Although we’re not vegan ourselves, we live in a bona fide vegan-friendly city and are used to having to cater to different food preferences when entertaining guests. Recently, a very dear friend brought to our attention that his wife was worried about having to give up wine when she found out many are not technically vegan. Surprised?

The concern is not with the wine itself which is essentially fermented grape juice, but with a process in the winemaking called “fining” that often uses animal by-products as its agent for filtering the juice. The purpose of fining is to remove particles in a wine that may make it visually cloudy or hazy, or produce aromas to give the impression of being “off” or corked.

Among the most common fining agents used today is albumen, which is derived from egg whites; and casein, derived from milk protein. As such, they will not satisfy a vegan diet. Also, tasters who may be allergic to dairy may also want to avoid wines using these fining agents. Other non vegan agents include fish oil, and isinglass, a by-product of fish bladders. The fining agents are removed before bottling so rest assured fellow wine enthusiasts you’re not unknowingly consuming fish bladders by the glass! The other thing to keep in mind is that not a lot of egg whites are used to fine wine: typical is to use 3 eggs for a 225 litre barrel, which will produce about 300 standard sized bottles of wine.

In the past decade it’s clear the culinary world is adapting dramatically to meet consumer demand for vegan and gluten-free options, along with a multitude of other dietary restrictions and preferences. And many wineries are following suit by using fining agents that are animal-friendly to appease vegans. For example, bentonite clay, plant casein and synthetic filters are starting to be used more frequently as sufficient alternatives. Further, the technological advances with pressing and refrigeration is, in many cases, reducing the need for fining altogether. Or, if you don’t mind a little sediment in your glass, ‘unfined’ and ‘unfiltered’ wines are vegan.

But vegan buyers beware, don’t be fooled into thinking that wines labeled as ‘organic’ or ‘biodynamic’ are vegan. Fining and farming practices can vary dramatically particularly if a winery uses multiple vineyards. Alternatively, there are many winemakers that don’t use the fining process believing that it removes too much sediment (thus stripping the wine of its potential complexity) and don’t label their wines as ‘unfiltered’ or ‘unfined’.   

“Natural Wines” are a hot topic these days (see our post https://advinetures.ca/blog/imaginary-battle-natural-wine-movement/) and the name might lead you to believe that they would be vegan-friendly. But that is not necessarily the case as there is no fixed definition of a “natural wine”; some producers within the natural wine movement will fine and others will not. Of course the whole issue for vegan wine-lovers would be made so much easier if wineries would just put the term “vegan-friendly” on their labels when the wine meets that criterion. Unfortunately, we have yet to see such a label. 

The only sure way to know if a wine is Vegan is to check with the producer directly. But if you are specifically looking for a vegan-friendly wine,  Barnivore.com (http://www.barnivore.com/wine?region=All) has a listing of wines that states whether each is vegan-friendly or not. It is probably a good place to start. You can search alphabetically with them or by country.

And for those of you in the gluten-free camp, feel free to continue your wine consumption blissfully unconcerned…