A visit to Oscar’s Acetaia is a privilege as Oscar is rarely available, often with his family or at work he is not easy to pin down. Luckily we met him on our last visit to Piemonte, a place where some of the wonders of the world are still made.

A wine makers night mare, vinegar, the making of vinegar is similar to wine making except a winemaker shutters at the thought of his wines going beyond a point of no return.

The first process in producing vinegar is almost the same as wine making, the juice goes through alcoholic fermentation, and the yeasts change natural sugars to alcohol. In the second process, a group of bacteria “Acetobacter” converts the alcohol to acid. This acid fermentation forms vinegar and Oscar bottles his juice once he achieves the acidity of 6.

Oscar generously he offered us some bottles (as it’s sold out) and I just opened up them after a long ride to Tokyo. These vinegar of Piemonte are superb and come in very handy for lots of reasons. I tend to think what makes them unique is the gorgeous landscape and climate; those cold winters months, and warm summers, the fog that settles in the winter, and those miniscule fruit flies that multiple and surround the barrels when the vinegar is in process.

The Acetaia is located right at the forest and the Acetaia is in a naturally cool and has a good consistent temperature. It all adds up to a sequence of events that helps produce the finest vinegar.

I use them for bitter salads, vegetables, meats, poultry, or whatever your heart desires. You can choose from his (6) vinegar – see below but sentimentally the Barolo I still enjoy to use regularly.

http://www.acetodibarolo.it/

Oscar Produces 6 typical Aceto as follows:

1.Aceto di Barolo
2.Aceto di Barbera
3.Aceto di Moscato
4.Aceto di Roero Arneis
5.Aceto Cesare Bianco (cuveè Langhe bianco 80 %,moscato 10%,roero arneis 10%)
6.Aceto Cesare Rosso (cuveè Dolcetto Diano D’alba 80%,barbera,nebbiolo 20%)