Wine and wine vinegar are the subjects that have fascinated me since I was a bartender. This new millennium finds me reading up on the history of wine and wine vinegar before there was a written account of history. Wine has been my beverage of choice for a long time so there is a fairly educated opinion there. Cooking helped my knowledge of wine vinegar and I know this it’s an under-served subject and industry.

When approaching and researching anything new and interesting in the culinary world, I’ve found a deep dive into the subject helps give perspective. It’s important to add that delving into a subject in the culinary world a learning process and like jazz, people are going to put their own spin on it. Science is one thing, you need to stick to the facts, with what we consume, it’s about what tasted good.

There are such a deep well of human history, of which I feel we have barely scratched the surface. In science, so much is happening and there has been tremendous headway through branching out into newly discovered fields using new technology. People are now able to study the smallest particles and can see the evidence and are figuring out how to deduce what has happened in the past.

Recently an interesting bit of archaeological science news that I keep coming back to because it’s so interesting. In 22,000 BCE, in an area triangulated somewhere between Mount Elbrus and Mount Shani in the Caucuses and south to Mount Arafat in Armenia, the hunter gatherers who lived there were working with nature and were manipulating the wild grape populations there to produce better fruit.

These were modern humans, who at 24,000 years ago were far more advanced than we give them credit for. In fact, I think this is fodder for magnificent speculation. We have little knowledge of the specifics of what went on before the written word. We know there were many cultures that came and went from a starting point of what’s gone on since the last ice age peaked around 22,000 BCE ago.

There is a giant gap in time, quite literally thousands of years. It cannot be said that in those thousands and thousands of generations that there aren’t fabulous stories of families and tribes and long forgotten cultures and people. These were modern people like us, who had children, grandchildren, who worked, made clothes, hunted, ate, learned, discovered things, lived their lives and all the humanity involved.

All before anything was written down on something that would last and be obvious to later generations. This is when the sea levels were much lower and the people who were living at this time were able to travel to places that are not able to get to. Modern human types have been around over 40,000 years and so, and while being pretty primitive during a good portion of that time, not the last 20,000 years.

One might imagine that being as tenacious and clever as humans prove to be today, that for all of our existence humans have probably been just like that, just in a more natural setting. Humanity probably got very good at living and finding sustenance with-in nature and traveling with-in the seasons, probably following food. Our World still has (less and less) primitive people living like that today in remote areas.

We have been men and women dealing with that, forever, for openers. And, if we figured out fire a million years ago, people have probably been drinking and eating something, traveling, living (and all that entails), procreating and trading in whatever people needed or caught people’s eye at a time. Humanity’s size was dependent on the weather, the population didn’t explode until it got warmer.

Oddly enough, human beings are a richly creative species but, without hard facts we don’t speculate too much about what happened before it warmed up, 12,000 years ago. Most things that humans made before 12,000 years ago that weren’t made out of some type of stone, haven’t held up too well. Much of what we know happened throughout time, is based on the study and progression of the tools made.

Imagine what we knew then, what your parents taught you, about what could and couldn’t be eaten, what could and couldn’t be done, what was expected of you, what you accomplished as you grew up and if you survived. People lived longer lives before there was any type of civilization. From what can be gathered, there’s been a painful, 12,000 year learning curve to deal with what being civilized entails.

The ongoing list of who is making good wine vinegar

Spain

O Med http://www.omedoil.com/es/13-vinagre

they use the Schutzenbach method in very large (in what looks like fiberglass fermentors or fiberglass encased stainless steel.

Torres Parellada La Oscuridad Les Garrigues

Torres Cabernet Sauvignon Vinagre La Oscuridad 500ML

Satorni https://www.torrevella.com/

Montegrato 58 year old Amontillilado Wine Vinegar Reserva 200ML

Sanlucar de Barrameda Solera 77 http://videsan.com/

Forvm https://www.avgvstvsforvm.com/en/vinegars

Cepa Vieja

France

Pineau Des Charentes Vinegar https://www.francoisefleuriet.com/

DeLouis http://www.delouis.com/

Vilux http://en.vilux.com/

Fallot https://www.fallot.com/en/nos-produits/

Martin Pourat https://www.martin-pouret.com/en/

Huilerie-Beaujolaise https://www.huilerie-beaujolaise.com/

Cave de l’Abbé Rous Banyuls Wine Vinegar

https://www.thefrenchfarm.com/La-Cave- de-L-Abbe-Rous-s/721.htm

La Guinelle Banyuls http://levinaigre.com/nos-vinaigres/

Aigre-Doux Sud Cévennes http://www.aigredouxsudcevennes.com/accueil.html

House Gelas Floc de Gascogne armagnac flavored wine vinegar

http://www.lescavesdebaptiste.com/20-epicerie-fine https://gelas.com/en/accueil

Baume de Bouteville http://www.lebaumedebouteville.com/

Italy

Castello di Volpaia http://wine.volpaia.com/

il Boschetto http://www.ilboschetto.net/vinegar_ita.html

5 varieties of single variety wine vinegar with a broad assortment of other vinegar varieties

