Last night I joined some friends to watch a boxing match over a couple glasses of wine (the vino and company I enjoyed, the boxing, not so much). I rarely drink these days, just a glass of Cab Sav or Pinot Grigio here and there. A champagne to celebrate a special occasion and the like.
But lately I’ve had a little niggle, wondering if this wine I’m sipping is vegan? I’m not certain why I didn’t entrust my faithful friend Google before this, but this morning I honed in on that “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. It was time to get to the bottom of this wee quandary of mine.
What I found was an interesting article on the Mother Nature Network. Its findings, in an instant, changed the way I’ll buy wine, forever. If you didn’t know already (as I clearly didn’t) not all wine is vegan. The story’s author Leah Koenig went above and beyond a mere Google search. She went straight to the Napa Valley to get the lowdown on what animal parts are used to produce my alcoholic drink of choice. The answer, my dear vegan pals, is fish guts.
Here’s an excerpt from said article:
Despite the benefits of fining with traditional agents like isinglass (sturgeon bladder aka “fish guts”), egg white albumen, gelatin or casein (a milk protein), vegan purists say it renders the wine unfit to drink. Meanwhile, some winemakers — both vegan and not — believe that fining can remove too much sediment, taking the wine’s complexity and key flavors with it. In response to the growing market for animal-free vino, some wineries have started to specialize in vegan-friendly wines that either skip the fining process or substitute the traditional agents with a natural clay called bentonite, or with diatomaceous earth, which is sourced from hard-shelled fossilized algae.
With this information now at hand, I’m going to do my own research, and only buy wine from those companies I know that are, without a doubt, producing animal-friendly alcohol. Once compiled, I’ll be sure to share the list right here.
Read Leah’s full story HERE.
Animal-friendly Frey's is America's first organic winery.
