What does vegan wine actually mean?

The vegan lifestyle is very much in vogue. This is especially true for nutrition, whereby vegan is not only in vogue on the plate.

Wine is made from grapes - so is wine vegan?

When terms like vegan wine and conventional wine are mentioned, many people react in astonishment. In terms of grape varieties and their cultivation in the vineyards, there are no differences. The differentiation only arises in the wine cellar when it comes to clarification and filtration. Behind this process is the consumer's desire for a clear wine without visible turbidity and with a harmonious taste picture.

View into the production

In conventional winemaking, the wine is clarified and filtered with various animal auxiliary products. These include casein, a protein made from fresh milk. Albumin, which makes the wine smoother by reducing the tannin content, is obtained from egg yolks. Gelatin and isinglass act in a similar way to casein. Spontaneous, defective acid degradation in wine is prevented by the protein enzyme lysozyme.

Vegan wine achieves the same results during clarification and filtration with the help of various non-animal substances. For example, plant-derived protein (peas, beans or potato starch) binds the turbidity substances and makes the wine clearer. The natural mineral clay bentonite has the same effect. Odor irritations, taste defects and discolorations are prevented by activated carbon. Sedimentation is considered particularly gentle and quality-enhancing. In this time-intensive process, vegan wine remains standing until the particles have settled by themselves.

In our assortment you will find various officially Vegan certified wines of the winery Querciabella from Tuscany.  However, official certification is often a financial obstacle, especially for small wineries such as Orto di Venezia. Michel Thoulouze, however, also relies exclusively on the mineral earth bentonite for production and completely dispenses with animal products.

An overview of our wineries that produce vegan wine but do not officially certify it can be found here.

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