It started with a conversation with my brother-in-law while we talked over dinner. He spoke of friends that were Vegan and how they ate, shopped, and drank. Drank?! In particular we were talking about wine. Immediately I thought why on earth would there be animals in my wine? Doesn’t wine come from grapes? So it began. I started doing my homework on a subject I had not yet thought about. I did name this blog Paws and Pinot after all…I mean…I LOVE my wine! So I figured it’s time to start talking Pinot. That being said I became determined to figure out how I could make sure the wine I am drinking is free of animal bi-products.

After some research I quickly came to learn how a wine becomes defined as vegan or not. Call me naive, I truly had not considered my wine to be contaminated with animal anything. It comes down to how a wine is clarified through a process called fining. When a wine is first made it is cloudy and contains proteins, tannins, among other molecules, none of which are harmful, that make the wine hazy. These molecules are removed to “clear-up” the wine and give it an overall brighter appearance.

If left long enough most wines will stabilize on their own and clarify without the need for fining agents. As this process takes time most wine producers use fining agents which speed up the process of removing the unwanted molecules from the wine. Basically fining agents attract the molecules to them forming larger particles that make it easier to filter out of the wine. Here comes the good part (ABSOLUTE SARCASM), the most commonly used fining agents are:

“Popular animal-derived fining agents used in the production of wine include blood and bone marrow, casein (milk protein), chitin (fiber from crustacean shells), egg albumen (derived from egg whites), fish oil, gelatin (protein from boiling animal parts), and isinglass (gelatin from fish bladder membranes).”–https://www.peta.org/about-peta/faq/is-wine-vegan/

The fining agents aren’t actually additives as they are removed from the wine along with the molecules they have collected. That being said do you want to drink wine that once held bone marrow? Fortunately there are alternate fining agents that are sans-animals such as bentonite clay, limestone, carbon, plant casein,etc.

So how does one go about figuring out which wine is vegan and which is not? The most extensive list of vegan wines can be found at barnivore.com. I absolutely love this website. It offers a directory of vegan and non-vegan beer, wine, and liquor (believe me I held my breath while searching out some of my favorite champagnes, tequila, and other liquids I love). Though there isn’t an app for this website yet there is an app related to the website I recently downloaded called Vegan Wines in which you simply type in the wine to find out if it’s vegan or not. The information from the Vegan Wines app is taken from Barnivore.com and lists in detail information that was obtained on said wine to explain it’s vegan or non-vegan status. If the wine you are looking for isn’t listed on barnivore or come up on the app then by all means e-mail the company for answers. Sharing what you find via social media, your website, etc. will be incredibly helpful for all.

Now I think after all this talk about wine I need to go pour a glass for myself!

Cheers!

-Tiffany

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