Minus 8 Vinegar
From Maturation to Delicacy
Like with any wine, quality begins in the vineyard. Depending on the variety of grape, growing techniques, and the harvest/pressing temperature and method, the juice will have a certain sugar level, acidity, and taste. The juice for Minus 8 is very sweet, thick, and delicious.
The Only Vinegar That Believes "Haste Makes Waste"
The process is painstaking, slow and laborious, but worth every step. No shortcuts are taken, no inferior fruit picked, no spoiled wine made into vinegar: Minus 8 Vinegar is never boiled and never hurried. The superior quality that sets Minus 8 Vinegar apart from commonplace vinegar is guaranteed!

All Minus 8 Vinegar products are hand crafted by a single exclusive winemaker at one exclusive vineyard, from ultra premium quality fruit that is grown to the strictest standards. Each vine must be protected from hungry birds and other animals with netting, until harvest, when the nets are removed. Harvest conditions for Minus 8 Wine Vinegar are often brutally cold temperatures below 8°C (17°F), Canadian winter winds and night skies make a bone chilling combination for the people who hand pick and press the grapes. Halogen lanterns powered by portable generators are erected in the vineyard for the pickers to see by.

When the temperature drops to at least -8ºC, the grapes can be picked to make the wine for Minus 8 vinegar. The temperature must hold for several days, to obtain a solid freeze, and the best quality juice. The water component of the juice begins to turn into ice inside the fruit, leaving the acid, sugars, and flavors in liquid form to be pressed out.
Perfection Is Never Easy to Achieve
Why risk frostbite for frozen grapes? The answer is in the taste of this fine vinegar. Months of weathering throughout the fall and winter give the grapes unmistakable flavors found nowhere else as they oxidize on the vine; the slow natural freezing concentrates the flavors of the juice. The grapes dehydrate, concentrating the sugars, acids, and flavors in the grape. The grapes are immediately pressed at freezing temperatures to extract the most concentrated juice. If the grapes were allowed to thaw, the whole process would be wasted. The winemaker blends juices from 8 varieties of grapes, both red and white, with choices made to his professional taste. They are elevated and harvested in this way to attain the intricate flavor profile and delicate balance within the final product. This wine, one its own, is considered a rare delicacy!
From Fine Wine to Fine Vinegar
Once the wine is fermented slowly over months, alcohol transforms to acetic acid, or vinegar. Vinegar is made by a bacterial fermentation of alcohol, producing acetic acid. The selection of bacteria is very important - different types will produce different effects as with yeasts and wine making. The bacteria for Minus 8 Vinegar is in the form of what is called a "mother". This mother was developed by the vinegar/wine maker, and it is used year after year, from batch to batch like a sourdough starter for bread. Vinegar is not just wine that has "gone bad" - the fermentation process is very lengthy, and requires a great deal of care and attention.

Temperatures are monitored; overheating is avoided to make sure that each and every characteristic, aroma and taste of the original wine is maintained. The unique fermentation culture used to produce Minus 8 Vinegar was developed with the first making of Minus 8 Vinegar many years ago, and it is cared for year after year for reliable consistency.

You can age a bottle, and it will develop like a fine wine for many years. It is blended, similar to how sherry is blended in a solera system. The first vintage of vinegar was in 1997. Each subsequent vintage is aged. When ready, a portion of each vintage is blended for the bottling of the final product, which is Minus 8 Vinegar. A portion of each vintage is reserved for blending in future years. This brings complexity of flavor and depth of age to the vinegar process. Allowing for taste differences due to individual vintages, this system provides for consistency of Minus 8 Vinegar from year to year.
The Minus 8 Vinegar Difference
Yield from Minus 8 grapes is one tenth the volume of regular wine grapes. Unlike milk, spilling the juice from these Minus 8 grapes would be something to cry over! Yields can be even lower if the winter is slower achieving necessary conditions. Minus 8 is made in limited amounts each year at the vineyard in Canada. In fact, this vinegar isn't "Minus 8" until it has been aged for years, partially in French oak barrels, then blended with vinegars dating back to 1997. Finally, this extremely limited-production vinegar is bottled in special cork-sealed, wax-dipped, hand numbered glass bottles. It will age for many, many years. For long term cellaring, store it upright, in wine cellar conditions. After opening, if you intend to keep the bottle longer that 2 months, store it in the refrigerator to preserve flavors as long as possible. Otherwise, keep the cork in the bottle, and store it in a cool place out of direct light.

Minus 8 is made to stand alone or enhance other flavors. It is so fine, it can be sipped. And if the ingredients are fine, the food made by a professional chef or a home cook can be extraordinary.

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