During the internationalisation of the culinary arts in the 1980s, verjuice made a dynamic comeback and is currently enjoying a growing world-wide revival. Among the new proponents are Australian restaurateurs and wine farmers who led a revival of this classic condiment.
In the forefront is Maggie Beer, an Australian restaurateur, chef, game bird and fruit and wine farmer who re-discovered Verjuice in ancient writings during the early 1980’s and launched her first commercial vintage in the mid-1990’s. Maggie is the author of several cookery books including “Cooking with Verjuice”.
Her commercial success with the product has led to other wine farmers making their own versions of Verjuice and Australia is undoubtedly the largest producer of Verjuice in the world today with South Africa a close second. However, it remains an ellusive product to obtain and is sold in very few specialist food and gourmet outlets throughout the world other than in South Africa, where it is widely sold in most high-end supermarkets and specialist food stores.
In 1999 historians, restaurateurs and chefs in Perigord joined forces to reinstate the tradition of making Verjuice – and are now doing so in small commercial quantities. However, a visit to Burgundy in 2001 revealed a total ignorance of the condiment by food stores and vinoteques alike – despite the mustard producers in Dijon, the main city in the region, using it in copious quantities in the famous Dijon mustard.
