Wine: Can it be vegan?

Wine. Fermented grape juice one would say. Sounds pretty vegan-friendly. But is any wine really vegan? If not, why not? And how and where are vegan wine lovers getting their wine from then? Lots of people enjoy a glass of wine every now and then, even if it is only to seem a bit more fancy than with your regular glass of beer.

However, there is a slight catch. There is a step in the process of making wine called 'fining'. Most wines will fine over time, if left alone long enough. This is important because people like their wine to be clear and bright. Young wines are not, so fining them is essential in the process. However, (and this is where it gets tricky) there are wine producers who add so-called 'fining agents' to speed up this process. These 'agents' are meant to get rid off the small molecules that make young wines unclear, and not as bright as we are used to.

The fining agents are what makes the wine non-vegan. The agents are not kept in the wine, but are removed before the wine is bottled and stored. It purely acts to remove the haze-molecules that are found in very young wine. Tiny molecules of these agents might still be absorbed into the wine however, making it off-limits for the vegans amongst us.

But this article has a good twist. Wine makers nowadays often use different kind of fine agents (mostly based on clay). Moreover, wine makers give wine more and more the time to fine on its own, even if that process takes a bit longer.

Getting vegan-friendly wine might still be a struggle though. It is not compulsory to write down the ingredients on your wine bottle, making it difficult for vegans to see whether their favourite wine has hidden, non vegan-friendly ingredients in them. Sometimes you will walk into a liquor store however, and there will be someone to help you with your wants and needs. Just keep asking. If they do not know, they are probably not the right fit to help you. Especially in the bigger cities we have found that there are more wine sellers who are becoming aware of vegan wine. Eventually there is a perfect wine-fit for every single person. Because everyone deserves to have a good taste of their fancy drink.

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