Blog, Vegetarian & Vegan Wines
What Are Vegetarian And Vegan Wines And How Are They Made?
Jan
As we all know, wine is made of grapes. So how can it be not vegan-friendly? Surprisingly, quite a few animal products can be (and have been historically) used in winemaking.
It is no secret that healthy lifestyle and sustainable diet have become massive trends. Here’s a fact: according to The Vegan Society, 600,000 people in the UK were vegan in 2019, compared to 150,000 in 2014. No wonder that “veganuary” is an increasingly popular concept, just as “dry January”. Naturally, wine industry had to respond to these trends. In recent years many producers have stopped using animal-derived products in winemaking processes. Vegetarian- and vegan-friendly wines are booming across the world. But what makes a wine non-vegetarian in the first place? And how can one determine whether a wine is vegan- or vegetarian-friendly? Read on to find out.
Which Animal Products Can Be Used In Winemaking?
Winemaking is a complex multistage process. After the fermentation any wine, be it white red or rose, normally needs to settle – so that tiny particles of sediments sink to the bottom of the fermentation vessel. Effectively, the wine can settle, or clarify itself. However this can take months. To speed up the process and to make the wines more affordable, wineries often use some animal-derived products. These act as helpers in the wine clarifying process also known as fining.
When added to wine, these products, a.k.a. fining agents bind unwanted residual solids. All of these are then filtered out, however tiny traces of animal-derived products may still remain in wine, making it not suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
One of the most traditional products used for wine fining are egg whites which in addition to binding sediments are known to help remove harsh tannins from red wine. Another fining agent is casein: a protein found in milk, it helps achieve clarity in white wines.
Gelatin is also commonly used in wine fining. This protein is derived from animal hides and bones, so it is also far from being vegan. And then, there is isinglass. Derived from fish bladders, it was more commonly used in the past, but some wineries still revert to this product in order to obtain clarity of their wines.
How Are Vegetarian And Vegan Wines Made?
Modern science has come up with a few vegan alternatives which can be used to fine the wine. One of the examples is poly-vinyl-poly-pyrrolidone (PVPP). This is a plastic substance which absorbs excess phenols and colours in wine. Another vegan-friendly fining agent is bentonite – essentially it is purified clay. Activated charcoal can also be used to remove off flavours, but it can deprive wine of its desirable characteristics.
However, let’s not forget that wine can clarify itself. An increasing number of sustainable winemakers tend to stick to natural practices and allow wine to settle on its own.
These wines are then bottled as unfined and unfiltered. Moreover, this method, albeit more time-consuming, is known to result in the most expressive wines which truly reflect the character of the grape and the terroir.
Which Wines Are Vegetarian- And Vegan-friendly?
Current UK and European regulations do not require wineries to list fining agents on the labels. However, to make things more transparent for the consumer, many producers label their wines as vegetarian or vegan. Nevertheless (and confusingly), if these words are not found on the label, that doesn’t mean that a wine is not suitable for vegans and vegetarians.
Wines that are bottled unfined and unfiltered are vegetarian and vegan by default. This is the case with the majority of qvevri wines – Georgian wines made in traditional clay amphorae. These usually do not require additional fining as the shape of qvevri (amphorae) allows the sediment to settle naturally.
Also, unsurprisingly, natural wines and low intervention wines are also vegetarian and vegan – and so are organic and biodynamic wines.
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At WINE ORIGINS we have around 100 vegetarian and vegan friendly wines – whites, reds, rose and sparkling all found in the specially designated section of our shop. Sourced from sustainable family-owned wineries across the world and made from indigenous and international grapes, these terroir-driven wines are truly outstanding. We communicate with our producers in order to find out which winemaking practices they use. This allows us to be transparent with our customers on which wines are vegetarian, vegan or both.
Cheers to a healthy lifestyle with plenty of good sustainable wine!