Abstract: An alcoholic beverage having improved taste and sweetness and a wine-like flavor is produced by steps of saccharifying steamed or cooked unpolished rice and/or reddish rcie with an enzyme composition containing a saccharifying enzyme substantially free of protease and producing by a microorganism selected from Rhizopus, Aspergillus, Endomyces, or Bacillus substilis, fermenting the resulting mash with yeast until a supernatant thererof reaches a certain degree of maturity and mixing the resultant matured mash with separately saccharified steamed or cooked rice or a saccharide to produce the beverage. A slurry of steamed or cooked rice may be added during yeast fermentation to simultaneously carry out fermentation and saccharification.