Vegan Wines
So, you're having your vegan friends over for dinner. You've substituted vegetable broth for chicken stock in the pumpkin soup. You've sauteed your croutons in olive oil, not butter. You've got soy milk on hand instead of half-and-half for coffee. Well done. What about your wine?
Nope. Not kidding. For those who are on strict vegan diets, many wines are actually on the "no-no" list. A key period in every wine's transformation from grape to liquid magic is a phase called "fining." Think of it as filtering. At any rate, many--in fact, most--wines are "fined" using a substance called albumen which is derived from egg whites. So, if you or honored dinner guests are practicing a strict vegan lifestyle, it's important to know which wines don't use albumen as a fining agent. Otherwise you might as well serve milkshakes.
Now in most places, this would be hard. While some winemakers actually do use clay instead of albumen (for reasons of personal preference having nothing to do with vegan concerns), precious few advertise this fact. To most winemakers, "clay vs albumen" is a non-essential point, analogous to a sweater manufacturer announcing that their raw cotton threads are woven on looms made of wood rather than metal.
However, at The Organic Wine Company, we know that a good portion of our clientele consider it very essential to know whether or not a wine is vegan. As a result, we have done the research and now categorize those wines which are fined using clay as "Vegan." Veronique and I feel that if it matters to our customers, it matters to us. We are honored to be able to ease the minds of both our vegan friends, and our allies in hosting comfortable, happy dinner parties around the globe.
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