April 19, 2006
Oakland Tribune
By Melissa Swanson
CONTRIBUTOR Inside Bay Area

Sweet-tart Vinegars Add Sparkle To Salads, Main Courses

EVERY SO OFTEN, I fall in love with a new condiment. These days, the ingredient of my affection is a vinegar made from Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc made by Napa-based Katz and Company under their KATZ Line. I stumbled upon it one day at Berkeley Bowl. Intrigued by its distinctive label - a rooster perched atop a kitchen knife - I bought it despite its $10 price tag.

In the interest of efficiency and speed, most vinegar these days is produced in a rushed, less than 24-hour process that essentially forces the conversion of alcohol to acetic acid. Various forms of agitation are used to bring about this conversion, which produces vinegar quickly, cheaply, and in large quantities.

In the old European tradition, vinegar is made slowly from real wine in oak barrels. An acetobacter (a bacteria that creates acetic acid) is added, and over two to five months, the wine turns to vinegar. The difference between the modern and this classic style is palpable; in the latter, you can taste the time that has passed, the influence of the barrel, and the nuances of the grape. KATZ does things the old-fashioned way, resulting in truly fantastic vinegars made from 100 percent California fruit.

My favorite of these, the Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc vinegar, also named "AgroDolce" (Italian for sweet and sour), is remarkable.

After converting to vinegar and aging in oak, its flavor combines the delights of sweet sauvignon - a grape used in the famous French sweet wine Sauternes - with the golden kiss of the barrel. Katz and Company also makes Champagne vinegar under their KATZ Line, as well as a "Trio," or a vinegar made from a blend of zinfandel, cabernet, and merlot.

These vinegars go beyond simple salad vinaigrette. Albert Katz, owner of Katz and Company, likes to reduce the vinegar in a pan over medium heat until it turns slightly syrupy. He adds honey, salt, pepper, maybe some herbs, and brushes it over fresh Ahi tuna or roasted pork loin. "The residual sweetness of the vinegar tastes very much like honey," Katz says. "So you can really use it in place of honey for many dishes." Katz also likes to mix the vinegars in with peppery greens, blue cheese, and walnuts, or anything that has goat cheese.

I have used the vinegar in a myriad of salads, and love it most when paired with bitter greens, like a mix of radicchio, dandelion, and arugula; the sweetness in the vinegar balances the sharp bite of the lettuces. I add rendered pancetta, sieved egg, and crushed walnuts, making sure to macerate shallots in the vinegar with some salt before whisking in extra-virgin olive oil (the KATZ Line also makes excellent extra-virgin olive oils). It's also delicious as a flavoring for vegetables; I recently combined it with olive oil and drizzled it over blanched cauliflower and roasted almonds.