When working with peach, I think it’s important to realize that peach wines can be very good, but the peaches can also have a certain bitterness to them. So you might want to consider backsweetening your peach wine slightly. Also, you should be aware that peach wines do not clear well with time. A finished peach wine will likely be somewhat hazy. You can, of course, use a fining agent like kieselsol/chitosan. But that could also possibly strip the wine of some of its flavors. The haze will not harm you. Still, if you enjoy presenting your wines to guests, just be aware that the peach wine will tend to have clarity issues. This is only aesthetic, so it doesn’t really bother me. But for those that prefer crystal clear wines, you might want to be aware of this at the outset.
To my palate, the flavor of peach wine is rather subtle, and the flavor can be overwhelmed by high alcohol content. So you really want to shoot for a target of about 1.085 or 1.09 for initial starting gravity. Additionally, there is not much body to the wine, so they don’t tend to be very complex wines.
As always, these are to make a 1.25 gallon batch that reduces to 1 gallon after racking off the lees.
Ingredients
- 5 pounds of fresh peaches – pitted.
- 873 grams of added table sugar (~31 oz, or 1 pound 15 ounces of sugar)
- 2.54 liters of water (about 90 oz or 11.25 cups)
- 1.25 teaspoon acid blend
- 1.25 teaspoon pectic enzyme
- 1.25 teaspoon yeast nutrient
- .25 teaspoon wine tannin
- 2 grams Montrachet wine yeast (or similar)
- 1 campden tablet
A couple things to note before we begin. First, in order to pack the wine with more of the complex flavors, I have left the skins on but I have definitely removed the pits. I imagine that the pits would add a little bit of body, but peach pits are not safe to use as they contain a chemical that your body will convert to cyanide. So do not use the pits under any circumstances, but retain the skins as these will add complex flavors that your wine will desperately need. Second, I have assumed that your peaches have a relatively high water content. But the fact is that peaches vary in water content. If your peaches are on the drier side, you will want to add a little bit of water but do not overdo it. Third, this recipe is to get you to right around 1.085 specific gravity (11.1% ABV). I would not recommend going over 1.09 because high alcohol content will definitely make a peach wine taste hot and overwhelm the subtle flavors. A hydrometer is a pretty good tool. After the must has sat for 24 hours, test your specific gravity, then add enough water to get it to 1.085 or 1.09. (In the unlikely event that your must is below 1.085 or 1.09, add some sugar syrup to get it up to 1.085 or 1.09). Although this is always a good practice, with peaches I find that the water content is so variable that you really do need to take gravity readings just prior to pitching your yeast. A lot of it depends on the ripeness of your fruit. Very ripe peaches fresh off the tree tend to have a higher juice content than store bought peaches. Also, if you are substituting nectarines, although the flavor is very close to peach, be aware that nectarines tend to be drier than peaches, although, again, the ripeness there largely depends on whether you are getting your nectarines right off the tree or buying them in the grocery store.
Process
First, make a syrup of your water and your sugar. You do not have to boil all of your water, but you want to boil enough that, when you add it to your sugar, it completely dissolves the sugar. Add the sugar/water mix into your primary fermentation vessel.
Next, cut the peaches in half and put them in a food grade nylon bag. You may want to mash them with a potato masher or just crush them in your hands to draw out the liquid. But make certain that whatever juice drawn out from the peaches is not wasted, but instead collected in the primary fermentation vessel. Remember that we need that water and sugar in the wine.
Add your acid blend, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, and wine tannin to the must and stir until they are distributed throughout the must. Then add a crushed campden tablet and, again, make sure that the powder is fully incorporated into the must. Stir the must completely
Wait 24 hours, then test your specific gravity with a hydrometer. If you are using a two gallon fermenting vessel, then the hydrometer can simply be dropped in. If you are using a five gallon bucket, then the wine may be too shallow and you will have to use a testing tube. Make sure that you are at 1.085 or 1.09 specific gravity.
Once you have adjusted your gravity, pitch your yeast. Simply sprinkle two grams of wine yeast on the top of the must. There is no need to “rehydrate” the yeast.
After 3 days, you can check the gravity of the wine. Once it is below 1.03 specific gravity, you can transfer to a carboy for secondary. Ensure that you are using an airlock to keep oxygen out.
Peach tends to produce a pretty thick lees at the bottom. This is one wine that I tend to rack off the lees at the end of a month. By this time, you should have a one gallon carboy and a 750 ml bottle of peach wine with quite a bit of sediment at the bottom. Rack the wine off the lees into a sanitized carboy. Then top off with the wine from your 750 ml bottle. (I tend to use a balloon as the airlock for the 750 ml bottle). You should have enough to get up to the neck of your carboy. If not, use a bottle of white grape wine to top the carboy off). Add the airlock, and let sit in a carboy in secondary for ~11 months.
At the one year mark, I start thinking about bottling this wine. The problem that you will run into is that there is a good chance that the wine will not be crystal clear by this point because, in my experience, peach tends to be hazy. You can either accept a little bit of haze in your wine, or you can choose to use a fining agent.
Regardless, you will likely have a little bit of sediment still at the bottom of the carboy at this time, because my experience with peach is that they continue to produce sediment even after the one month mark when you racked. You can do one of two things. You can rack into bottles directly. This will likely give you five full bottles of wine. Or, you can rack into a carboy one final time to try to reduce the sediment in your bottles. This will reduce the sediment in the bottles, but will result in some waste. Either way, crush another campden tablet, stir it into a little bit of water, and add it to your wine, stirring with a small sanitized wooden spoon. This will protect your wine from oxidation during the transfer process. (If you rack one last time, you could always top the gallon off with another white grape wine to get five full bottles, or you could settle for five full bottles and one smaller bottle).
