Our most frequently asked question might be, but wait, aren’t all wines vegan? If wine comes from grapes… But no, the vast majority of wines use materials that come from animals when being made.
Someone who’s a vegan excludes all products derived from animals from their diet, like eggs, milk, honey, meat, fish… But veganism isn’t just a ‘diet’; the vegan philosophy consists of not using products or services that come from animals, whether in food, clothing, drugs, cosmetics, or transport.
Veganism has become a lifestyle, or beyond that, an ideology, whose principles can be ethical, environmental or health-related.
Now, let’s get to it: when is a wine vegan and when is it not? This depends on the vinification process. There, the wine is filtered with substances called ‘fining agents’. This step cleans the wine and eliminates impurities that may cloud it before bottling. The most commonly used fining agents in wine clarification are derived from animals. Here we find milk proteins, egg albumin, fish oil, gelatine, and isinglass (gelatine from fish bladder membranes). In all of those cases, these are wines that are not suitable for vegans.
However, new consumer trends and lifestyles have led to an uptick in wineries’ commitment to the environment, and to their consumers. Some wineries have started to do this clarification with materials that come from minerals (and not animals). The most commonly used–and what we work with at Godelia for clarification–is bentonite (clay powder that is also used to remove impurities from wines), and vegetable proteins, such as the ones that come from peas or potatoes.
At Godelia we make 100% vegan wines, free from anything that comes from animals during the entire winemaking process.