Vegan Wine: Key Information And Top Brands
Is wine vegan? Well, vegan wine is certainly easy enough to find. In a perfect world, every brand would be vegan. No food involves a simpler production process. Just add some yeast to grape juice, give it time to ferment, and youve got wine.
Unfortunately, unless you give a batch of wine plenty of time to settle, it will contain sediment from the grapes. Commercial wineries dont want sediment, but they also dont want to wait around before starting the next batch. To speed things up, some winemakers use an assortment of sticky animal ingredients called fining agents. These substances glom onto particulates in the wine, so they can quickly be filtered out.
Filtering almost entirely removes fining agents from the wine. But this practice still offers abundant cause for disgust. Additionally, the use of non-vegan fining ingredients supports industries that exploit animals.
No7 Our Daily Wines Cabernet Sauvignon
I have mentioned Our Daily Wines before in my post about vegan wines at Costco and I have even talked about their boxed wines in my post about best vegan boxed wines ). There is a good reason that Our Daily Wines has been mentioned several times here at Vegan Bev HQ. All their wines are vegan, and they shout about it on their website. They even label their wines bottles as vegan . Here is a quote taken from their website
Our Daily Wines are vegan friendly and do not contain any animal-derived ingredients or dairy products. Unlike some conventional winemakers, we do not use fining agents such as egg whites, gelatin, casein , or isinglass in the processing of our wines.
If you enjoy toasty vanilla notes in your Cabernet you can pick up a bottle from Instacart here.
But Isnt Wine Vegan Its Just Grapes Right
Not quite! Many wineries use animal products in the fining and fertilization processes of winemaking.
Were talking egg whites, gelatin, fish bladders, and milk proteins all used to clarify the wine. Lots of vineyards also use animal products in their fertilizers, like fish emulsion, blood, and bone meal.
Vegan Wines ensures our wines are animal-friendly from the soil up! Learn more about what makes wine vegan.
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Need Wine Our Ultimate Up
The VegNews Team
Here at VegNews, we make it our job to be on top of the newest products, the must-try sweets, the gotta-have-it items. And just as important as it is to know what those new items are, we want to share them with you, so that you can be the most current conscious consumer out there. So we present to you the VegNews Guides, a series of lists dedicated to the things vegans love mostwine included. Below is an up-to-date, ever-expanding roster of the vegan wines offered nationwide.
Can vegans drink wine? If youve ever asked that age-old question then youll be happy to know that the answer is a resounding yes. But before you head out the door to pick up a bottle of Chardonnay to go with dinner, know that not all wines are free from animal products.
Looking For Vegan Wines Beers And More
At the Goodness Project, we love vegan wine, beer and spirits! So if you’re looking for some delicious vegan-friendly tipples, be sure to check out our online store.
We also have a range of other vegan-friendly products, including vegan hampers, vegan snacks and more – so why not take a look around? There’s something perfect for everyone.
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No 10 Avaline Red Blend
I have talked about the Avaline wine brand in my post bout Sprouts . Avaline is a vegan organic wine brand which states that it is vegan friendly ON THE FRONT OF THE BOTTLE. This amazing wine brand was launched by Cameron Diaz in a bid to make wine more transparent. Something which I personally think the industry needs to push for more.
The wine is an earthy cherry filled red with hints of cinnamon and brown sugar.
You can find yourself a bottle of Avaline Red Blend from Instacart here.
Pi Gioia Pinot Grigio
Più Gioia Pinot Grigio is a light bodied, dry Italian wine, with tasting notes of white peach, lemon, and wet stone. Its ideal for serving chilled, as a complimentary beverage to vegan sushi or a veggie-packed plant-based entree.
The highly drinkable Più Gioia translates to more joy in Italian, says Winc. Thats exactly what this crowd-pleasing Pinot Grigio delivers. It adds, Più Gioia has complexity and a longer finish while maintaining light body and crisp acidity. This wine hits the sweet spot of easy-drinking excellence.
Buy it here.
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What Pinot Grigio Is Vegan
Wine fining is just as important when producing white wines like pinot grigio as it is in red wine production. Some pinot grigio isnt vegan.
However, some of the best-tasting pinot grigios that Ive had are produced by vegan-friendly wineries, such as:
Keep reading below to find out my favorite vegan wines!
How To Identify Vegan Wine
Our wines clearly state Certified Vegan or Vegan Friendly on the back labels. All are either certified vegan now, or in process of certification by one of the many worldwide vegan certification agencies:
Maison Raymond French Organic Wines are Certified Vegan with Eve Vegan.
You can find our wines and others listed as vegan in the popular vegan alcohol search engine Barnivore.com and retailers are increasingly marking wines on shelf as vegan or vegan friendly. Business Insiders article Vegans cant actually drink all wines heres why, says:Supermarkets are trying to keep up by labeling vegan-friendly wines so that they are easy to spot. Vegans can also consult websites like Barnivore.com where they can search for their favorite wine and check if it is safe to drink or not.
