Liquid phase esterification of benzyl alcohol (BA) to benzyl acetate (Peach fragrance) with an acetic acid (AA) has been investigated with 12-silicotungstic acid supported on zirconia embedded inside SBA-15 (STA/ZrO 2 /SBA-15) as the catalyst. Catalysts were unambiguously characterized by XRD, N 2 adsorption–desorption, FT-IR pyridine adsorption techniques and the total amount of acidity of different STA loaded catalysts was estimated by TPD of NH 3 . The optimization of reaction conditions of an esterification of BA with AA was performed with 15wt.% STA/22.4wt.% ZrO 2 /SBA-15 calcined at 1123K by varying catalyst concentration (1–10wt.% of reaction mixture); temperature, 353–383K and AA:BA molar ratio as 0.5–3. The 15wt.% STA/22.4wt.% ZrO 2 /SBA-15 calcined at 1123K was found to have the highest acidity and more active in the reaction. Under the optimized reaction conditions, the 15wt.% STA/22.4wt.% ZrO 2 /SBA-15 calcined at 1123K gave 59% BA conversion with selectivity for benzyl acetate as high as 96% within 2h of reaction time.