When is wine vegan?

Wine can contain traces of animal origin because the winery uses animal-derived fining agents to make the wine clear.

After fermentation, grape juice contains small suspended particles: proteins, yeast remains and polyphenols. To make these settle, the winemaker adds a fining agent, which binds the particles and sinks with them to the bottom.

Some of those agents come from animals. Anyone who wants no animal products therefore looks not at the grape but at the method in the cellar.

The OIV lists gelatine, albumin and egg white, isinglass, skimmed milk and casein as animal-derived fining agents.

In addition, the same list permits a range of agents that do not come from animals: bentonite and kaolin from clay, silica solution, alginates, vegetable proteins, chitosan and chitin-glucan from fungi, and protein extracts from yeast.

A wine that has been fined exclusively with that second group is, according to the usual explanation, vegan.

Fining makes cloudy wine clear and, with red wine, can remove part of the tannin and polyphenols.

The OIV names three goals: to supplement natural settling when it proceeds too slowly, to soften red wines by binding tannin, and to clarify wine that keeps particles in suspension.

Without fining a wine remains drinkable, but it more often looks cloudy and may still form a deposit in the bottle.

Not always: only residues of egg and milk must be declared; a statement about veganism does not have to be.

In 2011 EFSA assessed the request to exempt egg white permanently from labelling and rejected it, because wine fined with egg white can cause a reaction in sensitive people. Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/33 and Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 govern how that statement gets onto the bottle.

If a producer puts a statement or a quality mark on the label of its own accord, that is its own choice and not a European requirement.

Unfiltered does not automatically mean unfined: filtering and fining are two different steps in the cellar.

In filtering, the wine passes through a filter that physically holds back particles. In fining, an added substance binds the particles, after which they settle together. A wine can be fined with gelatine and still go into the bottle unfiltered.

If you want to be certain, just ask us; we will check with the producer or on the label.