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www.gourmetnews.com 8 Oli e Aceti • Gourmet News Boutique Vinegar Producer Plans a Boom BY GREG GONZALES A boutique vinegar operation in Cody, a small Nebraska town of about 300 people, is about to get big. George Paul Vinegar has been steadily growing since Owner and Founder George Johnson tried making vinegar as a hobby 14 years ago, spreading by word of mouth from chef to chef across the country. And now, a recent deal with its biggest customer has the operation ready to triple in size this summer. Johnson and his daughter, Emily, had been making wine together for years, from grapes and other fruits, just for fun. When Johnson brought some of the latest batch out to his daughter's home in Portland, one of her friends, whose uncle was a food editor at the New York Times, said the fruit-forward wine would make a great vinegar. So Johnson gave it a shot, and made sure to do it the right way. "We do it the old-fashioned way," John- son said. "We make 'em all from French- American hybrid varieties of wine grapes grown at the northern latitudes. And no one else makes vinegar out of those vari- eties, so they are a little different, very fruit-forward, milder." The result is a powerful flavor from each ingredient, for each vinegar. The Apple Cider Vinegar uses fresh fall apples from Arbor Day Farms, retaining the same sweetness throughout the whole process. The Prairie White is known for its soft tropical flavors with hints of rose and pear, and the Brianna is a single varietal with pineapple and citrus notes that gives it an apricot sweetness. The reds are rich, but fresh, and full of depth. One of the stars of the show is the pi- quant Raspberry Vinegar, which isn't in- fused or flavored. It's made from only raspberries, for a flavor that's both sweet and tangy. Johnson's first recommendation is to drizzle it over a lush vanilla ice cream. However, the real star of the show is the Emilia, the balsamic George Paul started with. Made from Fron- tenac grapes, it's mellow, but packs a lot of flavor into just a few tiny drops, sweet with the perfect amount of tart. Those few drops will el- evate a steak, soup, salad or even a dessert to new levels of flavor. All the wines used for the vinegars come from Niobrara Valley Vineyards, where Johnson is Head Winemaker. The operation that started specifically to grow grapes for the vinegar, but took on a life of its own. Stay- ing true to tradition, there are no additives to the wines — no flavors, no preserva- tives, no pesticides, just fruit. That takes time. While most commercial vinegar is made quickly, in hours or days, George Paul vinegars take a year-and- a-half to two years to fin- ish. The Emilia takes six to eight years. "That's the kind of quality it is. It's extraordinary," said Johnson. "People who don't even like vinegars, their eyes pop open when they taste mine. They're like, 'My gosh, this doesn't taste like vinegar. This is good!'" Johnson said it's the same reaction he's heard from chefs from all 50 states. "It's grown organically on its own," he said. "It's been kind of crazy." If business was only kind of crazy, it's about to get crazier. The owners of George Paul's biggest customer, haircare brand DpHue, are investing in the company to fund an expansion. Johnson plans to have a larger facility by fall and a new team on board to handle the extra work. "It's the damndest thing," he said. "I never ex- pected it to grow to this point. And it's been fun. I've met lots and lots and lots of interesting people, and that's really the best part of the business, I get to meet all these people who come through here." Groups come by the busload, maybe 30 or 40 people at a time, for tastings. And strangers to the town often come across a little grocery store — a strawbale shop Johnson helped the school build to give students real-world work experience — where the vinegar sells extremely well. "It's a really unique situation," said Johnson. "They sell my vinegar there, and it's displayed as you walk in the door, the first thing you see. We're in stores from Portland to Brooklyn and all over the United States but that store is our num- ber-two wholesale account in the nation, right here, out in the middle of nowhere." As the company grows, Johnson said, he'll be traveling out to represent the brand, whether to visit chefs, retailers and restaurateurs at their place of business, or to talk folks up at the food shows. "I like to talk to, get to know the people who own the stores, the chefs, I try to visit with them. They appreciate that as well as I do," he said. "And now, when I travel to all those restaurants that use our vinegars, they treat me like a rock star." "It's been a really fun thing for my retire- ment," he added. "I've only been doing it for 14 years now, and we've been selling it for 10 years now. It's really been fun." GN

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