Flavor is similar to Balsamic Vinegar of Modena but production methods are different Vincotto PrimitivO can be used as cooking ingredient: it doesn t contain caramel Cheap IGP Balsamic Vinegar ( Traditional balsamic Vinegar of Modena) can t: contain E150D (caramel color)
Cheap IGP Balsamic Vinegar are made of wine vinegar with the addition of colouring, caramel* and sometimes thickeners like guar gum or cornflour to artificially simulate the sweetness and thickness of the aged Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena. To meet IGP status it requires a minimum aging period of two months, not necessarily in wooden barrels (Wikipedia) *E150D caramel color used to simulate the characteristic Balsamic Vinegar s dark colour
Vincotto PrimitivO: a healthy food Vincotto primitivo is very rich in polyphenols and flavonoids Has a high antioxidant activity Antioxidant test of Vincotto PrimitivO made by Di.S.Te.B.a. of Unisalento
Campione * Sostanze fenoliche tot. Mg/ml Flavonoidi tot. Mg/ml Attività antiossidante ORAC μl Trolox eq. per ml. Cuettu 5,95 1,10 250 Vincotto PrimitivO Balsamico Vincotto PrimitivO Ingentilito Aceto Balsamico Modena COOP Aceto Balsamico Modena Ponti Aceto Balsamico Modena Monari et. Platino Aceto Balsamico Modena Ortalli Aceto Balsamico Modena Monari et. Nera 4,90 0,92 207 8,10 1,78 291 2,40 O,56 65 1,07 0,19 30 2,12 0,34 54 0,85 0,13 21 1,93 0,19 48 Analisi effettuate dal Dipartimento DI.S.TE.B.A dell Università del Salento
Vincotto PrimitivO and Nutrigenomics Nutrigenomics links together food and our DNA and genes Today we now that some pathologies can be ascribed partly to the food we eat Antioxidants can help preventing such pathologies Because of its high content of antioxidants Vincotto PrimitivO is able to reduce the amount of free radicals
Valori Nutrizionali Vincotto Ingentilito 100 ml. Vincotto Balsamico 100 ml. Glassa 100 ml. Cuettu 100ml. Energia 188 kcal 786 Kj 132 Kcal. 552 Kj. 235 Kcal. 983 Kj. 244 Kcal. 1020 Kj. Carboidrati di cui zuccheri 46 g 44.2 g 32,6 g 31,2 g 58 g 57 g 60 g 57 g Proteine 0.64 g 0.39 g 1 g 1 g Grassi 0,0 g 0,0 g 0,0 g 0,0 g
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Vincotto PrimitivO: Cuettu and Vincotto Salentino Apulian Vincotto or Cuettu If we would try to literally translate the Italian word Vincotto into English it would be cooked wine but it would be wrong because Apulian traditional Vincotto is not a cooked wine; it is the fresh, just crushed grape must which is slowly cooked over heat for about 24 hours until it becomes as thick as syrup. In the local dialects it can also be referred to as Cuettu or Cotto,while the words vino cotto or vin cotto refers to a different alcoholic product which is typical from Abruzzo region. Apulian Vincotto is registered in the Typical Products from Apulia (PAT) Although Vincotto is a typical product, it has been slowly almost forgotten by the two last generations. In the past every family used to prepare its own home made Vincotto: after destemming, grapes was crushed and filtered using a linen dish rag and then slowly cooked. The dark and sweet syrup obtained was very precious (let s think that to reach the desired density it was necessary to reduce it to about 1/3 of the initial volume, it means that from 100 liters of fresh grape must you obtain about 30 liters of Vincotto or Cuettu) and was used mainly during Christmas time with Cartellate, Purciadduzzi (typical fried sweeties covered in Vincotto, or honey, or both), and with pittule (made from a dough and yeast which is then fried). Vincotto was even used as topping on snow those rare times in which it snowed in Salento. Cuettu was used as medicine too to cure sore throat and it was sold in the local pharmacies. Apulian Vincotto has its roots in ancient Roman times: Romans called Vincotto defrutum or sapa : the difference between the two was the density: sapa was reduced to half of the initial volume while defrutum was even more concentrated to 1/3 of the initial volume. During Roman times, before the introduction of sugar cane, defrutum was used as sweetener, mixed with water was a restorative drink, was used in cooking to enhance the flavor of meat and other dishes (in Apicio s cuisine defrutum was widely used), was mixed with wine in order to create a very high alcoholic wine. Vincotto Salentino: Until now we have spoken about Apulian Vincotto (Cuettu, if we want to use the dialectal name) which is typical of the entire region, but in Salento, in the second part of the XIX century start spreading what we today we can call a salentine version of Apulian typical Vincotto. Vincotto Salentino was born for necessity:
