Mutage is a

wine making Winemaking, wine-making, or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. There is ...

technique for making sweet wines.

Typical mechanism

The typical process involves the addition of alcohol to the ''

must Must is freshly crushed Juice, fruit juice (usually grape juice) that contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit. The solid portion of the must is called pomace and typically makes up 7–23% of the total weight of the must. Making must ...

'' so that the

fermentation Fermentation is a type of anaerobic metabolism which harnesses the redox potential of the reactants to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and organic end products. Organic molecules, such as glucose or other sugars, are catabolized and reduce ...

process is prematurely stopped. Most

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom (biology), kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are est ...

s die when the alcohol content in their environment is raised to approximately 13–15%. By stopping the fermentation of sugars, a sweet taste of the

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

is achieved. This technique is used to make

port wine Port wine (, ; ), or simply port, is a Portuguese wine, Portuguese fortified wine produced in the Douro, Douro Valley of Norte, Portugal, northern Portugal. It is typically a sweetness of wine, sweet red wine, often served with dessert wine, ...

and other sweet wines with high alcohol content.www.muscats-du-monde.com
Accessed 16 September 2010

Types of mutage

Two types of mutage are sometimes distinguished. A distinction being made between adding alcohol to the must before fermentation and adding during fermentation. # ''Mutage sur grain'': Where the mutage takes place during maceration on the skins. This is described as ''mutage on the cap of the marc'' and produces vin de liqueur # Mutage after the traditional maceration and pressing producing vin doux naturel.

Noted wines referred to as having been made by ''mutage''

Reds * Banyuls * Maury * Rivesaltes Whites * Muscat de Beaumes de Venise * Muscat de Rivesaltes *

Muscat de Frontignan Muscat (, ) is the capital and most populous city in Oman. It is the seat of the Governorate of Muscat. According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the population of the Muscat Governorate in 2022 was 1.72 million. ...

Other techniques

Other techniques for making sweet wines exist such as vendange tardive, the

noble rot Noble rot (; ; ; ) is the beneficial form of a grey fungus, ''Botrytis cinerea'', affecting wine grapes. Infestation by ''Botrytis'' requires warm and humid conditions, typically around 20 degrees Celsius and above 80% humidity. If the weather ...

, various filtration techniques or early heating of the must, and adding sweet musts after fermentation.

References

{{Reflist Wine terminology Oenology

Typical mechanism

Types of mutage

Noted wines referred to as having been made by ''mutage''

Other techniques

See also

References