Sherry vinegar

[edwardsboi]

I need to buy some sherry vinegar for some gazpacho and salad recipes, but I don't really know anything about this ingredient. What should I look for?

Is it true that you should only get sherry vinegar from Jerez, Spain?

And, does anybody know anything about Pedro Ximenez sherry vinegar? When a recipe calls for sherry vinegar, would Pedro Ximenez sherry vinegar be too sweet?

[Dave Hatfield]

Most brands will be OK.

Real Sherry only comes from the Jerez area of Spain which is down in the South West corner of the country.

The Pedro Ximenez brand is a major one in the sherry industry and would, I think, be a good product.

Be careful with sherry vinegar as its strong tasting. Its probably my favorite vinegar, but you do need to be careful.

[Corinna]

My bottle of sherry vinegar has about a tablespoon left. I use it often, but not in great quantity. This brand, Columela, has served me well and was about $10 for 375 ml at Wegmans. Vinegar is one of my favorite ingredients, and sherry vinegar has become my preferred one (salad dressing, finishing soups, amping up veggies) and am interested in trying others, if there are some you could recommend (even if I have to order online.) Thanks!

[andiesenji]

I have the Columela and it is quite good.

I also have Pommery, which I like and I tried the Don Bruno but to me it is somewhat harsh - although I "fixed" it by adding some cream sherry to the vinegar that cut the harsh notes and made it more palatable for me.

In the past I had a small bottle of a "double solera" that was very sweet and more like the long-aged balsamics - almost a syrup. It was this one.

I think I consumed most of it on fruit and on ice cream!

[Corinna]

Thank you, Andie. I'll keep my eyes open for the Pommery.

[AAQuesada]

I wouldn't use PX Sherry for Gazpacho. Too sweet IMO, PX is great as a sub for Balsamic. It's much more complex than any but the DOC Balsamics

I use this one: http://www.laespanolameats.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=LEM&Product_Code=6060

[qrn]

La Posada sherry wine vinegar is the best, IMHO...you can get it on amazon, other than that, its really tuff to find...

I am gonna place an order for some next week...Great stuff..Been using it for many many years,but its gotten scarce locally..

Bud

[nickrey]

I use Gran Gusto from Bodegas Paez Morilla in Jerez. Amazon link here. have tried a number of sherry vinegars and this is one of the best cheaper ones around.

On a related point, you can also get aged Sherry vinegars at a fraction of the cost of comparable balsamics. I use a few drops of this 50 year old vinegar on 12 month old Manchego cheese. It is a taste sensation.

Edited March 19, 2011 by nickrey (log)

[thayes1c]

I had some Solera 77 vinegar that was quite good. It came with a pour spout that I do not recommend leaving on the bottle. One day when I poured out some vinegar and noticed little brown lumps. I thought maybe it was dried up bits of vinegar or something, but closer inspection revealed scores of dead fruit flies on my risotto. I guess you can catch more flies with vinegar sometimes.

[chezcherie]

On a related point, you can also get aged Sherry vinegars at a fraction of the cost of comparable balsamics. I use a few drops of this 50 year old vinegar on 12 month old Manchego cheese. It is a taste sensation.

wow...just received my order of this aged sherry vinegar. to my palate, it is harsher than the don bruno. i think i have some manchego in the cheese case, so i'm gonna try that pairing, but the initial taste is pretty rough!

[OliverB]

Is that really 50 years old? Says the company is 60 years old, I'd be surprised if they held on to it that long. The image is hard to read though, does it say 50 years on there, or just the number 50? I've never heard of vinegar that old, unless it's some super expensive sold in tiny bottles balsamico, and even that is almost impossible to find. And certainly costs a lot more than $16.99

a hundred times more, would be my guess. If you're lucky.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I had some Solera 77 vinegar that was quite good. It came with a pour spout that I do not recommend leaving on the bottle. One day when I poured out some vinegar and noticed little brown lumps. I thought maybe it was dried up bits of vinegar or something, but closer inspection revealed scores of dead fruit flies on my risotto. I guess you can catch more flies with vinegar sometimes.

I've also liked Solera 77. I don't think it's 77 years old.

[Corinna]

With sherries, the age on the bottle indicates the oldest part of the blend, so I'd guess the same with the sherry vinegars.

[andiesenji]

On a related point, you can also get aged Sherry vinegars at a fraction of the cost of comparable balsamics. I use a few drops of this 50 year old vinegar on 12 month old Manchego cheese. It is a taste sensation.

wow...just received my order of this aged sherry vinegar. to my palate, it is harsher than the don bruno. i think i have some manchego in the cheese case, so i'm gonna try that pairing, but the initial taste is pretty rough!

That has been my experience with some of them. As I noted above, I added some sweet sherry (Savory & James cream sherry) and left it alone for a month or so. Improved it no end. I mixed two parts of the sherry vinegar with one part sweet sherry.

[chezcherie]

andiesenji to the rescue once again! as always, you've got a sensible and delicious-sounding solution. i bow in your general direction.

[nickrey]

As Corinna says, all the vinegar is not 50 years old. That is part of the Solera process. The vinegars are stacked one on top of the other with the oldest, from which the product is drawn, being on the bottom. Every year they draw off up to a third of the vinegar and sell it. This is replenished from the next oldest vat, and so on. All the casks used were previously filled with Sherry.

As far as I am aware, the same process is used for Balsamic except they tend to use different woods in the vats, thus imparting a multi-layered flavour.

This vinegar is not a sweet vinegar by any means. If you were expecting that, I'm sorry to have misled. If you compare it with other similar vinegars (ie. not sweet ones such as the Pedro Ximinez vinegars), you will see that it has much more complexity from the aging process.

On a personal note, I like "sharp" rather than "sweet" vinegars. Not quite sure if that is a synonym for "rough" or "harsh" but if you are used to and prefer sweeter vinegars, it makes sense.

I am sure that andiesenji's suggestion will make it more palatable if you prefer a sweeter product.

Edited March 27, 2011 by nickrey (log)

[mcohen]

This brand, Columela, has served me well and was about $10 for 375 ml at Wegmans.

So, Columela is the best sherry vinegar you'll find in a grocery store?

[Corinna]

This brand, Columela, has served me well and was about $10 for 375 ml at Wegmans.

So, Columela is the best sherry vinegar you'll find in a grocery store?

I think it's the only one in the grocery store, and the high end one at that-- but this bottle has convinced me that it's an ingredient that I really like and use frequently, though not in great quality. I'd like to try another brand/type of sherry vinegar for my next bottle, just to make the comparison.

Edited to clarify.

Edited April 5, 2011 by Corinna (log)

[edwardsboi]

This brand, Columela, has served me well and was about $10 for 375 ml at Wegmans.

So, Columela is the best sherry vinegar you'll find in a grocery store?

You might also want to try to look for sherry vinegar at sites like these:

http://www.tienda.com/food/vinegar.html

They speciliaze in Spanish ingredients so I'm sure whatever sherry vinegar they carry is going to be good.