Wine Review: Vegans beware of clarifying agents

Vegans beware; there is danger afoot if you are a wine enthusiast. 

There are wines currently in the marketplace that do not fit with vegan or, for that matter, vegetarian dietary requirements. Our son is vegan, and often, we cannot recommend a wine we are currently reviewing to him for this very reason.

It is not the wine that is the problem, but the way the wine is clarified. Wines often clarify themselves after the violence of fermentation has ended. The spent yeast falls to the bottom of the vat, carrying with them any suspended particles; but if they do not, some form of external clarification is called for. What has to be cleared is a vegetable protein that may remain in suspension and does not settle to the bottom of the aging barrel. 

Most of the clarification today, especially among less expensive wines, is done with mechanical filtration by passing the wine under pressure, through a series of paper or clay filters or by centrifugally spinning the wines. There are those who believe that the knocking around the wine gets from these procedures injures some of the more delicate flavor or aroma characteristics. Some prefer to go to another nonmechanical, less aggressive method to clear the wine.

Among the favored clarifiers is a product called bentonite, a clay from the state of Wyoming that attracts protein particles and carries them to the bottom of the clarifying tank. This method is fine for vegans, but there are other methods that are not.  

For centuries, France, Spain, Germany and many of the other European wine-producing countries have used egg whites and bull’s blood as clarifying agents. Both of these are still used in some of the smaller wineries of Europe and even occasionally here in the USA - a definite no-no for vegans and vegetarians. Some products for commercial clarifying - or fining, as it is known in the industry - could prove to be a horror to vegans, vegetarians and even to people with severe allergies since they employ finely ground shell fish as their fining substance. 

Chitosan, a wine clarifier derived from crab and shrimp shells, to us, seems a bit far out to use as a clarifier, but the manufacturer claims that very little of the substance remains in the wine when it has done its job. That claim is all well and good, but it strays from the vegan food philosophy, and if one is allergic to shell fish, very little may be way too much.  

Another clarifier is isinglass, and it should carry the same warning as the chitosan since it is manufactured from fish bladders. 

Although the clarifying agents are not considered an ingredient in the wine, vegans and vegetarians may object to the process by which the wine is cleared just because of its ingredients and also because traces of the fining agent may remain in the wine after it is bottled.

All is not lost, however, for vegan and vegetarian wine lovers. There are now many wines that are vegan and/or vegetarian friendly, and some wineries are taking notice of the trend and are taking action. A few wineries already have begun to identify their wines as vegan friendly by placing symbols on their label indicating if the wine is vegan (V) or vegetarian (VG), which is similar to the practice of putting the symbol (OU), for Union of Orthodox Rabbis, on the label of kosher products.

A good way to tell what was used to fine a wine would be to go to that winery's website and look at what is called the product sheet, usually found in the press section of the site. Listed are the steps used to produce the wine, often in extremely detailed but understandable terms. If you do not recognize the name of the fining agent, google it. Also, Barnivore.com/wine is a helpful site for vegan friendly and vegan unfriendly wines.

Nixa resident Bennet Bodenstein is a wine columnist and helps manage ArticlesOnWine.com with his wife, Sheila. He can be reached at frojhe@suddenlink.net.