Are All Wines Vegan?

Wine is always a common sight at any cruise ship, including vegan culinary cruises. Depending on the destination, there can even be winery tours and wine tasting events in the excursions. In places such as France, Spain, Portugal, or Italy, itineraries like vineyards are almost a given. 

However, the fact that wines are made from grapes doesn’t immediately mean it is vegan-friendly. 

Or does it?  

Although wine is indeed made from grapes, products that come from animals may have been used as fining agents. 

Fining is a procedure in which a substance is added to young wines to remove tiny particles like proteins and tannins which give the wine a cloudy appearance (though still perfectly safe to drink). The fining agent acts like a magnet of sorts, collecting the particles until the form larger ones that are easier to filter out at the end of the fining process. 

Some winemakers forgo the use of fining agents and let the wine clear itself naturally over time, though it is a slower process. It is usually because of market demands that methods like fining are used to speed up wine production. 

Actually, there are. These materials can also be used, and are perfectly free from animal products. A few of them are:

One should keep in mind that being a vegan is not just abstaining from eating or using animal products. It is also about not supporting processes that use animals and animal-derived products. 

For those who want to find vegan wines, they can start with an online vegan alcohol guide, Barnivore.com. PETA also has a list of popular vegan wine brands on their website. 

Aside from checking organic shops, co-ops, and the winemakers themselves, LGBT vegan cruise lines like Vegan Culinary Cruises not only showcase local vegan cuisines, but they also offer a selection of vegan wines from certified vegan winemakers. 

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