What is Vegan Friendly Wine? Does it taste different?
All of our wines are Vegan Friendly.
What is Vegan Friendly Wine?
No doubt you would be aware there has been a noticeable increase consumer interest in vegan friendly food and wines. We see it in the bottle shops, online and also in discussions with our cellar door visitors.
Why would my wine not be Vegan Friendly?
If you’re wondering what non-vegan elements might still be lurking in your favourite bottle of wine, the culprit is usually traces of animal-based fining agents.
So let’s explore what makes a vegan-friendly wine vegan? And how's it made differently to conventional winemaking techniques?
Conventional Winemaking
As I have noted in previous posts, winemaking is a simple and natural process. Grapes ferment to wine with the addition of yeast or the existence of naturally occurring yeast. What remains is wine and lees, or in essence, dead yeast cells. Gross lees (waste yeast) can be removed by "racking" — which means moving wine from one vessel to another — while the smaller fine lees are often removed by filtration.
Prior to bottling, a winemaker may choose to add one of the permitted protein additives to remove impurities and fine tune the colour, flavour, and clarity. This process is known in the business as "fining". And this is where the issue comes in for consumers interested in Vegan Wines. Commonly used proteins are gelatin sourced from cow or pig collagen, isinglass (from fish swim bladder), egg white or skim milk.
Vegan Winemaking
It is this last point in conventional winemaking that is the point of difference. Vegan winemaking essentially eliminate this final step, that is, the wine is not fined and often not filtered. Thus the wines contain no animal products and are therefore Vegan Friendly.
Labelling
Australia has comprehensive rules regarding wine labelling, including the need to specify allergens. This includes milk and eggs, but not the other animal-derived fining proteins. This can cause considerable uncertainty when selecting wines that are vegan-friendly. We are increasingly seeing wines or wineries labelled as Vegan Friendly, like Hayes Family Wines noting that their wines are Vegan Friendly.
Do Vegan Friendly Wines taste Different?
As a general comment after tasting literally thousands of conventionally made wines and and probably slightly less vegan wines is that I cannot tell the difference.
Matching vegan-friendly wines with food is not restricted to vegan-friendly food. Choosing a wine and food to match and experimenting with your choices is an important part of life. If you are Vegan, then choose a Vegan Friendly producer and sleep easier with the decisions that you make. If you are not vegan then choose with confidence.
And for Hayes Family Wines
We do not filter or fine our wines, as such, our wines are Vegan Friendly. So if this is important to you, consume with confidence, if not, then enjoy the wines anyway!