Corti Brothers Newsletter for December 2003  Page 4 

 CORTI BROTHERS CALIFORNIA VINEGAR: RED AND WHITE 

Vinegar is a much maligned product. Unless it is some fancy-schmancy type like Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale or the like, vinegar is often not highly considered in the pantry. Unfortunately, such should not be the case. Good vinegar is difficult to produce, difficult to find and when found, should be used judiciously. Try making a good salad without it.

Vinegar is not spoiled wine! It is another wine product and to make high quality vinegar one must begin with good, sound wine, acetify the wine, and then age the vinegar. Spoiled wine will most likely produce spoiled vinegar. It is probably more difficult to make good vinegar than to make good wine. Wine is primarily a complex alcoholic fermentation. But vinegar comprises both alcoholic fermentation and then the more sensitive bacteriological fermentation by which alcohol is oxidized to acetic acid.

After several years of not having our own label of well made, aged vinegar, I have now found a production that meets my quality standard. There is an aged white wine and an aged red wine vinegar, both available in 375ml and ½ gallon jugs. Both are very fine and they will surprise you with their quality.

The red wine vinegar has a ruddy, reddish tawny color, the indication of age. It has a clean aroma, winey, and an intense, clean, sharp flavor. The finish is clean with good length.

The white wine vinegar has a dark gold color indicating age. It has a very clean, aged aroma, reminiscent of old sherry in its pungency. It has a pungent flavor, with a slight sweetness due to age, great balance, and lovely complexity. This is a terrific vinegar with great depth and length.

CORTI BROTHERS FINEST CALIFORNIA WINE VINEGAR

Corti White Wine Vinegar
White Vinegar 375ml. Sold out.
White Vinegar ½ gallon Sold out.

We have offered a number of old vintages of the most famous muscat wine in Europe, SETÚBAL, coming from the J.M.da Fonseca winery just south of Lisbon, Portugal. Produced from Muscat Alexandria grown in the relatively sandy soils of this area, these wines are sold in varying ages. SETÚBAL SUPERIOR is the highest quality level, originally designated as such by Jose Maria da Fonseca, after long aging in huge Brazilian satinwood casks.

This unique muscat wine, SETÚBAL SUPERIOR 1962, was bottled in 1999. It has now thrown some deposit and should be rested and then decanted prior to serving.

There are many muscats in the world; few great ones. In California we have practically lost the wine style. Two great ones remain: SETÚBAL in Portugal and Rutherglen in Australia. Of the these two, SETÚBAL has a unique production technique. Muscat Alexandria is crushed when ripe, but not overipe or raisiny as are muscats in Rutherglen. The must is fermented and fortified. Scraped fresh muscat skins are added back to the fortified wine and allowed to macerate through the winter until the spring rackings. This way the aromas in the muscat skins are extracted in the wine and then the wine is aged.

Particular lots are selected for prolonged aging, and are kept separate from the others. These vintage lots form the basis of the SUPERIOR selection. Kept separate, much like colheita ports or vintage Madeira, they see the light of day only when the producer deems fit. Their color changes from a pale yellow to a reddish orange brown and their flavor from that of fresh muscat grapes to something magical, akin to a cross between Tokaji Eszencia, a bouquet of flowers, and complexity (rancio) given only by age. The wine’s body becomes very viscous and thick. This is one of the rare muscats that needs long aging for maximum flavor development. It is also the only Muscat that ages well in bottle.

Capers are the cured flower buds of a curious, low growing Mediterranean plant, Capparis spinosa L. It is extremely hardy and grows under very difficult drought conditions and in some of the most unlikely places, including dry rock walls. Many of the plants sprouting from ruins in Mediterranean countries are caper plants.

Today, the best capers in world are produced on the tiny island of Pantelleria, off the southern coast of Sicily, closer to Tunis than Rome. CAPPERONI DI PANTELLERIA is the name of the largest size capers produced. They are the buds just before breaking open as the white, four petalled, caper flower. When picked, caper plants produce seven different sizes of buds (ranging from the tiniest non pareil to the “fuori calibro” CAPPERONI) and the seed pod. Too bitter to be eaten fresh, they are cured in salt to render them edible.

Caper harvest goes from late May to early September. Every 8 to 10 days the growers must pass through these low growing plants manually harvesting the buds. Once harvested, the buds are sized and then layered with coarse sea salt at the level of 40% of their weight. Water is forced out of the buds, creating a brine and provoking a lactic fermentation. After 10 days of this brining, they are drained and then packed with more coarse sea salt to 1/10 of their weight, then mixed for another 10 days. Now they are ready to be eaten.

The best capers are those packed in salt. Those packed in vinegar are considered by the Pantelleria producers as a travesty. The most flavorful capers are the CAPPERONI size, not less than 13 millimeters, a fraction less than ½ inch, in size. It is this size which is wonderful for deep frying in olive oil, used either as a special hors d’oeuvre, or for garnishing other dishes. Just rinse off the salt and dry on paper towels. When making a sauce with capers, the CAPPERONI size is the best since they are the most flavorful and are easily chopped.

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