On Vinegar and Wine

7 May 2010 by Jean Johnson

Help me out here. Standard oenophile wisdom is that using vinegar when you’re drinking wine is a no-no. Thus, I assume that’s why Laurel and Carol called for lemon juice in their Astonishing Salad.

The gist of their idea is to soak dried apricots in warm wine and lemon juice, toss the plumped fruit with torn spinach leaves along with paper thin apple slices and walnut, and whisk oil into the wine brew for a dressing.

As I observe in my post on this salad, I had no lemons on hand the other day when I did the salad. Initially I thought I’d just skip the sour, but after a taste I realized the punch was missing. So I grabbed for the vinegar and splashed it about liberally right over the leaves. A brief toss and another taste. Delicious.

So what am I missing here? I am simply hopelessly pedestrian? Chuckle. Or did it work because I wasn’t actually drinking the wine, just using it in a dressing?

(Thanks to Chemistryland.com for this slide that showed up in the public domain.)

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  1. 5 Responses to “On Vinegar and Wine”

  2. Here’s Laura’s comment from the earlier post:

    I’m with you on cider vinegar—it provides a flavorful and not too sharp acidity. I like it and use it often. Perhaps the stricture pertains more to wine vinegars.

    By Jean Johnson on May 7, 2010

  3. What is ‘normal’ vinegar but a wine gone sour…..I use raw apple cider vinegar (yes, with the Mother-wort) exclusively these days.

    By Tony on May 7, 2010

  4. Normal vinegar? Not sure what you’re talking about Tony? The question here is about whether using any vinegar in food affects how the wine you’re drinking tastes–as in a horribly offensive way.

    By Jean Johnson on May 7, 2010

  5. I am not familiar with the idea that vinegar in our food affects how the wine tastes. I have never noticed that it does! I have a good friend who is in a wine group, “The Vine Maidens,” and I’ll bounce this off of her! I enjoy experimenting with all sorts of vinegars, but the apple cider bottle gets pulled from the pantry most often. In fact, I just used some on the black eyed peas I cooked the other day. Jean, I googled “black eyed peas” to find more ideas on using them. Imagine my surprise when all kinds of information came up regarding a rock group called Black Eyed Peas! Who knew??

    By Pam Glaze on May 7, 2010

  6. Funny on the rock group, Pam. Too bad you’re not on Facebook where I do get to playing tunes now and then for my sustainable food pals.

    Yeah. The idea that vinegar in your salad makes your good wine taste like swill is the main message you hear.

    I image your wine friends will echo this thought. Still what interests me most is that you’ve never found problems. Ditto here, although I can’t attest to the quality of wine I drink–chuckle.

    By Jean Johnson on May 8, 2010

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