Fennel Wine (1)

• 1˝-2 oz fennel
• 3 lbs fresh beets
• 2 lbs sugar
• 3 lemons, juice only
• 1/4 tsp grape tannin
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• 71/2 pts water
• 1 pkt Montrachet wine yeast

Wash beets well and slice thinly. Put in pot with 6 pts of water and bring to boil. Cook until tender and strain water onto sugar, tannin, lemon juice, and yeast nutrient. Remove thick skin from beets and use canning recipe to save beets for later use as food. Put fennel in jelly or garnish bag, tie, put in pan with remaining water, and bring to boil. Remove from heat and set aside covered for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, stir beet juice until sugar dissolves completely. Remove bag of fennel, squeeze to extract full flavor and discard fennel. Combine fennel water with other liquid in secondary, cover with napkin help by rubber band and set aside to cool to room temperature. When cool, add activated yeast and attach airlock. When fermentation quietens down, top up and reattach airlock. Rack every 60 days until wine clears. Rack again and stabilize, sweeten to taste, wait 10 days, and rack into bottles. This wine must age two years to mature, but will be a very smooth and delicious wine. [Adapted from C.J.J. Berry’s “130 New Winemaking Recipes”]