 SIRK DELLA SUBIDA Via Subida, 54 34071 Cormons – GO Italy  sirk@acetosirk.it
Per consultare l'informativa - Policy Privacy - Note Legali
Design: Studio Ajd
Foto: Marijan Močivnik, Maurizio Frullani, Stefano Scatà |
 Creed
If it is true – and it is – that a great wine is made with great grapes, it is thanks to such superior vineyards that
I make my superlative vinegar; it takes me a few years and, in the meanwhile, I must look after it and pamper it just like an infant.
Joško Sirk |
 The vinegar factory
The facility is entirely made of wood - an expression of the strong architectonic hand of Marcus Klaura, an architect.
It also fits very well in the landscape, as it shows off its roof, thoroughly covered with photovoltaic panels.
Placed on the edge of a luxuriant wood of small oaks, with its essential lines it integrates well in the surrounding landscape.
A merging point of the tidy terraces of the vineyard and of the wild wood, with its stair-like structure it favours the various processing stages.
Pouring off takes place through flowing from the upper step to the lower one.
The whole productive cycle of our wine vinegar - made with whole grapes - takes place spontaneously without employing any sort of machinery.
|
 Production
Once stalks have been removed from the grapes, the latter are brought into the vinegar factory and placed
in small tubs where alcoholic fermentation takes place, in just a few days.
Once this is about to finish, we add our mother vinegar to foster the start of acetic fermentation.
This will occur in an absolutely spontaneous way, lasting almost one year, until all the alcohol has changed into acetic acid.
That is why we say that our wine vinegar is made from whole grapes. A few weeks before the subsequent wine harvest, we pour off1,
press and decant and the by-now-nearly-finished vinegar is placed into small barrels, which are filled to age.
Three or four years, so that the vinegar amalgamates and sharpens.Given the quality of the grapes that we use, their structure, minerality and the utter2 naturalness of the process, we can avoid additions of both sulphurous substances and of all kinds of anti-oxidizing preservatives. It is bottled without any filtering. 
Thus our vinegar appears strong, perhaps overbearing, but its body, persistence, minerality – not to mention the bouquet3 - make it a unique connoisseurs' article.Just as happens for every great wine, time is its friend and, while it is in the bottle, it sharpens, matures, becomes grand. So, everything Pliny said is true; the final outcome of grape fermentation is not wine but vinegar! Therefore, for a great vinegar, we need superlative grapes! 
Organoleptic featuresThe features of wine vinegar made from whole grapes are those of a superlative ageing wine. The quality of the grapes, the extremely long contact with the peels and the noble dregs, allow to achieve a produce whose structure is grand, persistent, complex and rich in minerals. With time, its intense acidity is tempered, thus favouring the evolution of variegate aromatic tones.
|
 In the kitchen
Used with a sprinkler, it allows for a more homogeneous and balanced dosage, while extolling also its aromatic peculiarities.
|
 Recipes»Fizolovka«, bean soup, acid• 1 kg. of dried »borlotti« beans • the peel of two lemons • 2 laurel leaves • 3+3 garlic cloves • 3 spoonfuls of fresh flour • a piece of ham rind • 1/2 an onion • a few spoonfuls of oil • two spoonfuls of tomato concentrateSoak the beans with the ham rind, the lemon peels, the laurel leaves, the garlic cloves and some salt, then boil the whole mix. When the beans are cooked, blend with onions and whole garlic browned with oil, and mixed with flour. Cook for another 10 minutes, take out the laurel leaves and the garlic cloves; whip up the whole mix. Put back onto the fire, add the tomato concentrate, and the right amount of salt and pepper. Serve with added pasta. Salami with vinegar
The peasant's salami - only a few weeks old -, fresh, sliced generously • a knob of butter • our vinegar • compact cabbage
• mush
Heat the knob of butter on a live fire - possibly in a small iron pan. Add the sliced salami, turn the pieces around as soon as they have formed a little crust, sprinkle with vinegar. They are ready! Serve with mush and raw cabbage, cut regular and thin; put the right amount of salt and pepper; the rest of the dressing comee from the salami. |
 Sales
 500 ml package  250 ml package  100 ml package with sprinkler |
 Vinegar curiosities
No special studies have been necessary to make vinegar. Vinegar forms spontaneously from any type of natural sweet juice.
Ferments change sugars into alcohol, bacteria alcohol into acetic acid. Man has known it for thousands of years, its production has been codified for about 2,000 years now.
Worldwide, several kinds of vinegar are made: from fruit, beer, rice, molasses. In the Babilonian civilisation, then the Greek used it as a preservative, a dressing, or a flavouring;
Hippocrates, the father of medicine, boasted its healthy properties; the daily drink of Rome's legions was water with vinegar, just as on boats.
Hannibal used it while crossing the Alps; the most impossible rocks were scorched with fire and wetted with vinegar to break them up.
Cleopatra won an arduous bet and gulped down a whole patrimony in one go; she melted precious gem stones in vinegar and drank the whole thing. Jesus Christ on the cross was offered a sponge soaked in vinegar. 
Vinegar and grandmas
|
 Press |
Baba Yaga's black suit A story dressed with vinegar Photographed by Maurizio Frullani for Josko Sirk |
Links
 |
