Vegan wine
Yesterday I got a call asking me if our wines were vegan. Well, first I had to think about what that really meant (from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegan Veganism is a diet and lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose. Vegans endeavor not to use or consume animal products of any kind) and then think back about our winemaking and our package. I can think of any animal product in our package at all (glass, aluminum, paper, plastic…) and in the winemaking either, except in the Dry Riesling since we use a microscopic amount of Isinglass (sturgeon bladder) at the end of our winemaking. There might be also some insects (do they count?) that might be picked with the grapes and a few fruit flies that fall in the tank during fermentation. So,can I claim that all our wines are Vegan ( with the exception of the Dry Riesling, though honestly we use about one pint of the Isinglass for the whole blend…)?
December 15th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Hi! Stumbled upon this at random, and just thought I’d help you out a little,although it looks like this is an old post, and you may have found help elsewhere already. Really glad to hear that you put the time into researching just what veganism implies for wines, and that you went as far as to analyze you packaging.
By the sounds of it, most of your wines are vegan, except the Dry Riesling (even if it is such a small quantity, it’s still an animal product, and therefore not vegan). I personally don’t feel that insects that accidentally get picked at the same time as the grapes make a wine not vegan, because realistically, this is inevitable with most vegetables adn fruits, although others may feel differently. As long as you aren’t intentionally adding or killing insects, I would consider it vegan. Some vegans may wish to know if pesticides are used on the grapes that intentionally kill insects, which can sometimes be a gray area for some in the definition of veganism.
The other major points I look for when I’m trying to find out if a wine is vegan are whether or not milk products or egg products are used in the clarifying process, and whether or not it is filtered through bone char at any point.
Hope that was of some help. If after further analysis, you do consider some of your wines to be vegan, do get the word out there! Possibly consider contacting online listings of vegan wines and let them know if yours should be included. Oh, and if anyone comes across this and notes that I missed an important point on vegan wines, be sure to add it, because I’m aware that I don’t know everything about the wine making process.
December 19th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Nikki,
Thank you for your note. I am going to check if any organization issue some type of certification or if it is just based on an honor system.
December 9th, 2011 at 7:54 pm
Hi! Thank you for the information. The other ingredient often used in wine making is egg whites. Also, if you do have vegan riesling, I suggest you mark your labels to attract vegan customers. We have a really hard time getting good wines!
December 9th, 2011 at 8:06 pm
Thanks. Usually egg white is reserved to red wine to remove tannins – it is not used in white winemaking.
We’ve discussed advertising the wines as vegan – may be we should. Thank you for the feedback