Beet Wine, An Unusual Treat

Back in 2015, after making many fruit wines, I decided to make something different. A vegetable wine made with beets. Vegetable wines can be delicious. I've made Parsnip and Carrot wines before with excellent results, but beets?

I planned to make beet wine well in advance. What better way to make the wine than to grow the beets in the garden. Beets are a root vegetable and are very earthy and juicy. The color is a rich, vibrant ruby red, almost electric.

I'm not particularly fond of beets. I don't dislike them, they're okay. I've eaten them in salad before, but I'm a winemaker and this wine needs to be made. I'm terrified that after all this work, I will have to drink this disgusting wine. Will it be drinkable at all?

Spring arrived and the seeds were sown in a raised bed near the back of the house. They grew surprisingly well and were harvested in the fall. The wine was made in November of 2015. Fermented and bottled in March of 2016, a relatively short period of time. Some wines take months to clear before they can be bottled. After bottling, a wine needs to rest for 6 months to well over a year. It's been a year and nine months and I decided on New Years day to open this one.

The color was indeed a beautiful ruby red. Think Dorothy's ruby slipper red. Not electric anymore, after so many months in the cellar. However, the smell was unmistakeable. Big and Beety is the best description I can give. You would never know it contained 14% alcohol because the flavor was dominated by the vegetable itself. A dense richness but now offset by subtle acidity from the acid blend and lemon juice that cut through the earthy beet. This is hearty, but oh so delicious.

I plan to have a party and share this with friends. Some will be saved for the next New Year celebration and we'll see how the wine has changed with the passing of time.