Is Your Wine Vegan? Or Even Vegetarian? The Shocking Truth About Mass-Produced Wine
- Brent
- Mar 9
- 11 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
In an era where our food system feels increasingly opaque, many of us have become skeptical about what we buy at the grocery—and for good reason. While often attributed to processed foods (rightfully so), we should also be demanding better fruit and vegetables. Multiple studies have shown In the past ~50 years the nutritional density of our fruits and vegetables has declined by 25 to 50%[1][2][3]. Where our food comes from, how it was grown, and what was added to it matters to our health and our environment.
One of the reasons I became passion about winemaking was I had learned these facts and wanted to start growing my own nutrient dense fruits and vegetables. During that journey I also learned about the all the additives that can be used in winemaking. And as someone following a plant-based diet I was concerned by how many of the most common additives were animal-derived.
And so today, I'd like to pull back the curtains of the winemaking world and shed some light on additives for my vegetarian and vegan friends. It gets to one of our three core values - authenticity. We hope this article enlightens you and empowers you to make informed decisions about wine purchases that align with your values, your health, and your desires.
Most assume that because wine comes from fruit, it is both vegetarian and vegan-friendly. While that can be true, more often then not the path from the vineyard to your table involves some surprising "guests" that make the majority of grocery store wines unsuitable for a vegan and even in some cases a vegetarian lifestyle.
Is your wine vegan or even vegetarian?
The answer lies mostly in what we as winemakers call "fining agents". Fining agents are products added to a wine by the winemaker either to clarify it, stabilize it, modify the flavor, or modify the color. For my fellow nerds who love to dive deep, see the "Nerd Alert" section at the end to learn all about being wined and fined. 😂
🐘 The elephant in your glass - traditional fining agents
In larger-scale mass-produced winemaking, producers don't have the luxury of time and the risks / costs associated with a batch turning to vinegar are too great. To speed up the process and reduce risk for the millions of bottles destined for grocery store shelves, they use these "fining agents" that act like magnets, binding to hazy particles so they settle rapidly. In smaller operations the winemaker or the batch may dictate the addition of fining agents. And while as a winemaker I might prefer minimal-intervention and avoid additions of fining agents I feel like it's a personal preference more than a "right or wrong".
For anyone seeking vegan or vegetarian friendly wines (like myself) though I think it's important to know when a winemaker chooses to use these products BECAUSE the most common fining agents are derived from animals. These agents generally work really well at achieving their goal and are much more cost-effective option than their plant-based counterparts. Here are some of the most commonly used agents:
Isinglass: Collagen derived from dried fish swim bladders.
Albumin: Raw egg whites.
Casein: A protein derived from cow's milk.
Gelatin: A protein created by from animal bones and pig skins.
Proteases: Derived from cow & pig digestive tracts.
Side Note: Microplastics in your glass
For consumers concerned about synthetic materials and microplastics, it’s worth discussing another very common fining agent called PVPP (Polyvinylpolypyrrolidone). While not animal-based, PVPP is a plastic polymer used to remove phenolic compounds that cause browning or bitterness. For consumers who are concerned about exposure to microplastics, consider seeking wines and wineries that are actively disclosing what they do or don’t use in their products.
Processing Aids vs. Ingredients
Now to be fair, the intent of the fining agents are that they'll do their job and then be removed from the wine before it's bottled. In food manufacturing products like these are called processing aids, instead of ingredients because in the ideal world the finished product has no trace of the fining agent. But is it all removed?
A 2015 study on Allergenic Proteins in Enology found that in most cases there were indeed no traceable amounts for the fining agents in the finished wine. However, the same research indicates that in other cases there were "relatively high amounts" of the fining agent in the finished wine. For those following a strict vegetarian lifestyle or managing severe allergies, the fact that these animal products were part of the process at all—or may exist in relatively high quantities—is a cause for concern.
So is your glass of wine vegan? Odds are not good unless it's specifically labeled as such or you find information from the maker confirming these products weren't used.
Is your glass of wine vegetarian? Odds are more favorable that the wine won't contain "traceable" amounts of animal-derived products even if it's not labeled. So the line here is a little fuzzy and comes down your personal convictions.
Aside from these processing agents that may not have any traceable amounts, are there any other products added that stay in the wine?
Not So Sweet Ingredients
What about ingredients? Whelp, for vegans there's a potential sticky issue with a very common ingredient in both 'dry' and sweet wines - sugar. So whether you like dry or sweet, if you want to drink vegan-friendly wines it pays to know what's been added to your wine.
