Vegan wine

I had a customer ask today about Vegan wine. Are there any good recources on Vegan wine? Do any of the winemakers here consider their wines Vegan? Any help is appreciated.

Vegan is difficult. Most of the vegans that I have known through the years will not consider a wine vegan if it has been finned with annimal products. Since each wine/vintage may be treated differently it is difficult to provide guidances without knowning the specifics of each individual bottling. Therefore, the vegans that I know rarely rely on information that producer X is vegan since it is possible that the one wine they pick up is the one that is not vegan. Instead most will contact the winery directly to determine (if possible) which bottlings are vegan.

[David M. Bueker]

Of course finning is only done with fish...

Fining can be done with things other than egg whites (the most common IIRC), but by going with unfined/unfiltered wines you stand a better chance of meeting persnickity vegan requirements.

Personally I cannot imagine a vegan actually enjoying wine. It's a beverage of pleasure, and I have yet to meet a happy vegan (sample size around 10-12).

I had a customer ask today about Vegan wine. Are there any good recources on Vegan wine? Do any of the winemakers here consider their wines Vegan? Any help is appreciated.

Vegans? You need a better class of customer! (Says an unrepentant meat eater!)

Thanks for all the help (and smiles as well)

Personally I cannot imagine a vegan actually enjoying wine. It's a beverage of pleasure, and I have yet to meet a happy vegan (sample size around 10-12).

Heh-heh...

Hey, even bentonite fining could be construed as non-vegan, since didn't it come from prehistoric little animals?

If I were vegan (or vegetarian) I'd be more concerned about MOG in the ferment rather than fining residues. So I would be looking for wines made from hand harvested grapes and/or grapes that are carefully sorted. And good fining and filtering I suppose, to remove any remaining bits of critters.

Since both me and my wife were ovo-lacto for over a decade we have met many vegans. Vegans like all people come in many different types. Some are even happy people that enjoy food and beverage. Most vegans are generally only concerned with the animal based fining products. This is out of ignorance of how wine is made. Most had no idea that wine was not vegan until they learned it might not be from a vegan source (book, internet, friend). Most of the vegan resources will discuss fining products and how they are used in wine making. I don't recall ever seeing anything in vegan literature about MOG or the potential use of refined sugar and as such most vegans don't even worry about such.

To make matters worse there are some vegans that will accept the use of fining products since it is not part of the bottled product. When dealing with a vegan it is difficult to know both their level of knowledge about the product and what they consider acceptable.

So like I said before most serious vegans will try to call the winery direct and determine what they can. Those that are not so serious just want to be told that the wine is O.K. so they can drink it without guilt.

Of course finning is only done with fish...

Fining can be done with things other than egg whites (the most common IIRC), but by going with unfined/unfiltered wines you stand a better chance of meeting persnickity vegan requirements.

Personally I cannot imagine a vegan actually enjoying wine. It's a beverage of pleasure, and I have yet to meet a happy vegan (sample size around 10-12).

I know a vegan who loves wine--throws ideology out the window when she wants a glass...

Of course finning is only done with fish...

Don't tell that to Otto.

Vegan wine? I think I'd prefer some Rigellian Spice Wine.

I suppose Klingon Bloodwine would be a no-no?

[David M. Bueker]

Romulan Ale?

I had a customer ask today about Vegan wine. Are there any good recources on Vegan wine? Do any of the winemakers here consider their wines Vegan? Any help is appreciated.

Ed, did you ask your customer to explain what they meant by vegan wine? And did they require any evidence of such?

There's such ignorance and so many silly stories about wine. They may have been thinking of these stories circulated about blood being used in winemaking, for instance.

If they wanted a biodynamic wine, for instance, they could have the choice between one made biodynamically, and one made and certified as such by an independent body.

I think without knowing what they mean by vegan you can't hope to meet their needs.

I suspect tho', that any of the big brand wines would suit as issinglass or eggwhites are used by smaller 'craft' wineries. The big boys used filters or bentonite.

MOG from machine harvested grapes can include birds, mice, 'possums, snakes, various bugs and other flavoring elements, sometimes quite finely diced.

MOG from machine harvested grapes can include birds, mice, 'possums, snakes, various bugs and other flavoring elements, sometimes quite finely diced.

Makes a whole new meaning for 'flavor crystals'!

MOG from machine harvested grapes can include birds, mice, 'possums, snakes, various bugs and other flavoring elements, sometimes quite finely diced.

I've got news!

Must made from hand picked grapes is also full of insects. Just try and keep the wasps out of the containers of freshly picked grapes waiting to go into the crusher destemmer or into the fermenting tanks.

Harvest is no time for the fatidious to be visiting a winery.

What does "MOG" mean?

There is some truth to the "wine made with blood" story. Albumen protein from blood has been used in the past as a fining agent. The mad cow scare put paid to that practice in the EU and I think it's illegal in the USA as well.

-Paul W.

And what about fruit flies? Their larvae are probably pressed right into the juice...

Of course finning is only done with fish...

But fining can also be done with fish.

What does "MOG" mean?

Matter Other than Grapes
The stuff that falls in

...Personally I cannot imagine a vegan actually enjoying wine. It's a beverage of pleasure, and I have yet to meet a happy vegan (sample size around 10-12).

Absolutely hilarious, and unfortunately so true for our sample size of 6. Thought it was just an L.A. kinda thing to be so healthy, self-righteous and unhappy about it.

Absolutely hilarious, and unfortunately so true for our sample size of 6. Thought it was just an L.A. kinda thing to be so healthy, self-righteous and unhappy about it.

Come to think of it, me too. They act like born again whatevers. They treat meat like temperance treated booze.

You chow down on something not on the Vegan approved list and they come out with things like "So I see you are not worried about getting cancer." or "Do you have any idea what you are doing to your body?"

If they are so damned healthy, why must they be so bloody proselytic? I don't try to sell them on the virtues of steak tartare, and I wish that they would STFU on matters of diet as well.

Hopefully this is tongue in cheek, not blinders in brain.

Personally I cannot imagine a vegan actually enjoying wine. It's a beverage of pleasure, and I have yet to meet a happy vegan (sample size around 10-12)

Please use war and killing to solve all of our problems. Kindness is too boring, maybe this is why I enjoy wine. I need to go see something suffer taa taa.

Sincerely,

Non-vegan Vegetarian

Rod,

I won't speak for the others, but yes for me; the humor is tongue-in-cheek here. I am serious though about my observation of my vegan friends' commonality of behavior in this one aspect. There's an "aggresively contemptous self righteousness" conveyed towards nonvegans, at least about health and food, that's common to each six folks I know who follow this diet style. I see it, whether it's communicated to us non-vegans intentionally or not.

Yep, that's it and I do forgive them for this discourtesy; after all, It's very likely that their incomplete diet causes it.

Very sincerely,

Human