There's fake as in "this product is not any kind of vinegar" and fake as is "this vinegar has not been produced in the canonical way, in the canonical place".

There's fake as in "this product is not any kind of vinegar" and fake as is "this vinegar has not been produced in the canonical way, in the canonical place". Italy has local standards called, DOP and IGP, if I recall correctly. DOP is the elite stuff. You dont put this on salads. Some varieties are almost gel like. This is the stuff that was sitting in someones attic for ten years. IGP is still good but not as good, and it still has to come from the right region. Costco in the US sells Kirkland balsamic vinegar di Modena, and it is IGP. You can imagine that at Costco scale, it is not sitting in someones attic. This is still excellent, by the way. Then there is all the rest, that claims to be balsamic vinegar, but was produced to meet high scale, low price points. The article is simply saying that what you likely buy in the supermarket is unlikely to be DOP and might not even be IGP. Thats not really news.