A Red Wine With No Grapes? Meet Petite Blue

If I told you I was sipping on a medium-bodied red wine with fresh acidity, low tannin, and flavors of blueberry, cranberry, and tart cherry, what grape would you guess? Pinot Noir? Gamay? Maybe even a cool-climate Cab Franc?

Here’s the twist: this red wine doesn’t have a single grape in it.

It’s not a blend. It’s not some funky co-ferment. It’s 100% blueberries, straight out of New Hampshire.

The wine is Hermit Woods Winery’s Petite Blue Blueberry Wine, made with about a pound of wild blueberries in every bottle. And unlike a lot of fruit wines that get dismissed as syrupy sweet sugar bombs, this one is bone-dry. Think more Burgundy than Boone’s Farm.

Why Fruit Wine Gets a Bad Rap

Fruit wine has long been shoved into the “novelty” corner of wine shops, often cloying and one-dimensional. But that’s not the full story. When crafted with the same care as grape wine, fruit wines can show structure, balance, and complexity: all the things that make us swirl and sniff in the first place.

Hermit Woods proves that fruit wine doesn’t need to be a guilty pleasure. It can be serious, age-worthy, and terroir-driven, while still celebrating flavors grapes could never bring to the table.

America’s Forgotten Wine Frontier

Here’s the thing: in the U.S., we love to celebrate the experimental side of winemaking. But somehow, fruit wines haven’t been given the same respect as unique winemaking techniques, natural wine, or amphora aging. That’s changing, slowly. Wineries like Hermit Woods are rewriting the narrative, showing that “wine” doesn’t have to equal “grape.”

Why You Should Try It

If you’re into Pinot Noir, Gamay, or other lighter-bodied reds, Petite Blue hits that same vibe with a wild New England twist. It’s bright, elegant, and refreshing. It would be perfect with roast chicken, mushroom risotto, or even a good burger.

So the next time you want to pour something that makes your wine friends do a double-take, pull out a bottle of Petite Blue. It might just change the way you think about fruit wine forever.

Hermit Woods Petite Blue