Hello,
I'm new to this sport of home wine and cider making. Had been at beer brewing for many years but trying other things now after a long lay off from that.
In my part of the world cider is accepted as being an alcoholic drink; always has been this way. From reading this and other forums it seems that what I would know as juice -that is non alcoholic - is often known as cider - the term hard (cider) being applied to determine the alcoholic variety, (lets assume apple here just for arguments sake).
I am trying to get to grips with this craft and as I explore I am trying to draw a distinction between cider and wine.
As far as I can see cider (i) has no added water (ii) has no added sugar (iii) has no added yeast; whilst wine has all of these 'additives'. Also, cider has a lower A/V then wine so would not be able to be stored for the same period without spoiling.
Now it appears acceptable that yeast may be added rather then depend on the natural yeast of the fruit. I am guessing that with using the likes of Campden in the must, the natural yeast if it exists would be killed off anyway and if the brewer is using store bought juice, yeast would simply be absent.
It also seems the some additional water could be needed to build the volume of the must; so I guess that to achieve a reasonable kick at the end, sugar must go in too.
Now, where is the distinction drawn between cider and wine? I feel I must be missing something simple ; I just can't see what? Some of the recipes I read on the forums appear, to me, to lean more toward wine yet are referred to as cider - which brings me to my next point.
When I moved to my present property in 2007, I discovered I'd inherited a quince tree amonst one-offs of other varieties of fruit trees. I didn't know quince, neither did my wife. So we fed the product to the cows grazing in the neighbours paddock. Over the ensuing year I learned somewhere that the Biblical 'golden apple' was in fact likely to have been quince. Soooo.... apple cider = quince cider. Put the fruit to good use - and I started reading.
I've seen vague references to quince cider but no recipe that I could pin down as a novice. However quince wine recipes are abundant and so far I have put two different styles down, both of which are looking (tasting) good.
I built a press to deal with the fruit for my cider attempt: here's the recipe I decided on, for critique please.-

14 lb fruit, washed and frozen
6 ozs sugar
1 teaspoon pectic enzyme/rohapect blend
1 teaspoon Tronozymol nutrient/energizer
1 pinch epsom salts
1 pinch sulphate of ammonia
1 campden tablet
1 teaspoon ascorbic acid
1/4 teaspoon citric acid
1 sachet yeast - I used a generic 'cider' yeast.

Fruit was thawed overnight then quartered, cored and sliced into bucket containing 1litre of water to which was added the campden and ascorbic acid.
(Ascorbic was intended to stop browning of fruit prior to pressing; since read that browning will not affect quality of juice, so this ingredient likely not needed. In any event 1 litre water was insufficient to cover fruit during process).
Fruit pressed until cake dry - 14 lb fruit yielded 3.4litres juice (4.12 lb/litre)
Juice into fermenter, added original 1 litre water and additives plus all other ingredients except yeast. Loose covered and left for 48 hours.
SG 1056, yeast prestarted and pitched, airlocked.
Slow airlock action, activity ceased after 4 days.
Left for one week, racked to secondary. SG 1010, airlocked and left to clear.

Cider was in fact very clear with strong fruity aroma. Colour light cream/yellow tinge. Slightly rocket fuel to taste, dry with pleasant acid tang.

At this stage am pleased with result, should improve with maturity.
Sorry about length of this post would welcome all comment though.