World's Weirdest Wines

By Food & Wine
Updated April 25, 2017

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World's Weirdest Wines

Glasses are filled every day, all over the world, with natural elixirs made with some of the most unlikely ingredients, like pumpkins, lizards and tree sap. Each reflects what's locally available and honored—its particular, and often peculiar, terroir—and they make wine tasting an adventure.

Photo © Greg Schuler.

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Snake Bile Wine (Ruou Mat Ran)

As if Vietnamese snake wine—prepared by steeping a snake (preferably a venomous one) in rice wine—weren't disconcerting enough, there's snake bile wine. The forbidding drink is prepared by mixing rice wine with the greenish-black bile taken from the gallbladder of a freshly sliced cobra.

Photo © Tom Martin.

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Birch Sap Wine

Each spring, the winemakers at Sav in Jämtland, Sweden, start their production process with a highly unexpected first step: They extract the sap from silver birch trees. Their peculiar sparkling wine follows a recipe that dates back to 1785.

Photos © Gunno Rask / Tommy Andersson.

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Lizard Wine (Hejie Jiu)

For this potent beverage found in China, lizards—traditionally the gecko—marinate in rice wine or whiskey for up to a year. According to (questionable) lore, the amber-hued drink can cure a range of ailments from ulcers to arthritis.

Photo © Franko.

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Retsina

Some considered Retsina the tears of wood nymphs. Others trace its origins to the Roman invasion of Greece, when Greeks added resin to their wine to discourage the invaders from enjoying the spoils of war. Made for more than 2,000 years, Retsina is still fermented with tree resin for a distinctly piney taste.

Photo © Robert C. Wallace.

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Rose Petal Wine

Britain's Lurgashall Winery takes the literal approach to rosé: its Rose Petal Wine, commissioned by the Royal National Rose Society, gets its pink hue, fragrance and flavor from handpicked rose petals.

Photo © Jacob Whittaker.

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Pumpkin Wine

North Dakota's Maple River Winery uses local pumpkins to produce its semi-sweet, cloudy white wine. The wine is meant to be enjoyed at parties in the fall and winter and can be served either chilled or warmed with a slice of lemon, orange or a touch of honey.

Photos courtesy of Maple River Winery.

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Chocolate-Orange Wine

The Florida Orange Groves and Winery in St. Petersburg, Florida, combines two highly unexpected ingredients in its Cocoa Beach wine: Valencia oranges and chocolate.

—Victoria Scanlan Stefanakos

Photo courtesy of Florida Orange Groves Winery.

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