Vegetarian Red Wine

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It’s not often these days that one hears somebody turn down a glass of red wine with the words “no thanks, I’m vegetarian”. But while many strict veggies will take the greatest of care in choosing foods that guarantee absolutely no animal ingredients whatsoever, they may be unwittingly sipping non-vegetarian friendly wine to accompany their meat-free meal.

Why? Well while the once-common practice of adding actual animal blood to some red wine is now a thing of the past in most countries, that innocent-looking bottle of red wine may still be harbouring some ingredients that are more than a little unpalatable to vegetarians.

As winemakers are not required by law to list ingredients or to state whether their wines are vegetarian or not, it can be tough for non-meat eaters to tell for sure whether their tipple of choice gets the veggie thumbs up or not. But as more and more strict vegetarians and vegans begin to query the extent to which a wine is animal friendly or otherwise, equally conscientious wine producers are starting to wake up to the importance of keeping buyers informed.

In fact, increasing numbers of wine producers are aiming their product squarely at the vegetarian and vegan buyer, while many others are starting to use vegetarian-friendly alternatives to animal ingredients

If the idea of non-vegetarian wine is a bit of a baffling concept, here are a couple of not so appetising facts: many wine makers use isinglass (a less shudder-inducing term for fish bladders) as a ‘fining agent‘ to remove impurities during the production process; gelatine (made from bones, hooves and other animal parts) and chitosan (the shells of shellfish and other crustaceans) are other commonly-used products.

These fining agents are used to filter solid impurities like stems, grape pips and skins, making them easier to remove because they stick to the fining compound. Whilst these wines claim that animal products do not contain any trace of the animal or fish ingredients that were involved along the way, knowing that they were used in the production process is usually enough to make them less than appealing to your average veggie or vegan.

Luckily for vegetarians, these ingredients are less commonly used by wine makers today and within a few years the practice may be consigned to the history books altogether, along with the notion of adding a splash of pig blood to a vat of red wine. Today, many wines use a type of clay as a fining agent, producing a red wine that gets the green light from strict vegetarians and vegans. Others often use milk-derived products or egg-based ingredients like egg albumen. These wines are less likely to find favour with vegetarians who avoid meat on a moral basis. They may also want to know whether any egg albumen present as a fining agent was derived from battery farmed eggs.

Whether you’re a vegetarian yourself or catering for non-meat eaters, choosing an appropriate wine can be something of a challenge. There is no obligation for wine producers to divulge the nature of their fining agents and processes on the label and buyers can be left guessing whether their wine gets the vegetarian thumbs up or not.

Some major UK stores, like Tesco and Waitrose, now include the Vegetarian Society‘s green tick symbol on their bottles – a move that has been welcomed by non meat eaters, but the content of other retailers’ red wine is not as clear.

A general lack of awareness about the concept of non-vegetarian wine adds to the problem, with many retailers unable to give a firm answer when asked whether any given bottle of red wine is made using animal derivatives or not.

However, the issue is gradually coming to public attention and there are some specialist retailers out there that make their animal-friendly status a core part of their marketing approach. One of them is Vintage Roots. Their stock is 95 per cent vegetarian friendly and clearly states whether bottles are vegetarian and vegan friendly.

There has also been a growing trend, particularly in the United States, for wines that use no fining agents whatsoever. Wines marketed as unfined and unfiltered are guaranteed to be vegetarian and vegan friendly, but critics claim that some of the red wines can have an unpleasant aftertaste. If this type of red wine doesn’t appeal, it might be worth doing some research into the production processes used in making your preferred red wine.

Image from Arnaud 25.