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Wine produced by fermentation of Chestnut rose (<i>Rosa roxburghii</i>) hips, known as cili (Chinese-Mandarin), in Guizhou province, and other places in China is becoming popular but there is limited knowledge of suitable yeast strains for its production. In this study, we first investigated the oenological properties of six commercial <i>S. cerevisiae</i> yeast strains (X16, F33, SH12, GV107, S102, RMS2), one commercial <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> var. <i>bayanus</i> (S103), one commercial, non-<i>Saccharomyces</i> yeast strain, <i>Torulaspora delbrueckii</i> Prelude, and one indigenous <i>S. cerevisiae</i> strain, CZ, for cili wine fermentation. We measured the key traits of each of the yeast strains, viz., sulfite resistance, flocculation, hydrogen sulfide production capacity, fermentation rate, and yeast growth curves. Subsequently, we measured the resultant wine characteristics, viz., pH, alcohol content, residual sugar, titratable acidity, volatile acidity, ascorbic acid content and headspace volatile compounds. The overall suitability of each yeast type was evaluated using a multi-factor, unweighted, scorecard. On that basis, RMS2 was the most suitable, and closely followed by CZ and X16. This study is the first comparative evaluation of yeasts for cili wine production and provides a preliminary guide for their selection.