Are all wines vegan if they come from grapes?

ARE ALL WINES VEGAN?

The answer is no, not all wines are vegan. We are going to look at the winemaking process to see the moment when they stop being vegan.

STEP 1: Vineyards produce grapes that will be collected and taken to the winery during “The Grape Harvest”.

STEP 2: The grapes will be crushed to obtain the must, or grape juice.

STEP 3: These grapes, once in the winery and after several processes, will carry out one of the most important actions within their production: alcoholic fermentation. This process converts the grape juice into actual wine. To do so, the yeasts will transform the sugars contained in the must into ethyl alcohol. This process is much more complex, but here we highlight what concerns us in this case.

STEP 4: We now have wine! In the months of November or December, the malolactic fermentation can take place, which is necessary for red wines and wines for ageing. This fermentation transforms the malic acids into lactic acids, reducing the acidity of the wines.

STEP 5: After this, comes the racking off, the clarification and filtration. This is where our wines may stop being vegan!

WHAT IS CLARIFICATION?

This is a process whereby we eliminate solid substances from the wine that may have originated during its production, in order to obtain clean and clear wines. To this end, animal origin substances can be used, such as egg white, fish albumin or milk protein. As these have a greater density, they form a layer on the surface of the wine, which gradually drops, precipitating the solid remains to the bottom and being able to eliminate them later.

These substances are expensive and costly, so many wineries today use other products such as bentonite, which is not of animal origin.

In Spain there is no legislation that certifies these wines; what vegan wine makers usually do is certify their bottling with the European Vegetarian Label "V-LABEL", through the Spanish Vegetarian Union or the Vegan Society, both independent bodies.

Our wine is almost finished, whether it is vegan or not; we just have to:

STEP 6: Ageing, if we decide to put our wine in barrels, vats, demijohns, etc.

STEP 7: Bottling, so the wine reaches the shelves of our shops.

In conclusion, and after consulting several winemakers, the use or not of clarifiers is a decision for each winery depending on the philosophy of their wines and on the result they want to obtain.

The current trend in quality wines is not to clarify, but the only of way to know 100% is to look at the label, or study the process used by each winery to ensure that no element of animal origin has been used.