Pojer e Sandi https://www.pojeresandri.com/?lang=en

Classically made and blended wine vinegars from estate and locally grown grapes, fruit vinegars made from fermented fruit

Badia a Coltibuono Badia A Coltibuono

Acetaia Ducale Entense https://www.acetaiaducale.it/en

Estate grown reds cab (main grape), merlot and raboso and pinot gris for white vinegars, all aged first in a solera battery and then into oak barrels

Acetaia San Giacomo http://www.acetaiasangiacomo.com/prodotti/crudi/

uses specific single and blend wine varietals and different barrels for aging’ terracotta amphora, oak barrels, juniper barrels

Acetum Martin Albrecht (formerly Acetoria Robert Bauer)

San Giuliano Alghero Cannonau si Sardegna DOC http://www.sangiuliano.it/prodotti_det_USA.php?ID=46&Tipologia=tavola

Terre Bormane http://www.terrebormane.it/en/aceti-e-condimenti-3-2/

Lucini https://shop.lucini.com/artisan-vinegars/c/lucini@vinegars

Germany

Long Wine Vinegar https://www.langweinessig.de/

Weingut-Kaltenthaler https://weingut-kaltenthaler.de/wp/catalog/

Austria

Gegenbauer https://www.gegenbauer.at/start.aspx

An definitive inspiration for Atomiq, broad selection of single variety wine vinegars, balsamic, fruit vinegars and condiments all locally grown in their corner of Austria

Golles https://www.goelles.at/en/

Hungary

Borecet Kft Tokaji Aszu Balsamic https://borecet.hu/en/

Grapes: Furmint, Harslevelu, Sarga Muskotaly, Zeta, Koverszolo, Goher

South Africa

Rozendal http://rozendal.co.za/

Australia

Artisan Vinegar http://artisanvinegar.co.nz/

Canada

Gingras (cideria) http://www.cidervinegar.com/en/visit-us.html

du Capitaine http://lavinaigrerie.com/?lang=en

Venturi Schultze British Columbia balsamic

Robertson Estate http://www.robertsonestate.com/About_Us.html

Okanagan Vinegar Brewery https://www.bodega1117.com/vinegars

The Vinegar Works http://www.thegarden.ca/vinegarworks/ourvinegars.html

USA

Katz Farm https://katzfarm.com/

Kimberly http://www.kimberleywinevinegars.com/

Classic, Sparrow Lane https://classicwinevinegar.com/

O Vinegar https://www.ooliveoil.com/store/vinegars

Sonoma Vinegar Works

Keep Well Vinegar http://www.keepwellvinegar.com/

Mad House Vinegar https://www.goodvinegar.com/

Minus 8 Vinegar https://minus8vinegar.com/

George Paul Vinegar https://www.georgepaulvinegar.com/

Supreme Vinegar https://supremevinegar.com/

Lindera Vinegar (no wine vin) https://www.linderafarms.com/collections/our-flavors

Argentina

Malbec Products http://malbecproducts.com/

11-01-17

This is my second entry and first actual entry into the Atomiq Condiments Word Press blog and as I go, I’m learning more and more about this new direction I’m going. Until now, I haven’t had an urge to talk on social media but, now I want to be talking about the the who, what, why and where of how this has come to be. What this blog is about is the reason for being or raison d’être for Atomiq Condiments.

Aside of my general love of food and beverages, I have been into specialty foods and specialty stores since I moved to San Francisco to go to culinary school. I started attending the Fancy Food show as soon as I moved here! My original idea when I made the move from being a bartender to being a cook was to start a specialty food store that was also a restaurant.

It made total sense to have a facility that made and packaged local foods and beverages and also carried great artisan products and then served all those great foods. These days, it seems retail commingling with a restaurant is becoming more and more common! There are a lot more specialty food stores and food halls and restaurants that are making products. People are eating better and look to buy and eat foods with provenance. In these days of mass produced foods, knowing what you eating and drinking leads to a healthier existence.

Since moving to San Francisco, there is a lot of information I have gathered and learned about starting a business, about all the great specialty stores, foods and beverages from around the world as well as cooking, restaurants, farms, ranches and things of that ilk. Being a bartender, then a cook and then a chef has been an important part of growing and acquiring the skills I need to do go to the next level in my career.

My direction has changed in the last five years once I realized that I need to take a smaller bite and focus my interests on what what is attainable. What living in the Bay area has given me, is a tremendous appreciation of what is happens on the local level. People here really see how buying and staying local benefits the local community. What Atomiq Condiments is about is acquiring local seasonal ingredients grown with love and care, not adding anything extraneous and saving the season in a recyclable glass bottle!