Why Not All Wine Is Vegan

When it comes to looking for vegan food and drink options, you may think of wine as a relatively safe bet — after all, the main ingredient is fruit! But there are actually a large number of wines on the market that aren't vegan, which may make these wines a no-no if you abstain from consuming animal byproducts.

Keep reading to learn how to find out whether or not your wine is vegan, and what you need to be on the lookout for when you're shopping for vino.

The short answer is yes, wine is vegan — but at the same time, no, not all wine is vegan.

This all comes down to the ingredients used in the wine manufacturing process.

There are many different wine brands out there, and a number of them have created their own special processing methods which allow them to create those unique flavors that set them apart from the other brands — and unfortunately, some of these methods incorporate animal-derived ingredients.

But, just because some wines aren't vegan it doesn't mean that you have to swear off all of them, especially if you're trying to live more sustainably. In fact, there are plenty of companies out there that make amazing vegan wines.

There are multiple points during processing when animal byproducts can get introduced into your wine, according to the Barnivore database. Between the mixing of ingredients to the filtration process, things like dairy products, gelatin, seashells, and honey can all be added to the spirits. So if you follow a vegan lifestyle, you probably want to avoid these wines.

And, what can make things more confusing is the fact that these things aren't often spelled out on the label, which may make it hard to find out whether or not your wine uses any of these products during processing.

There are a few different ways you can double check the status of your wine, including reading the label to see if it says "unfined" or "unfiltered," since wine is often exposed to animal byproducts during the fining and filtration period, according to The Goodness Project.

Next, you should read through the label to see if you recognize any animal ingredients, like:

• Casein, a milk protein
• Isinglass, an extract from fish bladders
• Egg whites.

You can also look for a "certified vegan" stamp on the bottle. Winemakers who go out of their way to ensure that there are no animal byproducts included in their wine are proud of their achievements, and they want to make sure that customers know that they can safely drink their spirits without having to worry about what may have happened during the manufacturing process.

You could also ask the employee at your local liquor store to recommend a vegan wine.

And when in doubt, you can always check to see if the wine appears in Barnivore's database. This extensive website keeps tabs on some 59,000+ wine, beer, and liquor products and whether or not they are vegan.