By Magnus von Kageneck, cellar master · Updated: September 2026
A basket of quinces on the kitchen table, the whole flat smells of them — and the knife won't go in a single centimetre. Hard, downy, rich in tannin: the Kitzinger Weinbuch calls the quince hard to process even in commercial production (p. 134).
Process fresh, brush off the fuzz
Leaving them lying around costs aroma, sugar and acid — so process them fresh and store them for two to three weeks at most. Washing alone is not enough: the fine fuzz should be brushed off, because its essential oil is said to harm the quality later on — that is how cautiously the book puts it. It does not call for peeling; the skin is brushed, not removed (p. 134).
Pectin: why quince must otherwise sets like jelly
Pectin holds the flesh together like putty between the cell walls; it can only be broken down biochemically. The fruit's own enzyme works far too slowly — leave it at that, and the pulp is hard to press and the wine clears poorly (p. 19 and p. 72).
A pectic enzyme solves this, but only within the right temperature window: best effect at around 50 °C, ineffective below 10 °C — even at high doses —, destroyed above 55 °C (p. 72). For the amount, follow the label; mix it in thoroughly (p. 134).
Juicing: cold is better, warm is more convenient
The book's ranking is clear: best of all is cold juicing, at home using a grater. On the steam juicer it says “steam juicing is not advisable” (Kitzinger Weinbuch, revised edition 1999, Paul Arauner GmbH & Co. KG, Kitzingen, p. 134). The reasons: less juice and aroma, more foam, a poorer start to fermentation, because the heat destroys the amino acids that promote fermentation (p. 25).
The convenient route: halve or quarter the fruit and heat it only until the pieces can be squashed — do not cook them soft. Don't crush the pips while doing so — the book wants as little as possible from seeds and stones in the wine (amygdalin, hydrocyanic acid; p. 57). Warming switches off the fruit's own pectinase (p. 21) — the added enzyme then becomes mandatory. It goes into the pulp once that has cooled below 50 °C, and the pulp then stands overnight covered; the book always keeps resting pulp covered (p. 150); warm and sweet, the batch is now at its most vulnerable. The next day the pulp presses easily — up to 75 % juice even by hand in a press bag (p. 134).
Sugar and acid: measure, don't estimate
The book gives neither an acid figure nor a must weight for quince — so measure before you add sugar. Of the juice it says only: too little sugar, too much tannin. Two routes: add sugar, or top up with up to about 30 percent low-acid apple and pear juice (p. 134). For the arithmetic: for the home winemaker, 1 °Oe corresponds to about 2.6 g of sugar per litre, 85 °Oe later give 11 to 11.5 % vol, and 6 to 9 g/l counts as normal acidity (p. 154). The sugar goes in dissolved and cooled (p. 144).
Cellar trap: the Oechsle hydrometer's reading depends on temperature — below 20 °C, subtract roughly 1 °Oe for every 3.5 °C; an Oechsle hydrometer with thermometer usually carries the correction values next to the temperature scale (p. 41), but you have to do the arithmetic yourself. Acid is measured with the acidometer; its blue lye is dilute caustic soda for the measuring vessel (about 0.5 % sodium hydroxide, p. 76), not an additive for the must (Measure, don't guess). Acidify according to the measurement, never according to the recipe: the 25 g of 80 % lactic acid in the book's recipe apply only to dilution with water — quince is not low in acid; the book adds it to pear wine to raise the acidity (p. 107). 80 % lactic acid attacks skin and eyes, and blue lye is still lye: put on safety goggles; the label is what counts.
Yeast, nutrient salt and the demijohn
As a strain, the book names Haut Sauternes or Port (p. 134); from our range, a port-style cultured wine yeast fits well. More important in October is the start: a few days beforehand, the yeast goes into a bottle filled half to two-thirds with apple or grape juice, loosely closed with a cotton-wool plug instead of screwed shut; after one or two days it begins to multiply. In a cool autumn the book expressly recommends this — otherwise it can take more than five days before anything stirs (p. 69).
Yeast nutrient salt belongs in too — never confuse it with potassium metabisulphite. Four grams is the right amount of nutrient salt for 10 litres (p. 134); the same four grams of potassium metabisulphite put 200 mg/l of sulphurous acid into the batch: then nothing ferments at all any more, and special measures are needed (p. 71). You don't simply carry on with a batch like that. Keep the two tins separate and labelled; the label is what counts.
Now everything goes into the demijohn — filled only to about 90 percent and closed with an airlock, as the book does with pome fruit (p. 107). The rest is headroom for the foam cap: if it overflows, the airlock clogs and the vessel can burst (p. 53). If you warmed the fruit, allow more room: according to the book, juices that were not cold-pressed foam more (p. 71).
Why quince wine needs time
The book gives no maturing time, but it does give an order of magnitude for the fermentation — for a heavy dessert-wine batch at about 15 % vol, though: in July at 25 to 30 °C finished in 8 to 14 days, at about 15 °C in late autumn two to four months (p. 80). A lighter quince batch at around 85 °Oe gets there sooner; you still reckon in months, plus another one to three for natural clearing (p. 12).
Once fermentation has finished, move the wine somewhere cool; the airlock stays on as the closure (p. 80). After two to four weeks it is racked off the lees, later in a cold cellar — p. 12 expressly separates the warm summer months from the cool season. Sulphite at the first racking: 1 g of potassium metabisulphite per 10 litres (p. 107; on p. 12, sulphiting and racking appear in the same step). It is a hazardous substance and releases sulphur dioxide on contact with acid — never stir it in together with an acid addition, don't breathe in over it, dose according to the label (Sulphuring without fear).
If it won't clear, the book names two common causes: too much tannin or pectinases destroyed by heat. The answer is the same both times — for 10 litres of finished wine, about 20 ml of pectic enzyme, 10 ml of silica sol 15 % and 2 to 6 g of gelatine, depending on the haze (p. 144). Gelatine on its own is not enough: if it does not flocculate, the book pairs it with silica sol (p. 170). It is prepared beforehand: let it swell in water, then warm it to 38 to 40 °C (p. 170); the other agents are simply added, and everything is mixed in thoroughly (p. 144). The frequently quoted 20 to 80 g per 100 litres come from the pear wine chapter and refer to reducing tannin, not to clearing (p. 106); that is why a bench trial always comes first. More on this in Fining like a cellar master.
The quince rule
With quince, every shortcut is paid back later. Brush, warm instead of boil, enzyme below 50 °C, cover, measure, then add sugar — if the demijohn stands clear in winter, September was worth it.
Magnus von Kageneck is Maischewerk's cellar-master character. The texts in this series are written with the support of artificial intelligence and are checked for technical accuracy before publication.
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