A few words on Trockenbeerenauslese Vinegar

January 30, 2010 at 5:16 pm | Posted in What I do: | Leave a comment

When I’m lonely at the deli, I start to run a mental checklist of the strange things in jars that would be in my dream pantry.  The dream pantry has no price limits or practicality.  Which is exactly why a 250 ml. bottle that we sell for sixty bucks a pop is on the top of my list.  Here’s a little snippet I just wrote for the Zingerman’s Marketplace website.

Gegenbauer Bouvier Trockenbeerenauslese (Trok-in-beer-in-aus-lez-uh)

Trockenbeerenauslese is a German ice-wine, the name means “fruit selected of dried berries.”  The wine is thick and sweet remniscent of honey and apricots, once the wine has matured for eight years in the barrel, Gegenbauer turns it into vinegar.  Trockenbeerenauslese is one of the most tedious wines to produce, and the vinegar making process is no stroll in the park.  The residual sugars left in the wine can easily override the acetic acid producing bacteria.  The folks at Gegenbaur watch it like a hawk during the first 24 hours… and then the vinegar gets an additional five years of aging.

Next to the balsamico tradizionale  we keep under lock and key, the Trockenbeerenauslese vinegar is (in my not so humble opinion) the most beautifully complex on the shelf.  Sip it after dinner to cleanse your palate, the low acidity makes it enjoyable on its own.  Or – use a drop of it on seared scallops, or to add a sweet undertone to a butter sauce.

Cheers and happy eating, Katie G