A vegan diet can be viewed as a reduced ingredient food list of vegetarianism.
Veganism is defined by the Vegan Society as a way of living. Vegans attempt to exclude all forms of animal exploitation and cruelty as much as possible by not eating their products.
Therefore, a vegan diet excludes animal flesh, but also dairy, eggs and animal-derived ingredients. These include gelatin, honey, carmine, pepsin, albumin, whey, casein and some forms of vitamin D.
Vegans exclude meat from their diets for health or environmental reasons.
However, vegans also choose to avoid all animal by-products because they believe this has the largest impact on their health and the environment.
In terms of ethics, vegetarians are opposed to killing animals for food, but consider it acceptable to consume animal by-products such as milk and eggs,
as long as the animals are kept inadequate conditions.
Check out this page regarding what is a
Vegan Diet.
Vegans believe that animals have a right to be free from human use, be it for food, clothing, science or entertainment.
We have been lead to believe they seek to exclude all animal by-products, regardless of the conditions in which animals are bred or housed.
The desire to avoid all forms of animal exploitation is why vegans choose to forgo dairy and eggs — products that many vegetarians have no problem-consuming.
Non vegan wines will contain additives derived or made from animal products. These may be eggs, milk, fish bladder and other ingredients.
As you know organic wine is made from organic grapes, it is fermented grape juice. Yeasts, either natural or cultured, convert the grape juice sugars into alcohol. So far this all seems to be vegan-friendly.
The reason that all wines are not vegan-friendly has to do with how the wine is clarified and a process called ‘fining’.
All young wines are hazy and contain tiny molecules such as proteins,
tartrates, tannins and phenolics. These are all-natural and not harmful. However, the buying public like their organic wine to be clear and bright.
Therefore, Vegan friendly wines have no additive derived or made from animal products.
At Harris Organic all our additives are vegan friendly. They are additives made from vegetables or are mineral-based additives.
Most wines, if left long enough, will self-stabilize and self-fine. However, traditionally producers have used a variety of aids called ‘fining agents’ to help the process along.
Fining agents help precipitate out these haze-inducing molecules. They coagulate around the fining agent, creating fewer but larger particles, which can then be more easily removed.
Traditionally the most commonly used fining agents were skim milk powder, egg whites, and isinglass (fish bladder protein).
These fining agents are known as processing aids. They are additives to the wine, as they are precipitated out along with the haze molecules.
It is possible organic red wine can be vegan friendly, however it depends on the winemaker's additives and the ideology of the natural winemaker. For example bio-dynamic wines are not vegan.
Common additives in red wines can be found on our
additive page. These may be eggs, milk, fish bladder and other non-vegan friendly ingredients.
It is possible white wine came be vegan friendly, however it depends on the winemaker's additives and the ideology of the winemaker. For example bio-dynamic wines are not vegan.
Common additives in white wines can be found on our
additive page.
At Harris Organic Wine and Spirits you can happily enjoy dairy free, vegan friendly wines and organic spirits produced on the only certified organic block of land in Perth and know that they are not hurting any animals. We are making
organic vegan wines including vegan chardonnay, verdehlo, syrah, malbec. dessert wines and vegan chenin blanc as good food and wine for vegans.
