Excess sediment in bottom of bottles.

[Donatelo]

I have ten bottles of peach wine that I bottled last spring. They have a sediment in the bottom of the bottle and a fizzy taste like I bottled too early. After opening a bottle , I can see an occasional bubble rise. I would like to syphon into a small carboy, leaving these lees, and add a potassium sorbate and one campden tab. How long should I wait to rebottle this?

 

[Rice_Guy]

* this is a year and a half old, my target is at a year I never use K sorbate, yeast are starved out
* my peach is mostly in the bottles with sediment/ dead yeast cells I am careful pouring, yes I have cleaned a bottle or two up for the vinters club but not all
* you could move it to a carboy and add metabisulphite and pull the fizz out. What I translate from “occasional bubble“ is that it is close to where most folks would keep it. I would try to warm it up to 80F so that the gas wants to come out easily and then give it no more than a week with occasional mixing. ,,,, With the tools I have I would pull a vacuum on it for a day and rebottle, ,,, or pulse vacuum/ mix, pulse vacuum again/ mix, pulse vacuum etc. ,,,
the key will still be warm it up so the CO2 wants to come out.

 

[user 36973]

I have ten bottles of peach wine that I bottled last spring. They have a sediment in the bottom of the bottle and a fizzy taste like I bottled too early. After opening a bottle , I can see an occasional bubble rise. I would like to syphon into a small carboy, leaving these lees, and add a potassium sorbate and one campden tab. How long should I wait to rebottle this?

Sounds like you've had some refermentation in the bottle. This can happen even with sorbate since sorbate will only inhibit yeast propagation, any live yeast can continue to work on the sugar. As @Rice_Guy said, time will render the yeast nonviable.

You could rack into a small carboy or a couple gallon jugs, re-add sulfites and some sorbate. Rebottling is only a matter of enough time to settle any sediment picked up in the decanting.

However, it is only 10 bottles which are otherwise drinkable if carefully decanted. Trying to rebottle them risks additional oxygen pickup. Your time may be better spent on your next batch of wine.

 

[Donatelo]

Thank you for your input, [U]jgmillr1[/U]. I added potassium sorbate and a campden tab into the carboy , then stirred several times for 5 min each time. I see a lot less bubbles and the wine doesn't taste nearly as fizzy. I think I can salvage this now. Just rebottle it and set several bottles in the fridge. I have a cold storm cellar that will be good for about 3 months before the weather turns.
Dang! Peach from fruit is really hard to clear and takes a lot of time, really cantankerous.

 

[cmason1957]

Dang! Peach from fruit is really hard to clear and takes a lot of time, really cantankerous.

I think it is any fruit that starts with a P (Peach, Pear, Apple, which I know doesn't start with P, but even so). I always add extra ahead of time, let it react for longer than called for and then am ready to add some later on.