Vegetarian wine

[chocccie]

Does anyone have any recommendations of wines that are vegetarian?  So many of them have nasty additions - you'd hardly believe what some of them have added! 

I know Champagne is veggie (whooooo hooooo!!!  ).  Does anybody have any other tips or suggestions.

Cheers

[Alfa]

I've got a tip chocccie,

Don't go out !

The air is full of stuff that's out to get you.

Did you know that if you walk within 10 feet of a dog turd you will be breathing in it's stinking and putrid filth !!!

Even worse... when you flush the bog after having a cxxp if you don't put the seat down you will be ingesting your own cxxp in the air being expelled from the porcelain throne !!!

Don't go out man ( or mam). Stay in - be safe. Don't drink the wine. (Once in a while you might take a risk and look out the window but don't linger.....a stray lightbeam might get you).

Where do these people come from ?

Alfa.

[andyh4]

I believe the practice of adding a dead rat to wine and beer in order to clear it died out with the Black Death (as did those using this practice.)

[Plume]

Try contacting the Vegan or Vegetarian societies, either in the UK or there is one in France, both have websites.  Sadly many wines are not strictly veggie, being made with finings from fish but look out for Bio wines, they often (but not always) will be veggie.

Good luck

[chocccie]

Oh, poor Alfa - trying to be funny and failing miserably.  Keep your drab comments to yourself, or share them with somebody who's interested.

Perhaps you're quite an old person, and that's why you have such old-fashioned views.  And less respect for others views than we tend to have in the modern world.  Or maybe just insular, self-centrered and un-informed - whether you like it or not, some people don't like to have fish hormones and the like in their wine.

You don't know me from a bar of soap - I'd be bet that I take more risk in life than you do, you prat.

Go and stroke your car eh.

[Leschenauds]

Maybe poor old Alfa was a bit OTT but your response was a bit strong also. Since the great majority of informed persons of ALL age groups in Europe and the USA are predominantly non vegetarian, who is out of step? you or the rest of us?

[Chauffour]

my dad in Italy has made Nebbiolo and Barbera for 50 years, and he has neever feed any meat to his vines...

does this make his wine vegetarian?

[chocccie]

Yes, a strong response begets a strong response.  

What's "out of order" asking for advice from people?  Asking for useful information?  Not a single thing.  Surely you don't really think it was? 

Why would somebody respond to my original posting in that manner?  Unless they're very bored, opinionated, or perhaps just plain nasty. 

 

[Christine Animal]

Or because it was not vegetarian wine they had been drinking ! 

[Dick Smith]

All right - I'll buy it - what is added to wine which is an animal by-product then?

[LesPonts]

In reply to Dicksmith's straight forward question here is a straight forward answer..........

The use of animal derived products in the production of alcoholic beverages is fairly widespread not because no alternatives exist, but because they always have been used and there is little demand from the consumer for an alternative.

The main appearance of animal derived products is in the fining or clearing process, though others may be used as colorants or anti-foaming agents.

With wine, it is in the fining process that animal derived ingredients make an appearance. Finings can be isinglass, gelatin, egg albumen, modified casein (from milk), chitin (derived from the shells of crabs or lobsters) or ox blood (rarely used today). But alternatives do exist in the form of bentonite, kieselguhr, kaolin and silica gel or solution. Also newer methods such as centrefuging and filtering are becoming more popular. The majority of organic wines do not use animal derived finings - but some do.

LesPonts (16)

[Patmobile]

I believe it's true that quite a lot of spiders, dead flies and other insects get crushed when the grapes are pressed.

Perhaps some wines are made with insect repellent grapes to avoid this problem. Are insects considered to be meat?

Patrick

[Dick Smith]

Well slap my thigh and call me foolish - but isn't Pat right? Do Vegans drink wine? I'm sure I've seen at least one do it without demur...

It seems excessive to the point of obsession to me - and don't bother with the insults you traded with the others who disagreed with you (how dare they!)

[Iceni]

Do you want veggie wine for moral or proven medical reasons ? Only curious, I have nothing worthwhile to add comme d'habitude.

John

not

[Motorhead]

It is quite possible to get wine made without animal products but that still won't make it vegetarian.

All alcohol production is reliant on yeast which although not an animal is certainly not a vegetable or even any kind of plant. If it's OK for vegetarians to consume non plant materials then perhaps they should be calling themselves something else.

