white wine vinegar in a decanter – Bhofack2/Getty Images
White wine vinegar is a type of vinegar with a delicate fruitiness and a crisp tang that will upgrade many different recipes from salad dressings to marinades. Consequently, a bottle of white wine vinegar should definitely be a staple in your condiment pantry. We taste tested 6 different store-bought white wine vinegar brands to find the best and worst options.
The Signature Select brand is a private label brand you can find in Albertson’s, Randalls, and Safeway, making it widely available around the nation. And while the Signature Select White Wine Vinegar is affordable when compared to various name brand counterparts, it doesn’t deserve pantry space in your kitchen. While the taste isn’t offensive, Signature Select’s White Wine Vinegar was fairly flavorless. White wine vinegar is a famously mild vinegar, but you should still be able to pick up on fruity, tangy, and subtly sweet tasting notes. However, Signature Select’s product tasted majorly watered down with barely a hint of flavor. We could’ve easily mistaken it for a more nondescript white vinegar. You’d have to use twice as much of this to be able to notice it in a sauce, salad dressing, or soup. Perhaps the cheap price tag came at the cost of quality ingredients and flavor concentration. Unfortunately, cutting corners resulted in an overly brand white wine vinegar that we don’t recommend.
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Better options and uses for white wine vinegar
bottle of signature select white wine vinegar – Samantha Maxwell/Tasting Table
While Signature Select White Wine Vinegar received high marks from a few customers on Albertson’s website, they were most complimentary of its affordability. One review even praised the flavor as fresh and clean. However, after tasting our way through other brands, we were able to get a better picture of just how good white wine vinegar can be. Our favorite brand, American Vinegar Works Better Than Champagne Chardonnay Wine Vinegar, is the cream of the crop. It has a depth of flavor we didn’t think possible with a mild vinegar like white wine vinegar. But we could sip this vinegar like a glass of white wine, picking up on fruity and even nutty nuanced tasting notes.
Obviously, you’re not purchasing white wine vinegar to sip neat. So, what is it good for? Pretty much anything! We recommend adding a splash to pesto or any store-bought pasta sauce to brighten the flavor and complement savory tasting notes. White wine vinegar is a go-to for bringing fruity tanginess to a chimichurri to balance bitter herbs and smoky paprika. You can blend white wine vinegar with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper to make a savory and tangy base for roasted vegetables. A tangy, fruity element would work especially well with bitter cruciferous veggies like Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage.
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Read the original article on Tasting Table.