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Best Vegan Wine Subscription: Vegan Wines Wine Club
For those who like the idea of a wine subscription, you can join Vegan Wines Wine Club. As the name implies, Vegan Wines curates a marketplace of some of the best vegan wines from vineyards in California, other regions of the United States, Chile, France, Italy, and more. They even have some of their own label vegan wines. Every wine on their site is 100% vegan. The Vegan Wine Club includes quarterly shipments of six bottles of different hand-selected, delicious vegan wines from prominent national and international wine regions. It is a great way to be introduced to some of the best vegan wines, many of which are organic. You can also customize your shipments based on your preferences and can select the varietals and vintages you want to try. Club members get other perks like discounts and exclusive access to limited vegan wines.
Editors’ Recommendations
Aldi Philizot Et Fils Blanc De Noirs Champagne
£18 for 75cl
Aldi says this vegan champagne is ‘elegant and well structured, with a lingering finish’.
Did it win over our expert panel? To find out how Aldi’s offering measured up to rival supermarkets, join Which? to unlock our test results
Want to buy without reading our results? Available from Aldi.
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Vegan Wine Brands You Need To Try
iStock/DragonImages
Picking out a bottle of wine should be easy, but when youre vegan, its no easy feat. But its about to get a whole lot easier with this guide to choosing vegan wine.
From an organic biodynamic winery to an up-and-comer whose pinot noir is flying off shelves, these are the vegan wine brands you need to try.
Check For Unfined Or Unfiltered On The Label
As it is usually the ingredients within the fining agents that contain animal products, wines that are ‘unfined’ or ‘unfiltered’ are more likely to be vegan. If a wine is labelled as such, it means that the wine has not undergone this process, producing a more natural wine without any of the animal byproducts.
Natural wines may also use a vegan alternative to fine their wine, such as bentonite clay, so this is something else to look out for. If a wine is fined with bentonite clay, it will usually be stated on the label.
DOCG Chianti Tenuta San Vito – Vegan Organic Wine
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But First Why Is Wine Not Vegan
First, a little recap. In my previous post, Why Is Wine Not Vegan How To Know The TruthI talked about everything a vegan needs to know about wine. To give you a quick recap: most wines are not vegan. This is due to the common use of non-vegan fining agents in the clarification process. Fining agents are added to wines during clarification to clump together unwanted molecules, such as excess yeast and tannins which can then be easily removed during the filtration process.
And, yes, whilst there are vegan fining agents available the most commonly used remain the non-vegan versions.
Want To Learn More About Wine
Do you love wine? If you want to learn more about wine in general and whether it is vegan check out my post: Why is Wine Not Vegan? Time To Find Out the Truth.
If you love wine, but dont drink alcohol I have also covered everything you need to know about vegan non-alcoholic wines: 10 Non-Alcoholic Vegan Wines You Need To Know About.
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No Animal Byproducts Are Used In The Production Of Our Wines
Those who have chosen a vegan lifestyle can feel comfortable in consuming our entire portfolio of wines.
All of our winery partners are committed to using no animal byproducts in production, utilizing only Bentonite clay, a naturally occurring mineral, or vegetable protein as fining and clarifying agents. Some of our wineries utilize sterile filters or cross-flow filters as their only form of filtration and fining.
Some of our wines that are aged for long periods of time naturally let suspended solids sink to the bottom of the tank or barrel. These wines are often bottled as unfiltered and unfined, and may still appear cloudy to the eye. Most wines have a shorter processing time that does not allow the natural fining process to take place. For those wines, fining agents are utilized to speed up the wines natural clarification process.
From Vivinos article What is Vegan Wine: Vegan wines are made with the intent of not using animal byproducts in the winemaking process. There is no official designation for vegan wines, as there is a possibility of insects living in the vines and on the grapes but again, the intent is to not have this happen or to use animal byproducts in the winemaking process. This focus for winemakers on intent affords those wine drinkers who share this intention to drink world-class wines without animal byproducts.
Our Favorite Vegan Wine Brands
Over the past few years, weve been finding and sampling vegan wine brands to find ones we like best. The list below reflects that, and Ill add it to the list as we find brands we like.
Based on the research Ive done, all the wine these companies produce, unless noted, are vegan. As always, things may change and its best to do your own research and double check before consuming anything.
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Organic And Vegan Wines
With our Low Sugar and Organic Wine blog posts being two of the most read on our blog, we thought we would follow up again with some new wines our stores are carrying. All organic and/or vegan, these wines have been certified and approved of their status by different growing, harvesting, and winemaking methods.
