Must
/mʌst/
In winemaking, must is the freshly crushed grape material—juice, skins, seeds, and sometimes stems—obtained right after crushing or pressing, before or at the very start of alcoholic fermentation. It is the raw, fermentable mixture that will be transformed into wine and may, in some contexts, refer mainly to the grape juice portion prior to or during fermentation.
Examples
- The winemaker chilled the must immediately after crushing to protect aromas and control the start of fermentation.
- In red wine production, the must ferments together with the grape skins to extract color, tannin, and flavor before pressing.
- Quality levels in some European wine laws are partly defined by the sugar content (must weight) of the grape must at harvest.
Etymology
English 'must' comes from Latin 'mustum' (short for 'vinum mustum'), meaning 'new wine' or 'freshly pressed wine,' from 'mustus' ('fresh, new, young'). Through Old French ('most', 'moust') and Middle English ('must', 'muste'), the term retained the sense of fresh, unfermented or just-beginning-to-ferment grape juice. Cognates in modern European wine vocabularies include Italian 'mosto,' Spanish 'mosto,' Portuguese 'mosto,' and German 'Most,' all referring to fresh grape juice or new wine, especially before or in early fermentation.