Vinegar and Aromatic Vinegar

My vinaigrier is a 15 litre (4 gallon) oak cask, permanently furnished with a long-necked glass funnel held in place by a cork at the bung-hole, a spigot and, bored at the top of the same face as the spigot, a hole for aeration. A film of plastic pressed over the funnel keeps out the dust; muslin, tacked over the aeration hole, keeps out the midges. The wine contained between the level of the spigot and that of the aeration hole is 10 litres or 14 bottles. After ten months or so the finished vinegar, approximately one-third of which will have evaporated, is drawn off to the spigot level into a stoneware jug; in the jug have been placed bundles of dried herbs plus a few bay leaves, a couple of branches each of rosemary and sage and a handful of bruised but unpeeled garlic cloves. The jug is then covered with a plate and left for a month or so before the aromatic vinegar is filtered into bottles through a muslin-lined funnel, corked and laid down. It improves with age.