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Wine Must in Perfumery | Première Peau

BEVERAGES  /  fruity · musky · earthy
Wine Must
Wine Must perfume ingredient
CategoryBEVERAGES
Subcategoryfruity · musky · earthy
Origin
VolatilityHeart Note
BotanicalVitis vinifera (unfermented/partially fermented juice)
AppearanceDark purple to ruby red thick liquid
Odor StrengthMedium
Producing CountriesFrance, Italy, Spain, Portugal
PyramidHeart

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.

  1. Scent
  2. The Full Story
  3. Fun Fact
  4. Extraction & Chemistry
  5. In Perfumery
  6. See Also

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

Immediately

After a few hours

After a few hours

After a few days

After a few days

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 evokes grape harvest in wine regions, the crush of fruit in a press, the first day of winemaking.

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 FormulaN/A - complex fermented grape juice
CAS NumberN/A - fermentation product
Botanical NameVitis vinifera (unfermented/partially fermented juice)
IFRA StatusNo known restrictions
SynonymsGRAPE MUST
Physical Properties
Odor StrengthMedium
AppearanceDark 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.

See Also

Premiere Peau Perfumery Glossary. Explore all 75 ingredient entries