Winemakers may add a sweetner to a wine or to improve the mouthfeel ('dry' wines). One of the cheapest and easiest ways to do this is by using sugarcane. Wait, isn't sugarcane made from plants and therefore vegan?
Nope! Not necessarily, like making crystal clear wines, sugarcane processors use animal based processing agents to achieve the 'pure' snow white color consumers today are accustomed to buying. Bone char - a charcoal made from animal bones - is used to strip the color from the sugarcane.
What about dry wines? Whelp, the truth is sugar sells. Many big brand 'dry' wines have a sweetner added, even at small levels that sugar can improve the taste and mouthfeel without tasting 'sweet'.
So once again, it's not as clear as it might seem, UNLESS, you know the producer and can ask questions.
Cultivating Life: The Rejoicing Vine Way
That brings us around to our wines. Are our wines vegan and vegetarian? Absolutely! We DO NOT use any animal-based fining agents or ingredients.
Our minimal-intervention wine making philosophy has us avoid additions and manipulations whenever possible. Sometimes even the best efforts at natural sedimentation and racking though won't get the wine sparkly clear. In the cases where a wine needs a little help to reach it's full potential, we usually add a fining agent though we prefer the plant-based vegan-friendly alternatives.
If you talk to me long enough you'll hear me talk about the importance of being an active consumer - putting your money where your values are. We fully practice what we preach as a business and are active consumers searching for planet-friendly, vegan-friendly alternatives to the traditional fining agents. Companies have begun to develop these alternatives because winemakers (like us and many others) ask for and are willing to pay extra for these alternatives. Alternative agents include:
Mushroom Extracts: Sustainable alternatives extracted from fungi that can reduce haze without altering the flavor, aroma or color
Plant-Based Agents: Pea and Potato protein extracts that act similarly to the animal-based products like gelatin and casein
Natural Agents: Bentonite, a natural volcanic clay that is incredibly effective at pulling proteins out of wine using simple physics rather than synthetic chemicals or animal products
For sweetners, we either take advantage of the sugar naturally in the grapes, add fruit juice, or add organic, certified vegan sugarcane.
So regardless of which of our wines is your favorite and you can rest assured we have done the deep research to ensure they're both vegan and vegetarian friendly.
Going the Extra Mile. Are The Grapes Vegan?
For my vegan friends, are you ready for the extra mile and learn about whether animal products are used to grow the grapes for the wine? Most wine on the shelf today comes from modern conventional grape growing, which relies heavily synthetic chemicals. While I'm no expert, I don't know of any that are derived from animal products but there are both environmental and health concerns (remember the nutritional decline I mentioned at the beginning?) with these practices which I will cover another time. But I digress. Often because of the conventional pitfalls related to the environment and chemicals many consumers seek out "Organic" or "Biodynamic" labels.
The "Label" Trap: Organic and Biodynamic
Let me preface this section with the fact that there are many organic and biodynamic processes that are both good for the environment and good for our health. However, when it comes to whether they're vegan-friendly, again it's not black and white. In fact, many traditional organic growing practices rely heavily on the industrial livestock system to replace those synthetic chemicals.
Industrial Animal By-products: It is common practice to use "blood meal" or "bone meal"—direct by-products of the commercial slaughterhouse industry [see USDA]—to provide nitrogen and phosphorus to the vines. These products are an extension of and a profit center for the factory farming cycle.
Biodynamic "Preparations": In traditional biodynamic viticulture, specific herbal teas and minerals are buried in the soil inside animal organs—such as cow horns, stag bladders, or even skulls—to "energize" them.
For many vegans, I suspect these practices are problematic. If the very fruit is grown using the remains of the industrial livestock industry, can the wine really be called vegan? My personal believe is it should not.
At The Rejoicing Vine, our approach to fertility is based on local, biological health of our farm. While we utilize natural biological inputs from animals—like rabbit manure from local small-scale operations—to build soil health, we explicitly avoid products that rely on and support industrial factory farming or the death of the animal. Our goal is to be good stewards of creation, providing ethical products and educating you on the pitfalls you may wish to avoid. By focusing on cultivating life in our soils through cover crops and plant-based nutrients rather than tillage or industrial "preps," we aim for a vineyard ecosystem that thrives with true integrity.
What should you do?
If your comfortable with animal-derived products being in or used in your wines, simple, continue to enjoy your favorite wines. Also kudos for reading this far! 🥳
If you'd prefer wines without these additives we have a solution. 😉 As mentioned above we our wines are free from any animal additives. For wines outside our portfolio look for wines with a certified vegan label, search Barnivore.com, or ask the winery directly.
