‘I’m giving up meat for January’, announced the better half ‘but there is NO way I’m giving up wine!’ Despite all best intentions the I-simply-can’t-face-another-sausage-roll-feeling rolled around again on Twelfth Night whilst Veganuary seems destined for the Oxford English, featuring in just about every New Year food supplement.
So wine, safe ground for the new vegan? Surely (bag in box) wine is one of my five a day right? Just grapes doing their natural thing with the help of some wild yeasts and hopefully not too many sulphites to mask the taste. Pretty much, but depending on the strictness of your diet you might want to pursue your friendly bag in box wine supplier on the detail of whether your wine is vegan or even vegetarian for that matter.
More Wine champions organic, biodynamic and low sulphite wine in a box and in a pouch. However, somewhat counter-intuitively a certified organic wine may not be vegan or even vegetarian. Let’s face it not all of us are ready for cloudy wine on a regular basis. However, not every winemaker has the time or the cash-flow to allow wines to settle and clear naturally.
Thus, fining agents are most commonly used to make the end wine clear. These range from Albumin (egg protein) to Casein (milk protein) to Isinglass (fish bladder) and Gelatin (most definitely meat based!). The fining agent used may well depend on the colour of the wines; the winemaker’s desired impact on the end wine; historic availability and cost. The actual process of fining will remove all but a trace element of the agent, though understandably vegans will prefer to seek out those wines which have not been in contact with any animal matter at all. Clay derived bentonite fits the bill and is widely used.
See our vegan wines.
