ACETAIA del SOLE is a small-batch craft-vinegar workshop that specializes in finishing vinegars made with organic fruit and herbs. It is a collaboration between Cesare Casella, the Italian chef and educator who founded the workshop, and The Center for Discovery, a residential facility for the medically fragile and working farm in Sullivan County, New York.
There are two secrets to ACETAIA del SOLE’s vinegars: our ingredients and our aging technique. Like the traditional Italian vinegar masters who inspired us, we use local resources—apples grown in The Center's orchards, maple syrup from trees on its woodlands, herbs from its Healing Garden, and New York State Concord Grapes. And like those same masters, we value patience over convenience when it comes to the fermentation process. Instead of quick-aging our vinegar with a mother—the mix of cells, yeast and bacteria favored by many commercial makers—we use the ancestral method, the slowest of vinegar fermentation techniques, where the vinegar is fermented for at least nine months then aged.
The result is a line of vinegars prized for their complex, ethereal flavors and for the exquisite finishing touch they lend to dishes both warm and cold. In Chef Casella’s native Italy, fruit-based vinegars are a staple in cooking and preserving and are celebrated for their health benefits. We at ACETAIA del SOLE are building on that heritage with our aged apple-cider vinegar; our apple elixir vinegar; our concord grape vinegar; our Four Thieves herb-infused vinegar; our fennel vinegar, and our Oxymela, a honey vinegar based on a recipe that dates to Roman times. Try them individually or in combination to bring out the best in your foods.
ACETAIA del SOLE’S vinegars are produced with the help of residents of The Center for Discovery.
All proceeds support The Center’s Farm Program.