Aren't all wines vegan? They're just fermented grape juice, right?
Contrary to popular opinion and not as obvious to some as others might expect, vegan wine is wine that has been produced without the use of any animal-derived products during the winemaking process(!). This means that no animal-based fining agents or filtration aids were used, such as gelatin, egg whites, chitin, and casein. These substances help to clarify the wine by binding to impurities and removing them from the liquid. So, no, not all wines are vegan.
Some vegan winemakers use plant-based alternatives to these animal products. Some common options are:
Others choose to
vinify their wines without fining or filtering, which is one of the
characteristics of
natural wine.
Just as there are many peoples, and many wines (and wine bottle sizes), there are multiple reasons why there are those choosing to make and/or drink vegan wine:
It's important to note that not all vegan wines are organic, neither are all organic wines vegan, nor even all organic vegan wines natural wines. The three terms are not synonymous (kind of like
fresh,
raw, and
refrigerated), although they are often
aspects of one another. Vegan wine simply refers to the absence of animal-derived products in the winemaking process.