For the bigger food system issue I also have ideas. I believe fixing our broken food system starts with us as consumers. We need to demand products that align with their interests and values. Said differently, we need to put our money were our values are.
The bad side of capitalism is companies will chase profits at the expense of long-term benefits like health. The good side of capitalism is that we all the a say in how we spend our dollars and those dollars collectively can move markets and push businesses to make changes that put those long-term perspectives back in line.
We practice this 'voting' with our dollars at home. We also practice what we preach as a business. Finding producers who are part of our community, who share similar values, and who care about you more than their bottom line. I hope you will consider us as one such producer along with our great partners like Tulip Tree Creamery.
Lastly, I want to encourage you to shop with local producers. When you do, you'll have unique access to the people directly involved in bringing the product or produce to life. Not sure where to start? Visit one of the city's amazing farmers markets, here's a handful of them in and around the north & west side of Indy:
During the week:
Saturday Morning:
Ready to taste the difference that transparency makes?
Browse our wine list, get them delivered to your door, or visit our tasting room in Indianapolis just north of Eagle Creek Park!
🪄 NERD ALERT: Wining and Fining
🤓 NERD ALERT! ⚠️ Things are about to get delightfully dorky. Side-effects may include (but are not limited to): spontaneous laughter, accidental learning, curiousity cravings, and an uncontrollable urge to share fun facts with friends.
Ready to get nerdy with winemaking and fining agents?!?! If not no worries, feel free to skip this section, no judgement.
Young wine is often very hazy, containing tiny suspended particles like yeasts, proteins, and tannins. On our winery and vineyard tours, guests are often shocked, sometimes repulsed, when I show them what a young wine looks like in it's most natural state. The image below shows two flasks of our base wine for making Regenerative Rosé. The flask on the left represents a young wine with the cloudy, milky appearance due to all the suspended particles.
Today's consumer is not used to drinking wine in this form (although it's perfectly fine to consume). We are used to seeing wines that are crystal-clear and brilliant with the sparkle of a polished gem. That level of clarity requires time, technique, and sometimes fining agents.
Sedimentation & Racking
As winemakers one of our biggest natural tools for clarifying wine is the process of sedimentation and racking. Over time, if undisturbed, gravity pulls the heavy haze-inducing particles to the bottom. In the image above, the flask on the right has been allowed to sit undisturbed for a month. Once settled out, we perform a technique known as racking, where we carefully transfer the clarified wine from the top into a clean container, leaving the sediment behind. This minimal-intervention approach is practiced for just about every wine produced across the globe. It helps not only with the clarity but the stability of the wine while respecting the natural character of the fruit.
The process of sedimentation and racking is rarely a one-and-done endeavor though. It usually takes several of these racking cycles to reach a suitable clarity. Each cycle takes time, sometimes months for lighter particles to settle. Time is money and with wine time is also risk. All wine in time will turn into vinegar if it's not consumed.
And so, to reduce the time and to reduce the risk, winemakers have a tool we call fining agents. Additives that help speed up the process and manage risk. It's important to note here that there are also batches of wine where the particles are light enough on their own that no amount of time and racking alone will completely clear the wine.
Like magnets fining agents attract the haze-inducing particles and bind with them. The heavier weight of the combination of fining agent and particle increases gravity's pull and speeds up the process of sedimentation. SCIENCE FOR THE WIN!
Other Uses for Fining Agents
While visual clarity is the most common use, these additives are are also the industry standard for wine modification:
Flavor Modification: Fining agents are used to "soften" a wine by removing excess tannins that cause perceived bitterness or astringency.
Stabilization: Some agents help prevent the formation of "wine diamonds" (tartrate crystals) that can fall out of solution when a wine gets cold.
Color Modification: Agents are used to remove unwanted browning in white wines or to adjust the hue of a rosé to meet specific consumer color expectations.
Deep Dive: Resources & References
Looking for more??? We recommend exploring these resources:
The Rendering Industry Explained: An industry look at how slaughterhouse by-products (like blood and bone meal) are processed and distributed back into the agricultural supply chain.
Noble Research Institute on Regenerative Soils: Peer-reviewed research and articles on why moving away from industrial inputs to a "living soil" model is essential for the future of farming.
Environmental Working Group (EWG) - Wine Additives: An investigative look at common chemicals and processing aids used in industrial winemaking that aren't listed on the label.
Barnivore: The web's largest searchable database for vegan wine, beer, and liquor. A great tool for checking the "hidden" status of mass-produced brands.