This year I have wanted to make a simpler parsnip wine with out the lemon zests that relies more on the parsnips themselves. I used some smallish young parsnips I have grown myself after the first frost had fallen. The frost ensures the parsnips turn the starches to sugar sweetening them up. As they were little diddy ones they had a high degree of skin to flesh than I am imagining will give a flavourful but very dry finish moving this towards the wines like oak leaf or Seville orange that pull towards the dryer sherry like flavours. Oak leaf wine is very tannic and Seville oranges create a very nice totally dry wine and I am hoping this will fall into the same envelope of dry spring harvests compared to the fruitier summer and autumn harvested wine.

Another difference was not using the citrus fruit juice as the acid content replacing it with tartaric acid to give a more traditional grape wine taste. I hope to age this a year before the first bottle and maybe two years in total for the rest and the tartaric acid will be more stable and less prone to promote bacteria that could spoil over time compared to citric.

CLICK HERE FOR THE EASY PARSNIP WINE AND SHERRY RECIPE

No tannin was added especially as this was made with a high skin content which I imagine is higher it tannin!? Raisins were used to add vinocity and body though there are many recipes that use banana water or prefer to leave it unadulterated with a more “whiskey” like flavour. The downside is that it has turned out guite brown rather than a more delicate golden colour I was hoping for. Using demerara sugar as a quarter of the sugar may have added to this but I want to experiment with the taste to see if it adds to the slight earthy parsnip taste.

Fingers crossed this does work.

DRY PARSNIP WINE 4.5 litres

Totally dry wine with some residual sweetness from the parsnip flavour. Some use lemon juice and zests to add flavour and other substitute raisins for banana to add body. Braver souls prefer a dryer “whiskey” flavour with no body added. Apple juice and ginger are sometimes added.

1.75kg parsnips

1 to 1.3kg sugar to 1.09SG

4.5L water

500g raisins

acid to 6%

1 tsp pectic enzyme

1 tsp yeast nutrient

White wine yeast

Wash parsnips then chop, dice or grate including the skins and boil for approximately 15 minutes – flesh should be softened but not breaking up.

Strain the parsnips through muslin into primary fermentation and discard

Add the chopped or minced raisins while liquid is still piping hot. I also added the zest of a Seville orange I had – this is purely optional.

Add pectic enzyme and leave for 12 to 24 hours to work.

Add sugar (demerara was used for a quater of that) to desired gravity – 1.09 is good, and acid to 6%

Add yeast and nutrient then cover for primary fermentation.

Rack into secondary fermentation when it slows to remove the raisins at about a week. Rack when totally over at about 6 weeks into fermentation. More may be needed if starch was boiled from the parsnips that will slowly settle over a couple of months.

Age for one year at least. Don’t tell anyone its made from parsnips…