traditional grade, and are far less concentrated
and fine-flavored. The better mass-produced
vinegars include some cooked-down grape
must and young balsamic vinegar, and are
aged for a year or so. Cheap balsamic vinegars
are no more than ordinary wine vinegar
colored with caramel and sweetened with
sugar.
Sherry Vinegar
A style of vinegar that lies somewhere
between ordinary wine vinegar and balsamic
vinegar is the solera-aged sherry vinegar of
Spain. This starts from the young sherry wine,
which contains no residual sugar. Like sherry
wines and balsamic vinegars, sherry vinegar is
blended with older batches and matured for
years or decades in a series of partly-filled
barrels. The concentration by evaporation, and
extended contact with microbes and wood,
leave sherry vinegar with high levels of