a wonderful mistake made from wine - Ximenez-Spinola Vinagre en Rama

One of the fun facts about food facts is that the facts change all the time.

History is ever evolving, constantly on the move, and changes as more things are unearthed.

I love the fact that facts are not always true. Food is squishy and what you believe today could be fiction tomorrow. Facts about food are ever changing.

Without getting into the weeds in this conversation, we are happily willing to say, “well, the fact is the best way to make hard-boiled eggs is…”

Food is conversation, food is family. Food is friendly. Food is sharing. That’s why we love food. That and it tastes good too.

Vinegar has an unclear history of when it began. My my favorite historical factual story is that wine was made with grapes and that as it fermented inside the castle (in a wood cask), it turned into very acidic wine, ala vinegar. And not to waste the fruits of their labor they used it to cook with so it is often believe that when a recipe calls for wine what it’s really calling for is a delicious vinegar.

And as we all know a great vinegar, but excellent vinegar is so distinct so special so irreplaceable is worth having standing by to make life better.

There are many Pedro Ximénez Vinegar out there and this one is really special! And it all starts with the wine grapes.

The Ximénez-Spínola family has been making wine in the Jerez region for generations. Today the business is in its ninth generation, focused on the Pedro Ximénez, a white grape traditionally associated with the intensely sweet wines of southern Spain.

And not only is the grape unusual, their approach in the vineyard, and how the grape is handled is different from the grapes used to make most red and white wines.

After harvesting, Pedro Ximénez grapes can be laid out in the Andalusian sun on drying mats, called asoleo, traditionally made from esparto grass.

Over several days, the grapes lose water, become raisin-like, and concentrate their sugars, acids, and flavor compounds.

This changes not only how much alcohol can be produced, but also how quickly fermentation happens, how much sugar remains in the wine, and ultimately what the wine tastes like.

It's a little like making wine from raisins, except the grapes aren't completely dried.

The juice becomes extremely concentrated, which changes everything about how fermentation proceeds.

Fresh wine grapes generally contain about 70–80% water. When they are laid out in the Andalusian sun, water evaporates through the grape skins.

The grapes begin to shrivel. Their skins wrinkle, the pulp becomes thicker, and the juice becomes increasingly syrupy. And in the process the good stuff stays creating a sweeter flavor.

The sugar concentration can nearly double, depending on how long the grapes are dried and how much water they lose.

A conventional dry white wine might begin with enough sugar to produce approximately 12–14% alcohol. The yeast consumes nearly all the fermentable sugar. But sun-dried Pedro Ximénez grapes can contain far more sugar than yeast can realistically convert into alcohol.

Most wine yeasts cannot survive long enough to produce 26% alcohol through ordinary fermentation.

Even if fermentation starts successfully, the combination of sugar stress and alcohol toxicity can stop it long before the sugar is exhausted.

This is one reason naturally sweet wines can retain so much of their original grape sugar. There is an important distinction here: many traditional Pedro Ximénez sherries are fortified with grape spirit, which deliberately arrests fermentation and preserves sweetness. Ximénez-Spínola makes wines that retain sweetness without fortification. That's why the finished wine can have extraordinary depth even before it becomes vinegar.

This is a chicken and rice dish recipe where you need to "feel" your way as you go. Changing out and adding and reducing to match your palate. Use your instinct. You can't really overdo it.

To the eye:
Deep mahogany with reddish-brown highlights. Not perfectly clear, with possible natural sediment.

To the nose:
It is an instant recognition of Pedro Ximénez, but without the acidic punch. It has a gentle vinegar twinge. And it is probably not a fact, but it has a sweetness to it. You might recognize its personality and character, though I can not tell you who they are.

To the mouth:
Gentle sips (don’t swallow or it will burn) tell you a lot right off the bat. It is full of flavor and it is delightful. There is a drying on the lips and in the mouth cavity and if you are not careful and draw to much to the throat it will burn. If you are careful, it is super wonderful experience depth of flavor!

In 1983, José Luis Zarzana Palma began separating barrels of aging Pedro Ximénez wine according to how they were developing.

Some barrels had become unusually acidic. Natural microorganisms had transformed much of the alcohol into compounds associated with vinegar. The wine had lost some of its sweetness and density.

Rather than discard these barrels, the family separated them and established a vinegar solera.

