Vinaigrerie Sainte Odile

Vinaigrerie Sainte Odile
Daphné de Crombrugghe
Brussels, Belgium

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In 2015, a retinal disease diagnosis altered Daphné’s life completely. She was 27, and no treatment existed.

At the time she held a management position in a large company but, as her eyesight declined, a career change became inevitable. Her passion for gastronomy and artisanal food led her to an organic farm near Modena in northern Italy, and it was here that she had a defining moment: tasting 26-year-old traditional balsamic vinegar every day, made using ancestral methods. The depth of flavour was a revelation.

Back in Brussels, she realised that most store-bought vinegars lacked not only character but transparency surrounding production methods and that the city, once home to many vinegar makers, had none left. Determined to bring back authentic craftsmanship, she began experimenting.

With guidance from Noma’s fermentation book and hands-on training at La Guinelle, one of the few vinegar makers in France producing high-quality vinegars using traditional methods, Daphné mastered traditional vinegar-making techniques, developing a thorough understanding of the raw material and the fermentation process itself.

In 2023, she founded Vinaigrerie Sainte Odile in Brussels, creating artisanal Belgian vinegar made exclusively from naturally fermented local alcohols, including Lambics from Cantillon and 3 Fonteinen, and apple wines from Cidrerie Condroz.