IslamQA: Is wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar halal?

Salam, I read somewhere it says that white wine vinegar is consumable for us Muslims because it is considered a vinegar more than a wine. Is it true ?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

There is no issue with drinking wine vinegars. The traditional way of making vinegar uses a double fermentation process where first the vinegar stock (such as grape juice) is fermented into a wine-like alcoholic liquid, then in the second fermentation the alcohol is turned into vinegar. So any traditional or homemade vinegar will have passed through a wine-like stage at some point even if it is not called a wine vinegar. There will be very small amounts of alcohol left in the vinegar, but since it is impossible to get drunk on vinegar, this is not an issue.