🍷 Must

Must is fresh grape juice together with the skins, seeds and sometimes stems, not yet turned into wine. It is obtained when grapes are crushed or pressed. The word “must” is used at all stages until fermentation ends: from fresh juice to the start of its turning into wine.

Must contains water, sugar, acids and aroma compounds. It holds roughly 150 to 250 grams of sugar per litre, and this decides the strength of the future wine. Sweetness is measured with special instruments: a hydrometer or a refractometer. Different countries use Brix, Oechsle or KMW degrees for this.

Yeast, which is on the skins of the berries or is added, begins the alcoholic fermentation. It eats the sugar and turns it into alcohol and carbon dioxide. After fermentation the must becomes wine. If the juice is separated from the skins at once, the result is white wine, and if it stays on the skins, red.

Must belongs to winemaking and is its main stage of preparation. Wine is fermented from the juice, while boiled-down must is also used to make balsamic vinegar, grape syrup and vino cotto. Must can be drunk fresh as grape juice. Alcohol appears only after fermentation.