Is there a difference between the vino cotto – cooked wine- and must, mosto?

The must –il mosto– or cooked wine is usually made by individuals for their own use to replace honey or as a sweetener to make homemade cookies or to add and give to weak wines color, body and a pleasant taste.

Vino cotto is a wine obtained by boiling and reducing the freshly pressed juice of grapes to get a thick wine; at times with the addition of fruit, spices or nuts. It is used in the preparation of dessert, for gourmet dishes and for its therapeutic qualities; an excellent remedy for a cough.

It was used as a sweetener by the Greeks and Romans and to add to wine to make it more palatable. The Romans made a sauce with must – mustum in Latin- and senape seed which today is called mustard. The Greeks used resin as a preserver to top the amphorae full of must and wine: hence the traditional resinous wines made in Greece.

Also cooked wine or must, aged in oak barrels for over six months, with the addition of an infusion of seeds, herbs, spices or nuts, it is used as a dessert wine: a singular must made in the island of Madeira, aged a few years and fortified with brandy, is a popular aperitif and desserts wine.

The “pure, classic” must is the pure freshly pressed juice of grapes, slowly cooked and gradually reduced to much less than one third in a process that takes days. No alcohol or sugar or other products can be added; strict rules are to be followed as the must has to be produced in the same zone where the grapes are grown and certain norms have to be followed regarding the storage and the aging. There are a few wineries producing and bottling “Pure Mosto” in the region of Emilia-Romagna and Veneto