Sherry Vinegar

Great tasting vinegar takes lots of care and time to create. Large industrial vinegar producers shorten the process of vinegar making from months and years to days and hours by adding chemicals like sulfuric acid, nitric acid and muriatic acid. Use those vinegars to spiffy up your pennies.

Traditionally made vinegars have none of that nonsense. They take a long time to mature and can’t compete on price with industrial models. The right vinegar can accentuate and transform cuisine. Here’s a primer:

Wine Vinegar

You can’t create great vinegars from mediocre ingredients, and you can’t make wine vinegar without first making wine. Barrels are partially—but never fully—filled with wine, allowing air and bacteria to interact with the liquid. The bacteria converts the alcohol into water and acetic acid (vinegar) and the vinegar maker takes over from there, blending and aging the vinegar till the maker is happy with the flavor.
Flavors: bright, tangy, crisp
Best uses: vinaigrettes, marinades, deglaze pans, soups, sautes, pickling

Rice Wine Vinegar

Like wine vinegar production, except made from sake. Sake is made from fermented rice. The quality of the sake is related to how much the rice is “polished”—meaning the fats and proteins in the outer layers of the rice are removed. Most vinegar companies buy pre-made sake and convert it. The best make their own sake in order to make their own vinegar.
Flavors: mild, fruity, complex
Best uses: vinaigrettes, marinades, sushi, delicate foods

Malt Vinegar

Like wine vinegar production, only with beer. Grain—in this case barley—is germinated in water, then dried in a roaster after it begins to sprout. The process converts the starch in the barley into sugar, which changes into alcohol when fermented the first time, and then into vinegar after it ferments again. The longer it ages, the smoother it gets.
Flavors: nutty, a little earthy, slightly sweet
Best uses: pickling, sprinkling as a condiment, marinades

Fruit Vinegar

Covering ripe fruit with water and letting it ferment creates fruit vinegar in a matter of weeks. One kind of bacteria converts the sugars into alcohol, then a different bacteria converts the alcohol into vinegar. Months or years of aging then round out the flavors. Quicker, more industrial production methods involve steeping fruit in white vinegar and “infusing” the fruit’s flavors into the vinegar. Infused, industrial fruit vinegars are sharp, borderline harsh, with only a whisper of the fruit flavor they claim.
Flavors: soft, sweet, fruity
Best uses: vinaigrettes, marinades, deglaze pans, mixers & mocktails

Balsamic Vinegar

Traditionally, grape must—AKA grape juice before it’s wine—is cooked down to half its original volume then stored in large wooden casks with “mother” vinegar to kickstart fermentation. After a year or so the young vinegar is blended into smaller barrels that hold older balsamic where it ages for years before bottling. Today, though, most balsamic is made of mostly wine vinegar with a small percentage of grape must, and aged for only months. The modern, industrial ver-
sion is sweet but lacks the nuance and balance of a traditional aged balsamic.
Flavors: rich, sweet, flavors of dark fruits like raisins or plums
Best uses: vinaigrettes, marinades, finishing grilled meats, strawberries, ice cream

Sherry Vinegar

From southern Spain, the juice of Palomino grapes is converted first into wine, then fortified with grape brandy to make sherry. Sherry vinegar is then made with the solera method: similar to making balsamic, the sherry is placed in oak barrels with “mother” vinegar, then aged and blended in barrels for years before bottling.
Flavors: sweet, crisp, light
Best uses: vinaigrettes, sprinkled on seafood or roast vegetables, fruit salad

Vinegar’s closest relative is wine; it’s the natural conclusion of the winemaking process. By exposing wine to oxygen, naturally occurring bacteria in the air convert the alcohol into water and acetic acid. From there the hand of the vinegar maker takes over.

Great vinegar takes lots of care and time to create.

But, in the case of large industrial vinegar producers, time is something they can’t afford. In order to maximize profits they’ve developed ways to shorten the process of vinegar making from months and years to days and hours. Chemicals like sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and muriatic acid are added to give it “strength.” Burnt sugar and acetic ether (a colorless, flammable liquid with a fruity flavor) are added to give it color and flavor. Even if you didn’t major in chemistry you can probably recognize that these are some caustic chemicals.

Traditionally made vinegars have none of that nonsense. They take a long time to mature and can’t compete on price with the industrial models. Great vinegar transforms and accentuates the flavors of dishes; the cheap stuff can mar a meal. The amount of flavor in one bottle of well-made vinegar is magnitudes better than the cheap, commercial stuff.

The Orleans Process

Orleans is probably the oldest method of making vinegar – at least as old as wine itself. Barrels are partially – but never fully – filled with wine, allowing air to interact with the liquid. Bacteria, often left over from the previous vinegar, naturally converts the alcohol into vinegar. Better vinegars age in wood for a long time, the wood and evaporation adding to their flavor. Sherry vinegar gets a special barrel treatment, with different ages of vinegar mingled in a battery of barrels called a solera, sometimes for decades.

The Balsamic Process

Grape must – the juice before it’s wine – is cooked down to half its original volume then stored in large wooden casks that are exposed to air. After a year or so the young vinegar is blended into older, smaller barrels that hold more “experienced” balsamic. The older vinegar “teaches” the younger and the characteristics of both are merged. After more aging, some of the vinegar is removed and blended with different barrels holding different ages and the process continues, sometimes for generations.