Carrie L. wrote:How'd you do it?
Ever find that an unfinished wine smells a bit vinegary the next day? That's the start, and I've discovered a few wines that will go there every time. Cheapie Italian Monte Antico that almost every supermarket carries is one, so lacking a starter you can buy this to get going. I just leave the open bottle(s) on the counter with plenty of air space inside (never full bottles) and paper towels stuffed in the opening so that the vinegar can breathe. Left alone, they'll develop a 'mother', a little oil slick looking pool on top that might foam a bit around the sides. I use clear empty wine bottles for this purpose so that I can easily see if the mother's working or not. A mother can be induced or given a kick in the pants for a fast start with a shot of Bragg's natural apple cider vinegar, which contains its own mother. Once the mother's started, she needs to be fed a slurp of new wine in 7-14 day intervals to keep going. If you forget, a little Bragg will restart her. Starting with one bottle invariably leads to more bottles because you end up dividing when the bottle gets too full. What I bottled this morning ranges in age from 90 to about 120 days. I combined one younger bottle with one older bottle, decanting them through paper coffee filters to remove sediment. I rinsed the used bottles with boiling water before filling each to the neck. Those will go to the wine cellar for about six months of aging, during which time the vinegar mellows and gains complexity.
My goal is to get to where I'm using 2-3 year old vinegar. That, because until I tasted a three year old zinfandel vinegar from someone in California a number of years back I'd never been that impressed with red wine vinegar--all I'd had was commercial, and I had no idea a wine vinegar could be so enchanting--tart but fruity and round with complex secondary development. Though I've been making my own for years now, I've never managed to get far enough ahead to have the luxury of having all the vinegar I use be well aged. I'm trying to get there now.
