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Vegan Wine Definition
A vegan wine is one in which the growing and processing are free of animal-based ingredients.
Growing - In the Vineyard
In a typical, non-vegan vineyard, animal-based products like manure, bone meal, or animal blood are used as fertilizers. Manure comes from industrial farms and may include antibiotic residue. Biodynamic farming promotes the use of cow horns filled with manure-based compost.
Processing - In the Cellar
In the cellar, animal-based products are used for filtering and fining wine. These processes clarify the liquid, removing organic materials after fermentation. After grapes have been fermented and turned into alcohol, the wine needs to settle.
Red wines are first drained off the must (the stems, skins, and seeds.) Then the wine sits, allowing the sediment of dead yeast cells, proteins, and other compounds (called colloids) to fall to the bottom of the tank.
If wine isn’t allowed to settle, these compounds leave it looking cloudy with visible residue. Some colloids in a finished wine can result in flaws with off aromas and flavors.
White grapes are pressed off the skins and seeds before fermentation, but the wine still needs to settle after.
Options for clarifying wine include racking, filtering, and fining.
Racking is the process of settling the wine then drawing it off the sediment. It’s the oldest and most common method but takes more time than filtering and fining.
For thousands of years in Europe, winemakers dropped egg whites into barrels of wine. The proteins in the egg bound with the grape proteins, and the compounds fell to the bottom of the barrel.
If a winemaker chooses to filter, and then fine, filtering comes first. Filtering uses fine mesh filters to remove larger particles. It’s typically used in larger production operations and for younger wines.
The fining process involves agents like egg whites to remove tiny particles. Though animal-based fining agents do not remain in the wine, just being in contact prohibits the wine from being listed as vegan.
Filtering and fining are faster and more precise than racking.
Today, you find more unfined and unfiltered wines than in the past 40 years. Some winemakers rack and then fine, while others believe that filtering and fining remove some flavor compounds.
Vegan Wine Fining Agents
In the vineyard, grape growers can use cover crops or other products like alfalfa instead of manure to supplement the soil.
In the cellar, winemakers can avoid fining by racking or by using vegan-friendly options such as:
Bentonite or kaolin clay – common with white wines
Carbon
Silica Gel
Pea protein (an alternative to gelatin)
Paper filtering
Limestone
Plant casein
Some of these require several stages of fining.
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