What? I hear you say to yourself, surely a product made from grape juice must automatically qualify as vegan?
You would think so but it all comes down to the clarity of the wine, and how the winemaker makes it look good in the glass.
As we all know yeast converts the sugars in grape juice, via an almost mystical process, into alcohol. As a perfectly natural by-product of this process other compounds, such as tartrates, tannins and phenolics, are formed which can cause the wine to have a cloudy appearance. Whilst there is nothing wrong with drinking a cloudy wine, it won't kill you, we all drink with our eyes first.
Winemakers have therefore found ways over the years of fining their products. Historically they would have used animal products to do this, egg whites (albumin) for reds and casein (a milk bi-product) for whites. These fining agents are removed at the end of the process, but the mere fact an animal product has been used makes these wines non-vegan.
More recently winemakers have used other processes, either using clay based agents or not fining their wines at all making their wines vegan friendly.
All the English wines sold by Hawkins Bros fall into these last two categories and are not only suitable for vegans but highly recommended!
Follow this link to see some of our favourite Vegan English Wines
Cheers!