Minus 8 History

1996 Vinegar was made from many varieties of ice wine this vintage.

1997 The first successful batches of vinegar were put to age in a French oak barrel.  More vinegar was made this year and every year thereafter.

2001  The vintages of vinegars were blended, solera style, and the blend was named Minus 8.  Minus 8 passed a test run with Montréal chefs, who wanted to buy it.  Shortly after that,  the first restaurantin the USA to buy it was Jean-Georges.  The company continued travelling to major culinary cities across the USA for several years, meeting chefs and promoting Minus 8, and 8 Brix Verjus. 

2002  8 Brix Red Verjus debuts.

2003  8 Brix White Verjus debuts.

2004  The company took Minus 8 and 8 Brix to Europe.  Chefs in Britain and France started using them through Oakleaf European Ltd. 

2005  Minus 8 and 8 Brix, weather permitting, were made in larger volumes to meet customer demand.  The 100 ml format of Minus 8 was released for retail sale to meet public requests for products.  www.minus8vinegar.com went live through Aquaverve in the USA.  More and more distributors began selling Minus 8 and 8 Brix, making it more readily available to chefs.

Always  Chefs try our new products in progress.  Development of new or improved tequniques or equipment for planting, growing, harvesting, pressing, vinification, vinegar making and aging techniques is an ongoing process.

2010  Chefs tried our trial runs of L8 Harvest and Dehydr8 vinegar.  Limited quantities of L8 Harvest and Dehydr8 were finished, bottled and sold.

2011  196 sixty ml bottles of Original Barrel Minus 8 were made and given to some of our best customers.