POJER e SANDRI FRUIT VINEGARS: CHERRY AND QUINCE

Fruit vinegars fall into two camps: one, flavored with fruit and the other, the real one, vinegars made from fermented fruit juice. The Trentino based winery POJER e SANDRI make their vinegar from fruit juice, pressed and fermented in a special vinegar cellar in the Val di Cembra, a porphyry mining area in northern Italy in the Trentino, where there are very few, if any, vineyards and wineries. Both vinegars begin life as freshly pressed juice from local cherries and quinces--pressed and fermented into wine--then acetically fermented to produce a 6 grain (60% acetic acid) vinegar with all the fragrance and flavor of the original fruit. They are not sweet, but dry, having the delicate scent of the original fruit. The Quince vinegar is golden in color and the Cherry, deep red like the skin of the raw fruit.

These vinegars are completely natural and unpasteurized so that with time, they will change color slightly, may throw a deposit and are still acetically active. All of this is completely natural. Over time, they may become turbid and can be used to start your own vinegar

What is very useful are the flavors. The Quince has that lovely, aromatic scent of ripe quince and the scent of well made, clean vinegar. It can be used just as you would any white vinegar, but having the “cotogna” scent which I find intoxicating. The Cherry vinegar is a deep red color, with the scent of mature Marasca cherries, a lightly sour cherry with great body. This can be used for any recipe calling for good red wine vinegar. The cherry scent merely complements the clean vinegar flavor.

A delicious summer drink can be made using one or the other of these vinegars, a slug in a glass topped up with chilled sparkling water and the water adjusted to suit your vinegar preference. Historically, this was “Posca,”the drink the Roman army marched on. It was vinegar flavored water, much healthier than was natural water.

POJER e SANDRI CHERRY VINEGAR 6% acidity $19.99 250ml bottle