That solera, begun in 1983, is the foundation of Vinagre en Rama. Importantly, 1983 is the date the solera began, not a claim that every drop in the bottle is 43 years old.

There are several things that distinguish this vinegar from more conventional wine vinegars.

Because Pedro Ximénez grapes are traditionally sun-dried to concentrate their sugars before being made into sweet wine. The resulting wines can be exceptionally rich, with flavors of raisins, figs and dried fruit.

The fermentation of this vinegar wasn't originally created through a conventional, deliberately managed vinegar-making process. It emerged from the natural evolution of wine in the family's barrels.

Time in oak barrels softens and integrates some of the sharper characteristics of vinegar while developing complexity.

En rama means that it is bottled with minimal processing, essentially as it comes from the barrel. It isn't filtered to achieve perfect clarity.

Limited availability this year - Pre-order now for shipping on the 28th

These black currants here are little candy raisins. Typically, sugar is used to create juice and puree. The puree is often used in jams and jellies added to cream dishes, or combined with other fruits to add a bit of tartness.

Add dried black currants to your next risotto, or to your next wild duck dish. These dried currant raisins are versatile, adds punch, mixes it up and is good for you! The best thing is that it's dried, so today or tomorrow, it keeps, ready for your next whim.

Italy grows some of the finest rice in the world. From black rice to white and the varieties in between, the flavor and the resulting dish can be the best on the planet.

Acquerello il Riso Carnaroli has been around in our food world forever. One of the first of the slow food movement foods, Acquerello il Riso Carnaroli was awarded the Snail of Approval in 1986. Taking a year to produce, the rice undergoes the steps of aging, refining in a special process and enriching with its own germ. The result is tastier, richer and healthier. (Their words, and we agree.)

The rice is in a vacuumed sealed can and this might be the most important feature of this delicious rice, at a minimum ensuring the flavor profile the maker has intended.

This is THE rice to make the Risotto. With great rice, everything is nice!

Treating Quinoa like Risotta makes a great comfort food.

Use the attention of a classic risotto, and the results are as rewarding. Take your time adding the heated broth and enjoy the benefits of the time you have just stirring. You end up with a rewarding bowl of food.

This recipe works with rice as well!

Earthy, sweet, black and gorgeous. What more could anyone want from such a keen grain! Quinoa!

What's Happening in the Store Next

Saturday, October 24 – Encore Chocolate Tasting

Missed Meet the Makers—or ready for another round? Stop by ChefShop on October 24 to taste returning craft chocolate favorites alongside new bars and flavors. Free and drop-in! 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

See the Event list HERE for 2026
Monday - Saturday 10am-5pm
ChefShop Retail Shop, 1425 Elliott Ave West, Seattle

In the shop, our customers have been loving higher and higher percentage chocolate.

Sometimes they're looking for something that's lower sugar but still feels like a treat, and other times they've gone all the way to the dark side with today's craft chocolate makers, loving unabashedly intense bars.

About the Bars


70% Brazil
Mission Chocolate’s award-winning 70% Brazil bar was its first made with cacao from the Brazilian Amazon. It melts creamy and smooth, opening with roasted nut and light tannic notes before moving into candied orange, honey, caramel, and dark chocolate pudding.

Of the three bars in the set, this is the most immediately approachable—but there’s plenty here to keep a serious chocolate lover interested.

85% Brazil
The 85% takes the cacao intensity up a notch while staying impressively polished.

Made with Brazilian cacao, organic sugar, and cocoa butter, it has deep chocolate flavor layered with dried fruit, subtle earthiness, and a gentle acidity that keeps the richness from becoming heavy.

When we let it melt slowly, the texture feels smooth and velvety rather than austere, and the flavors build gradually into a long, clean finish.

This is the sweet spot for anyone who loves very dark chocolate but still wants a little sugar to round out the edges.

100% Brazil
At 100%, there’s nowhere for the cacao to hide—and that’s exactly what makes this bar so compelling.

Made only with Brazilian cacao and cocoa butter, it is completely unsweetened, yet the experience is far more nuanced than old-school baking chocolate.

We taste deep earthy cacao first, followed by brighter fruit notes that emerge as the chocolate melts and opens on the palate.

Intense but surprisingly expressive, this is the bar that lets you experience Brazilian cacao in its most direct form—and it may be the one that surprises you most.

