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Wine Must

Q: Is Wine Must natural or synthetic?

. Extraction: Wine must can be obtained directly from grape pressing. Some perfumers use grape absolute or related materials. The note is challenging to preserve, as fermentation begins rapidly in fresh must..

BEVERAGES / fruity · musky · earthy

Wine Must

Category	BEVERAGES
Subcategory	fruity · musky · earthy
Origin
Volatility	Heart Note
Botanical	Vitis vinifera (unfermented/partially fermented juice)
Appearance	Dark purple to ruby red thick liquid
Odor Strength	Medium
Producing Countries	France, Italy, Spain, Portugal
Pyramid	Heart

Freshly crushed grapes before fermentation begins. Wine must smells purple: grape juice, stem tannins, yeast bloom, and the sweet promise of alcohol that has not yet arrived.

Scent
The Full Story
Fun Fact
Extraction & Chemistry
In Perfumery

Scent

Sweet crushed grape with green-astringent stem tannins. Darker than grape juice, less alcoholic than wine. A faint yeast bloom and a vegetal green-stem quality. The sweetness is fruit-natural, not sugar-processed. The tannin astringency provides structure and a slightly bitter edge.

Evolution over time

Immediately

Sweet crushed grape, green stem tannins

After a few hours

Yeast bloom, fruit depth, vegetal-green

After a few days

Soft grape-sweet residue, faint tannin

The Full Story

Wine must is a natural note in perfumery capturing the scent of freshly pressed, unfermented or partially fermented grape juice. This is wine at its most innocent: raw fruit, crushed skins, stem tannins, and the first bloom of wild yeasts on the grape surface.

The scent is distinctly different from finished wine: sweeter, fruitier, more vegetal. Stem tannins contribute a green-astringent quality. Grape skins add color-related aromatics (anthocyanins are not volatile, but associated terpenoids are). A faint yeasty note signals the beginning of fermentation.

In composition, wine must functions as a heart modifier in vineyard, harvest, and wine-themed compositions. It provides a pre-alcoholic grape richness: all the fruit, none of the spirit. The note carries grape harvest in wine regions, the crush of fruit in a press, the first day of winemaking.

This note in Première Peau. Insuline Safrine. Sample all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.

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Related: Absinthe · Beer · Cognac · Red Wine · Rum · Sake

Did You Know?

Did you know?

In Italy, mosto cotto (cooked must) is made by slowly reducing fresh grape must over fire until it becomes a thick, dark syrup. This condiment, called saba or vincotto, predates balsamic vinegar and was the primary sweetener in Roman cooking before cane sugar arrived in Europe.

Extraction & Chemistry

Extraction method: Wine must can be obtained directly from grape pressing. Some perfumers use grape absolute or related materials. The note is challenging to preserve, as fermentation begins rapidly in fresh must.

Molecular Formula	N/A - complex fermented grape juice
CAS Number	N/A - fermentation product
Botanical Name	Vitis vinifera (unfermented/partially fermented juice)
IFRA Status	No known restrictions
Synonyms	GRAPE MUST
Physical Properties
Odor Strength	Medium
Appearance	Dark purple to ruby red thick liquid

In Perfumery

Wine must is a natural heart modifier in vineyard, harvest, and grape-themed compositions. It provides pre-fermentation grape richness with stem tannins and natural sweetness. Less processed than wine accords, more raw and agricultural. Built from grape materials, green-tannic modifiers, and faint yeast notes.