Anna Uncorked the leftovers: Bottled Vinegar

My vinegar barrel is well traveled. It started in 2009 in the Bronx, NY. You can tell that was I new to all of this, in the picture on the right, the stand is upside down.

Now, it is 2011 and this weekend, I had my first bottling session in Monroe, Maine. Over the years, every time that I have not been able to finish a bottle of red wine (yes, that is possible) I have poured the remnants into the barrel and slowly, it has developed into a nice red wine vinegar. A few times while I was at JPH & S's house, I would tap the barrel and fill their red wine vinegar bottle and we used it in cooking.


Since I am home in Maine for Labor Day weekend and I have my vinegar barrel with me, I decided to buy some bottles and bottle up the majority of the little 5 liter barrel.  Earlier that day, we had been in Belfast and I stopped by The Good Table and bought some bottles. Then we went back to Mum's little "Granny Flat" and I started cooking/bottling.



 I brought the barrel in from the car and set it up in Mum's kitchen. Here she is in the picture on the right, working at her desk.  At 81, she still works/volunteers. I think that it is her quiet strength and no nonsense work ethic that keeps me strong.  She raised me after my mother died when I was 13, and has been an amazing influence. It was fun to share this bottling session with her.  She supervised.

First, I sterilized the bottles with boiling water.  Then I poured off  just over a two liters of vinegar from the barrel, boiled it for a few minutes, then filled the 200ml bottles to give away.

Maybe by Christmas time, I will have created some labels.  But I doubt that I will be bottling more vinegar for a while.

Chateauneuf du Pape Val de la Pierre Joel Dupont `08 AOC $17.99 (Not TJ's) ***

This is what happens when JPH takes me shopping with him.  I stand in the wine shop and I am overwhelmed.  He grabs a shopping cart and deftly starts putting bottles in the cart.  I stand and stare at labels, and he makes decisions. Will I ever get over that "Kid in a candy shop" indecisiveness?  Probably not.

As we were checking out of Coves Discount, we saw a display that said "Chateauneuf du Pape" $17.99.  JPH put back a montepulciano and I grabbed this bottle. (We were buying a mixed case for the 20% discount). Then it was off to shop for dinner.  (Today was MLK day, no work) Well, tuna was on the menu but it didn't look so good.  Duck was on sale, so the decision was made.

Chateauneuf du Pape is one of those wines that has been a catchphrase for people like me to make fun of.  Put on a funny accent, swirl your Tickle Pink in your McDonald's wine glass and say "Chateauneuf du Pape" with your pinkie finger in the air.

Really, this is not a totally accessible wine and the embossed bottle just adds to that heraldic aloofness. It figures that wines from this AOC are steeped in papal history.  I posed a head to head drink off between Chateauneuf du Pape and Vino Nobile Montipulciano, (two wines with close ties to papal history) and S. laughed. This could happen in the future... I can be persuasive....

Meanwhile, back to the Chateauneuf du Pape.  It is a remarkable wine, in that it tastes like two wines.  It has the bright fruity taste of a Beaujolais on first sip - a strong raspberry taste and the heavy tannic finish of an old Cabernet Sauvignon.  Wow, so this is an AOC Syrah? This wine has known some oak in its lifetime. I also imagine that when I think of a wine tasting of leather, it is the finish of this wine that will come to mind for me. Fruity and leathery, now THAT is a complex wine! There is some pepper too, that adds to the brightness when you first sip.

After the Nuance:  By aerating it, it smoothed out but that just made the finish seem rougher. I wouldn't bother.  It is remarkably complex in that I still stand by that it tastes like you are drinking two different wines.

Good wine.  I won't go running out for more.  It paired well with the poached then roasted at 500 degrees duck (Thank you Barbara Kafka Roasting), roasted potatoes in Rosemary, and tomatoes in olive oil & red wine vinegar infused with garlic. It was really good flavorful meal, that paired well with a flavorful complex red wine that was an impulse buy. 

Speaking of red wine vinegar... 

it has been a year since I started my adventure
in making my own vinegar.  

We used it tonight. 
It is great to be able to run down to the cellar and 

draw out a quarter cup of
homemade vinegar from the barrel.  

Leftover red wine does have its place.
(that is is you have leftover red wine!)

Making Wine Vinegar... The signs of obsession...

It was a good Christmas.  I got to Long Island and there was a huge, open bottle of wine waiting for me.  Unfortunately, it would be days before I could drink it.  Work & Dr's appointments totally messed up my drinking schedule.  And even though we have invested in the vacuum bottle bottle re-corker/stopper, Il Bastardo would not wait for me.  (The story of my life!!!) I decided that the leftover bottle of Il Bastardo 100% Sangiovese would be my inaugural attempt at making wine vinegar.

I've always toyed with the idea of making my own wine vinegar with the leftover wines I have.  (yes, sigh, the unfortunate part of living alone is a lot of leftover wine)  So, I now have an Italian crock to make wine vinegar in (see below for a pic of my first attempt)  and on order, I have a 5L oak barrel for the same purpose.  2010 will not only be a year of travel for me but it will also be the year of Wine Vinegar! (I'm beginning to think that in a former life I was an Italian farmer's wife)

More posts to come.

 

UPDATE:  I had to switch to a 5 litre oak barrel.  I was worried about the brass fittings on the crock above.   The Barrel is working out perfectly! Here it is now (1/2011) left, and when I first bought it (1/2010) below (notice that I had the stand upside down!).  I've used the vinegar sparingly, but it does have an amazing taste.