[Leschenauds]

I think you will find that what we are talking about is extract of fish skin used as a fining to help clear the wine from suspended particles, I don't think that the makers use anything more toxic than that. Bit esoteric like stepping carefully so as not to hurt insects or not swatting mosquitos but there we are, there a weird and wonderful range of beliefs some of which may seem irrational. Just don't step on the cracks in the pavement!

[JohnM]

Hey come on guys and gals, ease up on the Vegetarians. I'm sure we all have a different idea of where the line is between which living organisms are fair game and which aren't. As long as Vegetarians don't try to claim to be superior because of their beliefs (and the first post didn't, any subsequent defense of their status was a direct result of probing / chiding by non vegetarians) then they should be allowed to live a vegetarian life if they wish.

No, I'm not veggie and the reason I use to Veggies who do claim to be superior is that, even if I wanted to absorb the nutrients released from celulous (which the appendix should break down) by eating my own ***** (like sheep do), I couldn't because my appendix doesn't work. To "non superior" Veggies, we just respect each other life choices.

 

[Teamedup]

Here are a few very naieve questions  for anyone who has an idea, an opinion or actually thinks they know.

 

What does the foetus live on then, is it animal product?

 

Is a mother's breast milk an animal product?

 

And as no animal has been hurt or killed would vegetarians or vegans eat placenta?

 

 

 

Now how are they for lunch time questions and I am serious aobut wanting to know how these things are viewed by say vegans, as I have not got a clue as to what they do or don't find acceptable nourishment.

 

edit, not trying to hijack the thread, but just asking this question rather shocked me really and had me wondering.

 

[Krill]

Im sure that finings drop to the bottom of wine taking the particles with them, so they wont be included in the final product, having said that I really cant believe anyone cares, I'm like Rick Styne and feel very sorry for vegie's just the same as abstainers from wine etc, when they wake up in the morning thats the best they're going to feel all day ( words of the great Dean Martin)

[Hegs]

http://www.vinceremos.co.uk/ (who run the Guardian Wine Club) specialize in Organic, Vegan and Vegetarian beer and wine from around the world, including France.

You can find the French wines in their online catalogue marked "Ve" then go and find the producer, or order direct from them in the UK.

From their site:

"Isn't wine made from grapes? How can it not be vegetarian or vegan?

Although wine is made from grapes, it may have had animal derived products, for example gelatine, isinglass (from fish swim bladders), or egg white, used in the winemaking process."

[Christine Animal]

Hegs doesn't often have something to say, but when he does, it's always "spot on" 

But what are fish swim bladders ? 

[Dick Smith]

But Hegs, surely there is a difference between 'used in' and 'remaining in'?

[Motorhead]

Dick

There's a theoretical difference, yes, but it's difficult to get the stuff out.

Christine

Don't think I'm standing up for Hegs. Any wine that purports to be vegetarian or vegan is a fraud as I think most vegans are.

Vegetarianism is an archaic term that comes from the era when any thing was either animal, vegetable or mineral. Nowadays taxonomy has at least 5 kingdoms with another 2 subject to debate. The old animal/vegetable divide is simply no longer here. Many of the things that vegans consume are not properly vegetarian and maybe they are in blissfull ignorance but if not, I think they should come clean.

Swim bladders are organs that fish have to adjust their bouyancy and therefore their "altitude" in the water. Perhaps you should give the vegetarians an example and change your name to Mrs Mammal.

[Christine Animal]

Motorhead (oh, you've suddenly changed!), I don't care if its vegetarian or not vegetarian - I just drink it!  What I meant is, Hegs always comes up with these incredible sources of information.

[Hegs]

>What I meant is, Hegs always comes up with these incredible sources of information.

Thanks!

Some of you have jumped to conclusions, I'm neither a vegetarian or vegan - I only know the company because a friend works there. The vegan/vegetarian aspect of vinceremos's is secondary to the organic side, which which I do tend to agree. But I do know is that they sell some damn fine and interesting wines, vegan, vegetarian, or whatever!

With regards to whether the nasty stuff stays in the wine or not, another person (completely unrelated to this company) that I knew years ago drank vegan wines not for ethics but because of an allergy to gelatin. She was adamant non-vegan wine set her off.