Peach Wine Bonanza

Here in Eastern Canada, we are in the middle of the peach harvest. Peaches can be a tricky fruit to grow and in the case of this harvest, although the weather has been ideal, just before harvest, we have very heavy rains and immediately after the rain, hot, dry weather. This has caused the peaches themselves to grow that extra little burst while the pits do not grow. The results were that a lot of the peaches became “split” and un-sellable in the fresh market.

This is a disaster for the peach grower but a bonanza from the wine or jam maker as there are a lot of peaches available for next to nothing and the peaches themselves taste as good as the “market” ones.

So to make a long story short, I inherited a lot of great peaches from a local farmer who would have otherwise been composted, what to do with all of the peaches? Wine of course…

The following is a basic recipe I use to make a great just off-dry peach wine which is a delight to drink on a hot summer day.

General Peach Wine Recipe (to make about 100L batch, divide up or down to your wanted batch)

Basic Ingredients:

* 100KG pitted peaches (this is the “fun” part. manually removing the pits)
* 160 KG granulated sugar
* 5 ml Fructozym P, Scottzyme HC or Lafase Fruit (or equivalent)
* 40g Diamonium Phosphate
* 25g Fermaid K
* 25g 71B-1112 Lalvin Yeast

Method of Production:

1. Manually de-pit the ripe peaches. A heck of a job and my least favorite one but fermenting on the pits will give you a harsh nutty taste which can be dangerous as the pits themselves contain cyanide.
2. Crush the fruit (minus the pits) in a tub or tank and add 40-50 PPM of SO2 to make sure that oxydation is limited.
3. Add enzymes at temperature of 20’C, let must stand for 4 hours or so.
4. Press the fruit, pump juice into tank
5. Add sugar, top up to 100L. Adjust specific gravity to S.G. 1.090-92
6. Measure acids and adjust to a pH of 3.0 to 3.5 and T.A. of around 7-7.5 g/L.
7. Add DAP and Fermaid to must.
8. Pitch in rehydrated yeast.
9. Maintain a fermentation temperature of 18-20’C throughout the initial fermentation process (1.090-1.025)
10. At S.G 1.020 – 1.010, skim off surface any solids
11. Rack wine at S.G. 1.000
12. Once wine has finished its fermentation (< SG 0.996), stabilize with KMS (add 50-60 PPM)
13. Rack the following day and fine with Bentonite (50 g/HL), gelatin and Isinglass as per standard additions.
14. Chill the wine to 0’C
15. Rack after 15-20 days and filter to 0.8 micron
16. Measure FSO2 and adjust to 60PPM.
17. Adjust acid to a TA of 7g/L (with potassium carbonate if needed to lower or addition or malic to increase)
18. When wine is properly aged and developed (4-8 months), do final adjustments (blending, SO2, TA, pH, SG, RS, etc)
19. Adjust Residual Sugar of wine to 35g/L or to your preference.
20. Sterile filter to 0.45 micron.
21. Conduct all stability tests and adjust if needed
22. Bottle the wine

Then the very important steps comes up: Enjoy a glass of your peach wine!!

5 thoughts to “Peach Wine Bonanza”

  1. Really it is nice bonanza and one should be feeling proud to serve after bottling…..
    Really nice Cheers…..

  2. What about the skins of the peaches? Do we need to peel them or is that fine to ferment the peaches only depited? Thanks a lot.

  3. How do you press? We have tried basket press and rack and cloth but peaches are too slimy to press without a blowout.

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