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This is my first attempt at making homemade wine. I started with the Red Star Blanc in a one gallon jar. I'm almost a week into my first fermentation. For my second fermentation I plan on using the Red star Cuvee champagne yeast to push the bubbles in.

Peach sparkling wine is the goal, without as much of the dryness of white wine.

Note- I'm a non-drinker and has not had a glass of anything with alcohol in my life. I love cooking and tinkering with science projects, and home brewing could potentially be my huckleberry.

Although I have no palette reference I have plenty of family and friends that are willing to assist me in balancing flavors.

Any thoughts or insights into the best course of action, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

TLM

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I don't see the Cuvee yeast addition as being necessary, or perhaps even advisable. The 'second fermentation' of wine is really just a conditioning phase, the main point of racking this off into secondary is to get it off the yeast before it autolyses and dies.

Realistically- it likely wouldn't hurt anything too bad. But it probably won't help you.

It appears what you're looking for is a carbonated, semi-sweet fruit wine. This is actually trickier than most folks think, particularly when you're bottle conditioning.

You haven't listed any must ingredients, but I can tell you that with your current strategy you're likely to end up with something probably dryer and more tart than you'd like, especially if you're not accustomed to drinking wine or other fermented beverages at all. That said, it still might be totally enjoyable and a fun experience regardless.

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  • Thank you for the insight! Oct 7, 2021 at 0:24
  • I used roughly 3 LB's of peaches, squeezed the juice and filtered out as much fruit bits as possible with a food safe mesh bag strainer. I added pumpkin spice, cinnomon, vanilla, and about 3lb's of brown sugar. I did add a table spoon of lemon juice. I hope it's sweet enough without having to add more sugar during bottling (back sweeten?) Once I have bottled this Gallon I will start a Peach, Orange and Guava sparkling wine with the Cuvee alone. Oct 7, 2021 at 0:36
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    @TheLordMarshall: if you want to backsweeten, use lactose, this does not ferment. Do you have a good book about making wine? Or find people who really have experience with making sweet wine. Because if you can't remove or kill all the yeast in your wine, and you add more sugar when bottling, then your bottles could explode due to the CO2 generated again.
    – chthon
    Oct 7, 2021 at 5:22
  • @chthon: I have mostly been on the internet and YouTube for what I know of the processes to make wine. I do have Champaigne bottles rated for the pressure from Austinhomebrew.com. I have not started my quest for a good wine making book as of yet. Once I've perfected a few sparkling wine recipes I'll move into some beers. I welcome any recommendations. Oct 7, 2021 at 16:23

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