What Makes Fining Agents Non
This is where the difficulty lies for those wanting a vegan red wine, as most of the fining agents that have traditionally been used contain animal products. For red wine in particular, this is most often egg whites, known as albumin. Other fining agents that can be used include casein , isinglass , fish oil and gelatin among others.Once the fining process has finished, the agents are removed from the finished product. However, due to the nature of wine, tiny traces of the fining agent may be absorbed during the fining process, thus meaning wine made in this way is off limits to vegans.
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What Are Vegan Friendly Wines
Things are getting better for vegan and vegetarian wine-drinkers. You can maintain a strictly vegan lifestyle and still enjoy a glass of high-quality Pinot when the mood strikes. More and more wine makers are choosing to use mineral and plant-based fining agents such as bentonite , silica gel and plant casein for fining their wines so their wines can be accurately characterised as vegan. Activated charcoal is another vegan and vegetarian agent.
Vegetarian And Vegan Wines Are Different
What sets them apart comes down to the fining agents. When winemakers use egg whites, this will probably be acceptable to vegetarians but not vegans. For a wine to be considered vegan, there canât be any animal byproducts used. Thankfully, though, there are plenty of alternatives. Some of the most common ones include vegetable plaques, limestone, and plant casein.
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Best Vegan Champagne: Champagne Legret Mineral
Champagne Legret Mineral is vegan champagne perfect for any celebration. It is made from only Chardonnay grapes from vineyards in La Marne on the Côte des Blancs, the Coteaux du Sézannais, and du Petit Morin. This vegan champagne has a refreshingly fruity, citrusy, slightly floral taste, with notes of minerality from the iodine. variety, which brings finesse and elegance. It is 12% ABV.
Look For A Certified Vegan Label
Certified vegan products have to meet certain requirements and standards set out by vegan organisations. So, if a wine has a certified vegan label, you can be sure that it doesnt contain any animal products.
The Vegan Society and Viva! are two such organisations that provide certification for vegan products in the UK, so keep an eye out for either of their certification labels when youre wine shopping.
The Vegan Society has a registered trademark that is used by vegan-friendly businesses to show that their products do not contain any animal ingredients or derivatives. If you see this logo on a wine bottle, you can be sure that the wine is 100% vegan.
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What Are Fining Agents
Most wines, if left long enough, will self-stabilize and self-fine. However, traditionally producers have used a variety of aids called fining agents to help the process along. Fining agents help precipitate out these haze-inducing molecules. Essentially, the fining agent acts like a magnet attracting the molecules around it. They coagulate around the fining agent, creating fewer but larger particles, which can then be more easily removed.
Traditionally the most commonly used fining agents were casein , albumin , gelatin and isinglass . These fining agents are known as processing aids. They are not additives to the wine, as they are precipitated out along with the haze molecules.
Fining with casein and albumin is usually acceptable by most vegetarians but all four are off limits for vegans because tiny traces of the fining agent may be absorbed into the wine during the fining process.
A Wonderful Wine Selection
Wine has been around for centuries and even prescribed as a tonic for longevity in medieval times. Fast forward to today, and according to WebMD, modern studies suggest that enjoying wine in moderation may indeed be good for your health.
Turns out, grapes contain compounds, like resveratrol, that may help reduce the risk of some cancers, diabetes and other cardiovascular diseases. Good news for the growing number of wine lovers across the country!
And here’s more good news: Safeway has an amazing selection of wines from a variety of vineyards. From dry white wine like chardonnay to sweet red wine like port and every preference in between you’ll find a bottle or box to suit every occasion.
Thanks to its pretty pink hue and refreshing taste, rose wine is becoming as popular as white wine at dinner parties and backyard cookouts. Prefer a light- to medium-bodied red wine? Pinot Noir is always a crowd-pleaser. Need bubbly to celebrate a birthday, anniversary, or special event? Our delightful selection of sparkling wines fits every budget.
Shop Safeway for a wonderful selection of wines from Josh, La Crema, Chateau Ste. Michelle, Cupcake, Veuve Clicquot and more.
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Menage A Trois Soft Red Blend
I have talked about Menage a Trois several times before here at Vegan Bev HQ. This is mainly because they have several vegan wines, but also because their marketing lines are amazing. Menage a Trois Soft Red Blend is a smooth, seductive red blend that caresses you with every sip. I mean come on! If that doesnt make you want to take a sip, I dont know what will. This red blend is made of Pinot Noir, Malbec, and Petite Sirah.
This wine has fragrances of cherries and violets as well as cherry, raspberry, rose, and spice flavors. It would go fabulously with a vegan dark chocolate dessert.
Sensi Campoluce Chianti Organic
This full bodied red gets its name from the fireflies in the Tuscany vineyards it is made at. The grapes are grown without the use of fertilisers or chemical pesticides. The result is a wine with a pleasant fruity aroma and a soft, fresh flavour. The wine is certified organic and produced using traditional fermentation methods without any chemicals. Whats the best way to enjoy this cool beverage? This one is a cheese plates best friend and it goes great with spicy food, too.
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