Versatile Vinegar

We chat with dedicated artisans across Australia bottling vinegar with passion, love and care.

- Ally McManus

The adage, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” may well ring true for vinegar, which in French (vin aigre) translates to “sour wine”. You’ve no doubt got a bottle or two of the sour-tasting liquid in your kitchen, where it has widespread use in an array of recipes, cuisines and dishes.

Vinegar is made through the fermentation of alcoholic liquids such as wine, beer or cider. The type of fermented alcohol used influences the flavour of the vinegar: rice is used to make rice vinegar; apples are used to make apple-cider vinegar; grapes are used to make red wine, white wine and champagne vinegar; and malted barley is used to make malt vinegar.

One exception to the liquor rule, however, is balsamic vinegar. Unlike its alcoholic counterparts, balsamic vinegar is made from the grape juice of white Trebbiano grapes. Its name comes from the Italian phrase “aceto balsamico”, which means curative vinegar, as in the Middle Ages the ingredient was used to heal and cure ailments due to its therapeutic effects.

Vinegar contains an array of vitamins, minerals and compounds that differ based on the type of vinegar. If vinegar is pasteurised, which most varieties on the market are, this means it has been heat-treated and this process kills the “mother” bacteria, or culture, which is used to ferment the alcohol. However, some types of vinegar, such as apple-cider vinegar, can be non-pasteurised and instead are labelled as “raw” vinegar.

Dedicated artisans across the nation take all of these factors into account when formulating their much-loved vinegar in order to produce a high-quality, sustainable and delicious product.

The variety of vinegar Flavour compounds