Must - Definition and Overview

Must is the juice of freshly pressed grapes, prior to fermentation into wine. Must contains various quantities of pulp, skins, stems, and seeds, called pomace or grape solids, which typically comprise between 7-23 percent of the total weight of the must. These components, and the time they are allowed to be in contact with the juice, are critical to the final character of the wine.

When the winemaker judges the time to be right, the juice is drained off the pomace which is then pressed to extract the juice retained by the matrix. Yeast is added to the juice to begin the fermentation, while the pomace is often returned to the vineyard to be used as fertilizer.

This term is also used by meadmakers for the unfermented honey-water mixture that becomes mead. It is also used in a similar fashion as a generic term by others producing wine-like products from other fruit and sugar ingedients. The analogous term in beer brewing is wort.

Example Usage of Must