1986 Peach
October 2018 – As my notes indicate, I remember nothing of this wine. It’s also a very odd batch size, so I’m guessing I had 6 lbs of peaches and made wine from what I had.
At that time the only book I had was “Successful Wine Making at Home” by H. E. Bravery, copyright 1961, 11th printing, 1983. Given that I had no other sources, I took the book to heart.
One of Bravery’s ideas was that fruit wine should have as little fruit character as possible, so he called for only 2 pounds of fruit per gallon of water. I learned quickly that he had no idea how to make good fruit wine.
Shortly after this I purchased “The Art of Making Wine” by Stanley F. Anderson with Raymond Hull (copyright 1970). This was a better book and provided a lot better instruction, but still is quite dated.
Be thankful for the internet – getting good information on wine making is easy!
Ingredients
| Fruit | 6# peaches |
| Water | 2-1/2 gallons |
| Sugar | 20 cups |
| Acid | 1-1/2 tsp citric acid |
| Sulfite | 3 Campden tablets |
| Nutrient | 2 tsp nutrient + 1-1/2 tsp energizer |
| Yeast | Red Star Epernay II |
Method
| Started | 07/15/1986 SG 1.100 |
| Yeast added | 07/16/1986 SG 1.100 |
| Strained | 08/24/1986 SG 0.990 |
| Racked, pectic enzyme added | 12/23/1986 SG 0.990 |
| Clarified | 01/01/1987 SG 0.990 |
| Racked | 01/12/1987 SG 0.990 |
| Bottled | 08/03/1987 SG 1.000 |
Notes
| Yield | 16 bottles |
| Alcohol | 14.9% |
| Afterthoughts | I remember nothing of this wine, which indicates it wasn’t memorable … but I’m sure we drank it just the same! |