Slovenia produces a lot of orange wine. In fact, a great many proponents of the natural wine movement hail from there: winemakers such as Joško Gravner, Stanko Radikon, Aci Urbajs, and Božidar Zorjan (some of whom are now located on the other side of the Italian border) all helped to democratize the use of biodynamics and skin maceration in the 1990s. This gave me the idea to create a unique ingredient for my recipes: orange wine vinegar.

Truth be told, orange wine vinegar doesn’t differ fundamentally from its white wine counterpart. But since it’s virtually impossible to buy, this is a chance to make your own vinegar with a unique twist – and how can you not fall in love with its vibrant orange color? Since appearance plays a big role here, you’ll want to pick an affordable but visually appealing base; you could even try a dark skin-macerated Pinot Grigio.

Natural wine’s detractors will joke that most of it already tastes like acetic acid, making this recipe useless. Even Aci Urbajs reminds his visitors that, left open for a month, his wine should and will turn into vinegar, thus closing what he considers nature’s circle. Leave the detractors to their buttery Chardonnay and Urbajs to his obsession with circles. Today, you’re preparing orange wine vinegar with purpose and science!

Orange wine vinegar 

Yields about 350 g vinegar
Total preparation: about 1 month
Active preparation: 10 minutes

300 g orange wine
1 g 3% hydrogen peroxide solution (if the wine contains sulfites)
90 g spring water
45 g raw, unfiltered vinegar, or mother of vinegar

• Fill a pint jar with boiling water to sanitize it, then empty and dry. 
• Pour the wine into the jar. If the wine contains sulfites, stir in the hydrogen peroxide to neutralize them. Let sit for a minute, then stir in the water. Add the raw vinegar (or mother of vinegar) and stir again. 
• Cover the jar with a piece of cheesecloth secured with string. Store in a dark place at room temperature (25-30 C / 75-85 F for best results).
• Check the vinegar after about one month, and test the pH (using pH strips or a pHmeter): it should be 4.0 or below. If that’s not the case, wait a few more weeks and measure again. 
• Strain and bottle. If using mother of vinegar, you can store it to make another batch. 
• For reference: after one month, I got a pH of 2.9 and bottled my vinegar. The commercial white wine vinegar in my pantry has a pH of 2.6.