The truth is that most wines are NOT Vegan or Vegan-friendly
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Regardless of whether a wine is certified Organic or Biodynamic, it may not be suitable for Vegans.
Most producers, apart from Natural Wine producers like Fancrest Estate, try to present their wines as perfectly brilliant and clear, without any hint of cloudiness.
The process they use to remove all the particles that contribute to cloudiness is called clarification.
During this process the winemaker will usually add “Fining agents” to the fermenting wine. It was discovered a long time ago that many of these troublesome particles carry a small electric chrge, and that by adding something else with the opposite charge, the particles bond together and either sink to the bottom or float to the top of the winee where they are more easily separated out, usually by filtration, leaving clear wine behind.
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Does your wine contain traces of dairy, egg, or maybe even fish?
Traditionally the most commonly used fining agents were casein (a milk protein), albumin (egg whites), gelatin (animal protein usually from hooves) and isinglass (fish bladder protein). These fining agents arestrictly speaking not wine additives as very little remains behind in the wine after processing if the job is done right.
However Vegans have zero tolerance for any residual fining agent in the wine.
At Fancrest Estate we neither, use fining agents nor do we filter our wine making them 100% suitable for Vegans. Our choice does however result in wines that are naturally a little cloudy.
