Vegetarian & Vegan Wines

Is wine vegetarian? Yes, Hay Wines has selected a range of good quality vegetarian & vegan wines that have been produced without the use of any animal-derived additive.

This practice not only grants wines suitable for vegetarian & vegan consumers, but it usually brings also wines that are less manufactured, and therefore that can be considered more natural.

In addition, unfined & unfiltered wines (vegan wines) normally have higher levels of natural preservatives and compounds that can support their aging without the use of additives and human interventions (low sulphite wines). Therefore, the concepts of vegan wines, low sulphite wines, and natural wines are generally very connected to each other.

Traditionally wine has always been a slightly cloudy beverage, since normally after the vinification it was not filtered to make it bright and clear.

However, it must be noticed that nowadays the vast majority of wines undergo a process called fining, during which a fining agent is passed through the liquid to speed precipitation of microscopic particles that might otherwise cause the wine to be unstable, or go hazy.

In the past, it was not unusual to use bulls’ blood for this procedure; nowadays, common fining agents include bentonite (a type of clay), casein (derived from milk proteins), isinglass (derived from fish bladders), and albumen (which is egg white).

Of these fining agents, casein and albumen (deriving from milk protein and egg white respectively) may be considered acceptable for lacto and ovo vegetarians respectively, but not for vegans. (Vegetarianism and wine)

Therefore, vegetarian & vegan wines can be either natural unfined/unfiltered wines, or products fined using only plant-derived or mineral-derived agents.

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