Craft vinegar made in the Catskills

ACETAIA del SOLE is a 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; The Center for Discovery, a residential facility for the medically fragile and working farm in Sullivan County, New York; and Dr. Andrea Bezzecchi, one of Italy's leading balsamic-vinegar experts.

There are two secrets to ACETAIA del SOLE’s vinegars: our ingredients and our aging process. 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. At the same time, when it comes to the fermentation process, we are innovators. Instead of quick aging our vinegar with a mother—the mix of cells, yeast and bacteria favored by most commercial makers—we use the ancestral method, the slowest of vinegar fermentation techniques, where the vinegar is fermented for at least nine months.

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. Try our aged apple-cider vinegar (Special Cuvèe) ; our Concord vinegar; our Perpetuum, and Oxymela, a honey vinegar based on a recipe that dates to Roman times, and 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.