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About Artisan Vinegar

Artisan Vinegar started as a part time project and long held passion for vinegars and mustards. Bernd has been a professional chef all his life. When he came to New Zealand from Austria almost 25 years ago, he was very impressed with the array of flavours and high quality of the produce here. It was not long before he was experimenting with native kawakawa to see what he could do to harness the flavour and make it readily available to everyone. Kawakawa vinegar was the result. Other vinegars followed, tamarillo, feijoa, Pinot noir, Chardonnay….It’s hard to stop. Mustards were a natural addition to the range. Jams, sauces and chutneys followed. The ever expanding array of deliciousness is often influenced by the needs and suggestions of customers.

 Packaging is an important part of the appeal as well as being a practical aspect of any product. Luckily, like most chefs, Bernd has a good eye for detail and a great sense of aesthetics. A lot of time goes into sourcing lovely bottles and good looking jars, all of which must be ergonomic and fit for purpose. Labels not only have to have all the required information but must be clear and concise and look great. And then there is the seal of approval stamped onto each and every bottle with sealing wax.

 Shirley’s Kitchen joined with Artisan Vinegar a few years ago.

 Shirley, like Bernd, has had a long and abiding love of the culinary arts. This interest took the form of writing and teaching. As a young mother Shirley was fortunate enough to be able to write several cookbooks and be involved in food writing for newspaper and magazines. Once the children (two lovely daughters) where grown and with 14 cookbooks published, she decided to start making some of the fabulous things she learned about. That was the beginning of Shirley’s Kitchen. Spiced figs were first produced for Air New Zealand to serve on their first-class in-flight cheese boards. Like Artisan Vinegar the direction Shirley’s Kitchen took was largely driven by what people wanted. Whisky marmalade, fruit logs and spiced fruits soon followed.

 Together we are Shirley and Bernd of Artisan Vinegar.

 We like to do things from first principals wherever possible.  Seasons play a large part in what we make. Elderflower cordial is highly seasonal and so delicious that it is hard to keep up with demand.  Lemons and limes come on stream just in time to make curds and marmalades. Tamarillos and Feijoas have a short season too. Whenever things are in season we get as much as we can and process like mad to create our delicious products. Small batch cooking is important for us, this enables us to closely control quality. We always listen to our customers, and it is them which give us new ideas for our new products.

 Artisan Vinegar, Shirley & Bernd, we love what we do.