Vegan wines are made without animal products in the production and filtering process. Red, white, and rose wines, as well as some champagne, sparkling, and dessert wines, can be vegan. Filtering with animal products is common, but unfiltered wines are more likely to be vegan. Organic wines are not necessarily vegan. Research may be necessary to find vegan wines.
Both traditional and vegan wines fall into the same basic types: red, white, and rose. Some brands of champagne, sparkling wine and dessert wines are also vegan. Vegan wines are made without ingredients of animal origin in the products themselves or in the processing and filtering. Before many wines are bottled, a fining process involving animal products is used to remove organic particles. Since vegans avoid consuming animal products, many filtered wines would not be suitable for a vegan diet regardless of type.
The vegan diet avoids any animal and animal products, including dairy products, eggs, and even honey. Many vegans will also reject products that have no animal ingredients but were made using something derived from an animal. For example, some refined sugars are filtered through bone charcoal and are therefore not suitable for vegans even if the final product contains no animal ingredients.
Typically, it is the process and not the ingredients that determine whether a type or brand of wine is vegan. Red wines are made from red or black grapes, white wines from white and pink grapes by skin contact, saignee or blending. Champagne and sparkling wines are made with pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot meunier grapes and a secondary fermentation in the bottle similar to carbonation. Dessert wines are sweeter than other types and are typically served after a dessert meal.
Winemakers may use animal products when filtering their wines before bottling. Isinglass, egg whites or albumin and gelatin are commonly used in this clarification process. Milk proteins such as casein and potassium caseinate can also be used. By binding with organic particles such as yeasts in wine, these animal products facilitate their removal by filtration. While these agents are removed from the final product, the wine would not be appropriate for vegans.
The filtration process is used to make the wine appear clearer and more appealing to consumers. This technique gained prominence from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Since the filtration process can also affect flavor and aroma, some winemakers do not filter. Unfiltered wines are more likely to be vegan because the product has not undergone the fining process using animal products.
Vegan consumers should note that the organic label does not necessarily mean that the wine is also vegan. An organic wine is made from organically grown grapes, a standard that varies from country to country. The winery may have avoided chemical fertilizers and pesticides but they used animal products in the filtration process. Consequently, organic wines are not necessarily vegan wines.
Vegan wines can be hard to find and may require some research on the part of the buyer. Most wineries will do their own fining and filtration processes if you contact them directly, and more restaurants and bars are labeling their wines vegan on menus. There are also vegan wine guides available in print and online. Some bottles will be labeled vegan, but wineries can change their recipes from year to year. Consequently, connoisseurs of vegan wines should always be informed when choosing a bottle.
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