What Is a Vegan Diet?
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.
Dairy Free Wine
Dairy Free Wine is now a common type of vegan wine. When I started winemaking, the normal method of fining wine was to add skim milk powder,
prior to filtering and bottling. These days there are better non-diary products.
Why is wine not vegan?
Non vegan wines will contain additives derived or made from animal products. These may be eggs, milk, dairy, fish bladder and other ingredients.
Australian Vegan Wines
As you know Australian vegan wines and 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 vegan wines are hazy and contain tiny molecules such as proteins,
tartrates, tannins and phenolics. These are all-natural and not harmful. However, the Australian buying public like their organic wine to be clear and bright.
Therefore, our vegan friendly wines have no additive derived or made from animal products.
At Harris Organic all our wine additives are vegan friendly. They are additives made from vegetables or are mineral-based additives for vegan wines.
Most dairy free 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.
Vegan Wine Australia
As you know real vegan wine in Australia and organic wine are made from organic grapes. They are 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 Australian wines are not vegan-friendly has to do with how the wine is clarified and a process called ‘fining’.
All young vegan wines are hazy and contain tiny molecules such as proteins,
tartrates, tannins and phenolics. These are all-natural and not harmful. However, the Australian buying public like their organic wine to be clear and bright.
Therefore, our vegan friendly wines have no additive derived or made from animal products.
At Harris Organic all our vegan wine additives are vegan friendly.
Is red wine vegan?
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. Harris organic dairy free red wine is vegan friendly.
Is white wine vegan?
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.
Vegan Alcohol - Australia
There is organic vegan alcohol that is vegan friendly, however at Harris Organic Wines and Spirits, besides certified organic vegan wines,
you can purchase vegan organic brandy, organic vodka, vegan Pisco and vegan organic Gin. This Australian vegan alcohol is all made on the premises from our organic grapes.
