In the last year I've had the chance to see the winemaking process hands on and inso doing, discovered making wine is no different than making just about anything else; there is quite a lot of waste involved.
But where there is waste I see the challenge of reuse. And so begins ButterDate's Waste Not Want Not Wine Series.
First off, red wine vinegar.
Whenever DH has tasting notes to compile or when we have more than one winemaker friend over for dinner, there are inevitably more bottles open than we could ever possibly finish at the end of the night. Even taking our best stab at the bottles the next day there are still leftovers of some pretty top notch Pinot's, Syrah's and Grenache's.
Pouring out a bottle of Charles Shaw is one thing but pouring out $40 to $80 upwards to $150 bottles of wine is close to physically impossible for me...so came the idea of fermenting our own vinegar.
Pouring out a bottle of Charles Shaw is one thing but pouring out $40 to $80 upwards to $150 bottles of wine is close to physically impossible for me...so came the idea of fermenting our own vinegar.
I could tell DH thought I was a little nuts when I first suggested it but he's used to the crazy enough by now to just go with it.
Last September we started our first vat of vinegar and by December it was ready to give as home made Christmas gifts!
If you ever find yourself with an excess of good red wine, try making vinegar out of it. All it takes is a sterile container, equal parts red wine and hot water, half part vinegar mother to get the fermentation process started and 3 months in a warm spot to ferment.
The result is an intense, concentrated, delicious version of the red wine vinegar we buy in stores.
Next up in the WNWN Wine Series...wine bottle glasses.
We have never found ourselves in excess of good red wine, but I am intrigued nonetheless! Would it be good with the olive oil as a salad vinaigrette? Sounds yummier than using balsamic.
ReplyDelete