Italian producers of balsamic vinegar have lambasted the EU’s top court after losing a legal challenge to prevent a German company from using the names “aceto” or “aceto balsamico” to market its vinegar products.

The Consortium for Balsamic Vinegar of Modena sued the company, Balema, on the premise that it had violated the use of the geographical food designation term aceto balsamico di Modena (balsamic vinegar of Modena), which has been in place since 2009 and can only be used by producers in Modena and the Emilia-Romagna region.

The German firm, based in Baden, had been labelling its products with the terms “balsamico” and “Deutscher balsamico” (German balsamico).

But judges at the court of justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on Wednesday that the protected term aceto balsamico di Modena “does not extend to the use of non-geographical individual terms”. The court determined that the name aceto is common and that balsamico is an adjective commonly used as a reference to a vinegar with a bitter-sweet flavour. Therefore, while the trademark aceto balsamico di Modena can only be used by producers within a specific geographical area, there are no such restrictions on aceto balsamico alone.

Mariangela Grosoli, the president of the Consortium for Protection of Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, said in a statement: “We consider this decision to be totally unjust. The reality is that many European countries have partly wanted to appropriate the worldwide success achieved by Balsamic Vinegar of Modena - this is the only vinegar to be sweet-and-sour and to use the word ‘balsamic’, a word that was attributed to it many centuries ago by the Este dukes, who thought it was medicinal.”

The legal battle had dragged on for years, with Balema appealing to Germany’s federal court of justice to clarify whether the Modena designation also applied to non-geographical terms. The German court then referred to the case to the CJEU last year.

There are two further geographically-protected varieties of balsamic vinegar: the Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena and the Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Reggio Emilia. The traditional methods use a reduction of pressed grape varieties including trebbiano, sangiovese and lambrusco and the resulting thick syrup, called mosto cotto, is aged for a minimum of 12 years, sometimes for more than 100, in cherrywood, chestnut or ash barrels. Bottles can cost up to €300 (£260).

The less expensive Balsamic Vinegar of Modena can be blended with up to 80% wine vinegar by volume and must be aged in wooden containers for a minimum of 60 days.