Turning Wine into Vinegar

Turn your wine-making disasters into the best wine vinegar, better than any which would be commercially available.

Water into Wine?

"You appear to be a bit confused," you tell me. "You are supposed to be turning water into wine." After all, that is what Jesus did when he performed his first miracle at the wedding at Cana. When, after days of celebrations, the wine ran out, he ordered large containers to be filled with water, and then he turned them into first quality wine. Well that is not what I do. I turn wine into vinegar. Not on purpose, mind you. It is not a matter of performing a miracle for me either but rather a matter of sloppy wine-making.

Wine into Vinegar

I don't make wine to be able to drink it. I don't really enjoy alcoholic beverages. They remind me of being sick. In my childhood, alcohol was administered as medicine, and the taste reminds me of being sick, so I stay away from it. I only make wine because I hate any kind of waste and need to do something with surplus produce. Usually that is apples. They are one of the few fruits which have varieties hardy enough to survive our zone 3 winters, so I plant a lot of apple trees, and we cannot possibly eat as many apples as I grow. In my teens, I spent a summer in the Rhine valley, the mildest region of Germany. The people there make enough "Appelwein" (dialect for Apfelwein = apple wine) from surplus apples to last them as supper beverage all year round. I try to do the same, but I am rarely successful. I am not a fussy person. Having to sterilize bottles and equipment is just not my preferred method of operation. The use of sulpur could help to eliminate some fussy procedures, but I definitely will not use it. Commercial Canadian and American wines contain sulphur, and it makes the blood rush to the surface and makes people hyper. Its commercial use if not permitted in other countries. I am always experimenting, trying to invent shortcuts, and that may be the main reason why my wine-making efforts often take off in new directions. Occasionally, I get a few bottles of really good liqueur without even trying, but most of the time, I produce the best vinegar you ever tasted.

My Wine Vinegar non-Recipe

Don't ask me for my recipe. I don't have one, and I change my methods like other people change clothes. Part of the problem is that I never remember what I did last year. Writing things down seems such a waste of time, especially when I probably would never bother to read what I have written. If you really want a recipe, follow any wine recipe in a book or on the Internet, but be sloppy about sterility. That way, you also will end up with a #1 wine vinegar.