People often want to know the ways to tell if wine is vegan. If you have been to the store lately, you will likely find a lot of vegan options. It is one of the growing trends. If you are going to be converting to a vegan diet or you are already vegan, you may be interested in having a wine and cheese night. While it can be easy to tell whether or not a ‘cheese alternative’ is vegan, it may not be as obvious for wine. Below, we will be going over some of the ways you can tell if your wine is vegan.
How To Tell If Your Wine Is Vegan:
1. Unrefined
One of the things that you are going to want to stick to when you are trying to identify a vegan wine would have to be whether or not it is refined or not. You want to try to keep it as natural as possible if you are going after vegan wines. If the wine has been refined, it is best to steer clear. If the wine needed refining, you would need to be certain that it didn’t use any non-vegan ingredients. This would be difficult to tell. Therefore, the easiest way to steer clear of non-vegan wines is to simply opt for unrefined alternatives. There are plenty of wines on the market that are unrefined which will give you exactly what you are looking for.
2. Active Bentonite Clay or Pea Protein
If the wine does happen to need refining, you need to be certain that it is using one of these two ingredients: Bentonite Clay or Pea Protein. While there are others, these are the two that are most prominently used and they are vegan-friendly. Therefore, you should be looking to see whether or not they utilised these ingredients during the refinement process.
3. Label
This isn’t going to be the best and most concrete way to find vegan wines. However, you should be able to find a lot of winemakers who label themselves as vegan-friendly. This is a good option for those who want to keep things simple and who do not want to do extra research on the wine-making process. You can also look for labels that have the “Certified Vegan” logo. Not all vegan wines will have this label but it is worth looking out for.
4. Organic
As mentioned, you should be sticking to wine that is all-natural. If you are going after a wine that is organic and all-natural, the chances of you are getting a vegan-friendly wine, that does not have animal byproducts included, is going to be much higher. Choosing an organic wine ensures it has been grown without artificial agents such as pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or fertilisers.
Summary
Overall, there are plenty of reasons why you would want to find a wine that is vegan-friendly if you are a vegan. While a lot of products on the market may be easy to identify whether or not it’s vegan, wine isn’t as easy.
Many vegans may assume that all wine is vegan when it’s actually not. By using the tips above, you should be able to maximise your chances of identifying a winemaker and a specific bottle of wine on the marketplace that you can use for your wine and cheese nights. Sticking to all-natural wines is the best course of action for any vegan.
As with every wine you need to try different varieties and labels to find those that best suit your palette. Keep an eye out for our recommendations and reviews to help you with a selection of options to choose from.