When most people think about vinegar, they think about cheap wine. Perhaps in teenage years, many people think that vinegar and wine are pretty much the same thing! When one becomes a little older and learns about the subtleties of cooking, one perhaps learns there are several types of vinegar including red and white wine vinegars, cider vinegars, and rice vinegars. Each of these has different taste characteristics, and uses.
Vinegar can be used as a preserving agent. It can also be used as a cleaning agent. When using vinegar for cleaning or preserving, people (and businesses) usually go for the cheapest, sharpest, cleanest vinegar available and this is distilled white vinegar.
Distilled white vinegar is is made from the cheapest ingredients available and in New Zealand this is whey which is a waste product left over from milk production. Hence, the majority of New Zealand produced wine vinegar (and New Zealand products preserved in while vinegar are not vegan). I some countries the base for white vinegar is a byproduct from natural gas!
Here is an explanation from one of the vinegar companies.
https://supremevinegar.com/2016/08/22/white-distilled-vinegar-ingredients-explained/
