WINE-Vegetarian or Not?

Wine has been widely and coequally accepted all over the world, not only by meat eaters but also vegans and vegetarians. ‘Chardonnay’ with fish or chicken is as scrumptious a combination as it is with risotto or legumes. Similarly, an aromatic ‘Syrah’ usually pared with beef or steak will also go equally well with roasted vegetables. There are absolutely no limits to pairing wine with vegan or vegetarian food. However, something that every vegetarian wouldn’t know is that every combination of a wine and a vegetarian dish might not be as vegetarian as it seems. No, its not the food, it’s the WINE that might render the pairing non-vegetarian.

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Before being bought to you in artfully crafted decanters, wine is aged and before aging it goes through a fining process. This fining or clarification process decides if the wine will be suitable for vegetarians and vegans. The process essentially uses ‘fining agents’ to remove the dead yeast cells, proteins and tannins. Vintners reason that the process not only helps clarify the wine and give it the desired tint but also help getting rid of the off-flavors that the tannins and proteins may other wise give to the wine.

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The fining agents that a winery would typically use are casein (milk protein), albumen (derived from egg whites), gelatin (from animal bones), chitosan (from the shells of sea crustaceans), isinglass (from fish bladder) or in some Mediterranean countries even bull’s blood (it is not allowed to be used in US and Europe). These agents cling to the unwanted particles and sediment them out; wine is then poured from barrels to barrels to get rid of these sediments. Trace amounts of these fining agents however still remain in the wine. While, casein and albumen might be acceptable to certain vegetarians the others are certainly not!

Some wineries also use bentonite (a clay mineral) for clarifying the wine, but it is not known to be as common a fining agent. Unfortunately, the biggest hitch is that wine labels do not mention which fining agent has been used for the purpose of clarification. 

In that case, the question is how do you pick a vegetarian or a vegan friendly wine? Following is what you can do, the next time you crave for one:

1. Choose unfiltered/unfined wines that omit the whole clarification process (wines from small local producers for example)
2. Ask your wine merchant, if the wine is vegetarian/vegan friendly or if its unfiltered
3.  There are helpful guides online (Barnivore.com for example) that carry an exhaustive list of wines available in the market and if they are vegan friendly or not
4.  Go for the red wines as they are less likely to be fined than the white ones

       

                                         

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Try out some vegetarian/vegan wines and if you’ve tasted one, please leave the name of wine and your opinion of it in the comments.

Thank you so much for coming back! I will see you again soon. Till then, Read what you drink and Drink what you love, keep it Vegetarian!!