at that time in the Salentine peninsula vine became widely cultivated; before that it was only used for own consumption and the storing techniques used to preserve wine were not as good as today: wine was in fact usually stored in CAPASUNI or OZZE (Capasuni are big clay artifact that can contain even two hundred fifty liters of wine). Before the born of wine cooperative and the introduction of barrels every family producing wine had its own capasuni where wine and rarely olive oil were stored. The combination of high temperatures due to the temperated climate, and the inadequate storing techniques, acetic fermentation in the wine was easily starting and the only way people had to preserve it was to cook the so called spunto (the wine in which the acetic fermentation was started) mixed to cooked grape must (cuettu). The product obtained from this mix is the Vincotto Salentino, which has a sweet component, the cooked grape must, and a sour part, given by the spunto wine. The way today Vincotto Salentino is made is the one cited in an ancient recipe from Cassiano Basso (a Byzantine author) in his Geoponica Vincotto Salentino is very similar in the flavor to another very famous Italian product: the Balsamic vinegar of Modena (but while Balsamic vinegar of Modena is made by aging in barrels, Vincotto Salentino is made by cooking) so you can use Vincotto Salentino with salads, on strawberries and ice creams on fries and so on. Today the family business Terra Apuliae produces two versions of Vincotto Salentino under the brand of Vincotto PrimitivO: Vincotto Balsamic and Vincotto Ingentilito both made with just cooked grape must, Primitivo red wine aged 2 years and red wine vinegar (the wine vinegar is used to substitute the sour part which in the past was given by the spoiled wine). Vincotto PrimitivO is completely free from any additives, preservatives and colorants; this allow us to use Vincotto PrimitivO as cooking ingredient, while it is not recommended to use common cheap IGP Balsamic Vinegars (that are different from Traditional Balsamic Vinegar) in cooking because they usually contain E150D a chemical caramel color which, if cooked, burns giving a bad flavor to the dish but, above all, is dangerous to health Slow Food Food Community of Vincotto PrimitivO A Slow Food Food Community is: A group of small scale producers and others, united by the production of a particular food and closely linked to a geographic area. The Food Community of Vincotto PrimitivO is the first Food Community in the history of Slow Food to put together producers, transformers and distributors with the aim of protecting a specific product as Vincotto. The Food Community of Vincotto PrimitivO wants to safeguard the whole supply chain from raw material s production, to the transformation of grapes into Vincotto and its use in many different new and traditional recipes as well as the distribution which is managed by a common distributor Vincotto PrimitivO: a healthy food As the tests made by the University of Salento can proof, Vincotto PrimitivO has a very high content of antioxidants.
The high antioxidant activity (ORAC activity) of Vincotto PrimitivO can be better appreciated in the table n.1 (see PPT. file, slide n17) where it is possible to compare the ORAC activity of Vincotto PrimitivO, which in the Ingentilito version reaches the score of 290, and that of other cheap IGP balsamic vinegars where the best one, concerning ORAC activity, results to be Aceto Balsamico di Modena COOP with a score of 65 which, if compared to Vincotto PrimitivO s, is a very low result. In the past genes where thought not to be influenced by food; nowadays science discovered that some clinical pathologies can be ascribed partly to the food we eat. The symptoms, which manifest before reaching the disease phase, can be prevented or corrected through Nutrigenomics (Nutrigenomics is the science, which links together nutrients, therefore food, and our DNA and genes). A significant role in the prevention of such pathologies, caused by the food intake, is played by antioxidants. Food rich in polyphenols, and with a high antioxidant activity, such as the Vincotto PrimitivO, have the capacity of inhibiting toxic compounds and activating chemical substances that are able to heal the traumas suffered by the organism. Being the Vincotto PrimitivO rich in antioxidants, it is able to reduce the amount of free radicals, inhibiting the transformation of some compounds and activating enzymatic functions of the body.