I would have thought not, but it proved to be surprisingly amenable when tasted with a wide range of wines, both white and red. A quick appetizer, Smoked Salmon on Radish Toasts, starts the menu with minimum effort and, like the soup, a dessert of figs poached in wine benefits from being made in advance. That shifts all the work for this menu to another day. Last-minute preparation consists of reheating the soup, boiling potatoes and spreading radish butter on toasted bread for the salmon. Don't call this borscht, even though it's a Russian soup.
Borscht requires beets.
I always serve it, as she did, with boiled potatoes. It is always a hit. The secret here seems to be that the dish is neither very sweet nor very sour. The sweetness comes from tomatoes, onions and root vegetables, not from sugar, which the lemon juice brings into balance easily. Two other elements help build the bridge with wine.