Turning Wine into Vinegar — Intentionally

We really enjoyed Russ Parsons’ story that ran this week in the LA Times on Kitchen Essentials.  The paragraph that particularly caught our attention was the comment on expensive red wine vinegar and just how ordinary it is.  Given we had just laid out $15 for a mediocre bottle we had to agree.  We shot Russ an email asking him to post his vinegar making technique and he graciously replied and complied.

So we jumped online and found a home brew store with “mother” for sale and we grabbed a red and a white.  Not only are we excited by the prospect of building red wine vinegar that actually has great flavor but also are pleased with the “green” quality and the economics.  Green in that we have a use for leftover wine at the end of a good dinner.  Economic in that our sunk cost on this endeavor (mother, crock, cheesecloth) will be about the cost of one 8 oz bottle of vinegar.  We’ll keep you posted once the mother arrives and we get going.