To compliment the abundance of autumnal berries we wanted to celebrate this great root vegetable with its amazing colouring and hearty taste. As with our other savoury vinegars (tomato and wild garlic) the thought of beetroot wine did take a bit of imagination. However, by trialling and adapting a recipe found in an old 'hedgerow wine' book, we created a wine with an unmistakable earthy flavour. We sourced the beetroots from High Road Farm, a local grower who was only too happy to supply what seemed like a ton of beetroot! We had purple hands for a few days after processing that lot.

During the second fermentation we experienced a minor setback when one of the fermenter pump connectors sheared and jettisoned several litres of the intense purple liquid. The big clean up involved a fair bit of swearing.

However, the finished vinegar is delicious and has a very familiar taste, think pickled beetroot and you're quite close.