What is a Vegan Wine?

Today, amidst the ever-changing society, it’s sometimes difficult to keep up with the novelties.  Some of you may have spotted that we stock a vegan range of wines online at Wine Shop Lanzarote.

For lots of non-vegans, it’s confusing to see the Vegan certificate on wine, as it is a product made from grapes and yeast. But, although it seems natural and plant-based, there is a different side to wine that most don’t know about.

In the winemaking process, filtering and clarifying with fining agents is an essential part. The goal of this process is to remove protein, yeast, cloudiness, “off” flavours and colourings, amongst other organic particles.  Unfortunately for vegans, lots of the more traditional fining agents are animal derived. Some of these agents include egg whites, casein (a milk protein), blood and bone marrow, chitin (fiber from crustacean shells) gelatin (protein from boiling animal parts), and isinglass (gelatin from fish bladder membranes).

Luckily, there are quite a few common fining agents that are animal friendly, such as carbon, bentonite clay, limestone, kaolin clay, plant casein, silica gel, and vegetable plaques. All these agents are suitable for vegans, and therefore the reason behind the Vegan certificate on wine bottles.  Bodega Vulcano in Lanzarote use a tailor made high pressure filter with a synthetic membrane.  It is the only one of its type in the Canaries.

Separately to this, beeswax and milk-based glues are also used occasionally to seal bottles or for making agglomerated corks (corks that are made of many small pieces that are pressed and adhered together).

There are more and more vegan wines around and this is likely to continue, even though there is an additional cost to certify products as vegan.  According to The Vegan Society, there were 600,000 vegans in the UK in 2019, in comparison to the 140,000 in 2014.

Day by day more retailers and producers are helping people make the animal friendly choice, by marking their products as Vegan.

In Lanzarote, only one winery is certified as Vegan, and this is Bodega Vulcano. They have a great line of authentic wines of exquisite quality, that you can purchase on our online Wine Shop Lanzarote page, that sells to UK, Ireland & EU!