Parsnip Wine Recipe – Complex & Sherry-like White Wine

Out of all the country style wines parsnip wine is the one I had put off making for the longest. I mean who would make parsnip wine over something like strawberry wine, right?

When you get into making wine they way particular wines can end up can be deceiving. It turns out that parsnip wine suffers a poor image in spite of having a great flavour.

If you don’t believe me that parsnips can make an excellent wine that really you should try making this recipe and judging for yourself.

Parsnip Is the Perfect Winter – Spring Wine

Over winter can be a quiet time for the home wine maker. The fruit we have so much of in autumn has been and gone. This means you are likely to have demijohns or fermenters empty so it is good to utilise them.

Parsnips are a very traditional, dare I say old fashioned type of wine (in the UK at least). I can only imagine people who grow lots of parsnips were fed up of eating them so decided to make them into wine.

How Sweet Is A Parsnip For Making Wine?

Starchy vegetables like parsnips do have some sugar that is freely available to be fermented by yeast. This is helped along by winter frosts that make the parsnip sweeter in flavour. 

There is, however, a lot of starchy carbohydrates which won’t be converted to sugar or alcohol by yeast. This means you need to use pectic enzyme otherwise you will find your parsnip wine will be very hazy.

Parsnip For Wine Flavour

Where the parsnip comes into its own for wine making is in providing flavour, tannin and complexity to a wine. 

It is quite hard to pin down the flavour but many people liken parsnip wine to madeira or sherry or if it is particularly dry to whiskey.

You will need to add raisins to this recipe for body otherwise the resulting wine can feel thin and insipid. Raisins or bananas are used in a lot of wine recipes and you will find an addition of these will help in particular with parsnip wine.

Preparing & Cooking The Parsnips

You will need to cook the parsnips briefly before making them into wine. I find the best way to do this is to slice them thinly with a mandolin so they really only need 10 minutes before being tender but not mushy. If you don’t have a mandolin then a box grater is the next best thing.

The skins should be left on the parsnip as a lot of the flavour is in the skins but they will need a good scrub to get them clean.

What You Will Need For This Parsnip Wine Recipe – Makes 1 gallon / 4.5 litres

• Large Stock Pot
• Small Fermenting Bucket
• Demijohn
• Syphon
• Fine Straining Bag
• Airlock & Bung

 Ingredients

• 4.5 litres Water
• 2 kg / 4.5lb Parsnips
• 500g Raisins, roughly chopped
• Juice and zest of 2 Oranges
• 1.2kg / 2.6lb Sugar
• 1 tsp Pectic Enzyme
• 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
• 1 Sachet White Wine Yeast

Parsnip Wine Method

Prepare the parsnips by cleaning thoroughly, cut off the tops but leave the skins on. Thinly slice the parsnips using a mandolin to get nice thin slices. If you don’t have a mandolin use a box grater to grate the parsnips.

In a large pan add half the water and the sliced or grated parsnips, use enough water so they are just covered. Heat the mixture and bring to a low simmer. Simmer, gently for 10 minutes so the parsnips are tender but not mushy.

Whilst the parsnips are simmering take the sanitised fermenting bucket and add the straining bag. Add the chopped raisins and zest of the oranges to the straining bag.

Skim off any scum that forms on the surface of the parsnips and after 10 minutes strain off the liquid and reserve. Take around one cup of the parsnip and add it to the straining bag and secure the top, the rest of the parsnips can be discarded or cooked with.

Add the reserved liquid back to the pot and add the sugar and orange juice. Heat back to a simmer, stirring so the sugar dissolves and then pour the hot liquid over the straining bag in the fermenter. Leave to infuse for 5 – 10 minutes.

Top up the fermenter with the remaining water and then add the yeast nutrient and pectic enzyme and mix thoroughly. Cover and allow to cool to room temperature. If you want to take a hydrometer reading, do so now.

After the must has cooled pitch the yeast onto the surface of the must and fit the lid and airlock to the fermenting bucket. Leave the parsnip wine to ferment, you should notice activity after around 48 hours.

After 7 days of fermentation lift out the straining bag and allow to drip drain. Re-cover the fermenting vessel and leave for another 3 days.

After around 10 days from pitching the yeast the wine can be transferred to a demijohn, take another hydrometer reading to monitor fermentation if you wish. Syphon the wine into a sanitised demijohn and fit a bung and airlock. Leave for at least 3 – 4 weeks.

After 3 – 4 weeks you’ll notice the wine will begin to settle and clear with sediment building at the bottom of the demijohn. Rack to a clean, sanitised demijohn and allow to condition. The longer you leave the parsnip wine here the better, I would recommend at least 4 – 5 months minimum.

After conditioning the wine is ready for bottling, take a sample and you can back sweeten at this point if you wish. Transfer to bottles and cellar bottles for a few months for the best results. The longer you keep this parsnip wine the better and it will continue to improve for up to 2 years.