This is a fabulous recipe from Smitten Kitchen. It is sophisticated and flavorful yet super easy to make.

Mission Chocolate by Arcelia Gallardo: Sao Paulo, BRAZIL Arcelia Gallardo, the founder of Mission Chocolate, is a truly international craft chocolate maker, and embraces the spirit of the local Brazilian farm-to-bar chocolate production.

Arcelia makes her world-class chocolate bars almost exclusively with locally grown and processed ingredients, including Brazilian-grown cacao beans and Brazilian-grown nuts and fruits.

A Californian native with Mexican roots, Arcelia spent a good part of her professional culinary life in Berkeley, California, where she was exposed to the "buy/cook/eat local" philosophy of Alice Waters, and "bean-to-bar" philosophy of SharffenBerger Chocolates - back when SharffenBerger was the first bean-to-bar chocolate maker in the US.

Now, she passionately dedicates her time to her business project: making award-winning bean-to-bar chocolate bars and confections and elevating the craft chocolate movement in Brazil through her small chocolate factory located in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Besides running Mission Chocolate, Arcelia Gallardo is also the president of the Associação Bean to Bar Brasil.

Bronze: 2019 Aademy of Chocolate Awards for Milk Chocolate Bars

Formerly known as the 'Pão de Mel Milk Chocolate Bar with Warm Spices', this is a creamy milk chocolate with the warmth of ginger and cinnamon spices, based on a Brazilian Honey Cake recipe.

ingredients: Organic cocoa mass, organic sugar, cocoa butter, milk powder, spices.

Setouchi Lemon (瀬戸内レモン, Setouchi Remon) is a prized variety of lemon grown in the Setouchi region of Japan, which encompasses several coastal areas along the Seto Inland Sea, including parts of Hiroshima, Ehime, and Kagawa Prefectures.

This area is known for its mild climate, clean air, and abundant sunshine—ideal conditions for cultivating high-quality citrus.

Setouchi Lemons are less tart and acidic than typical lemons. They strike a beautiful balance between sweet and sour, making them ideal for a variety of dishes and drinks.

The rind is highly aromatic and often used in cooking, baking, or zesting. It has floral and almost herbaceous undertones.

These lemons tend to be extra juicy and flavorful, making them popular in beverages like lemonade, cocktails, or infused waters.

The perfect traveling companion on a plane!

Perhaps you know the Castle of the Pies Negros, also known as Villena Castle. What you may not know is that there are underground rivers & springs in the earth nearby. And from those waters an amazing salt is harvested.

Salt has been one of those favorite things we fell in love with when we started some 16 years ago. Since then we have tried a lot of salt. Hard to imagine but it's pretty difficult to discern the differences between one salt and another when you try more than three in a row. They just start to all taste salty.

When you do try a salt that is out-of-this-world, you know it instantly.

Fossil River salt is indeed one of them. These big, beautiful flakes of salt are created after extracting the water from the river and poured in saline pools whilst the hydrogen and oxygen atoms disperse.

This allows the natural elements to be retained and remain in these glorious salt crystals.

Big flakes that crunch and disappear with ease, leaving nothing but the flavor of salt.

So large you can pick them up with delicate fingertips and by placing one or two choice crystals in key strategic locations on a brownie, it is indeed divine.

Adapted from Food and Wine Magazine. With the chicken, this dish makes a wonderful entree. Without the chicken, it makes a wonderful side to roasted chicken or turkey.

Professional pastry chefs are using ChefShop Grande Brut because it does several things well at once: deep flavor, smooth texture, rich color, easy blending, low acidity, and real versatility across applications. It is a many-trick cocoa powder.

We stock it now because after working with it ourselves, we found it spectacular! It makes a giant difference!

ChefShop Grande Brut contains 22% to 24% cocoa butter. That is significantly higher than most cocoa powders on the market, and it is one of the main reasons we chose it. That extra cocoa butter is not a minor detail. It changes how the cocoa tastes, how it blends, and what your finished desserts actually feel like.

Most people focus on cocoa percentage (and with cocoa powder it is always 100% as it has no sugar) and overlook fat content entirely. It is the balance between cocoa mass and cocoa butter that matters. Cocoa butter is the natural fat in the cacao bean, and it shapes everything about how cocoa performs in a recipe.
Shop now for ChefShop Grande Brut Cocoa Powder here!