Vegan culture also conquers the renowned world of Italian wine: when a wine can be defined as vegan and how to recognize it correctly
In Italy, the demand for vegan wines has grown significantly in the last year. But what is meant by vegan wine? And above all, how is it possible to recognize it, for example, among the many wines that crowd the shelves of the cellars?
Let’s start from the definition of vegan wine: vegan wine is a product without the use of meat and derivatives and without the use of any derivatives of animal origin. For this reason, obviously, animal derivatives are not used in the production of vegan wine, such as egg albumin, casein or caseinates in general, ovalbumin and egg lysozyme, which can be used in vegetarian productions. and in conventional ones.
Let’s now see in which winemaking processes, in addition obviously to grapes, technological aids can be used in the cellar and some of these can be of animal origin. Processing aids are defined as those organic and inorganic substances used to facilitate the desired process and which are subsequently eliminated. After their action, these substances are eliminated from the wine. In theory these substances should be completely absent in the finished product, but it cannot be ruled out that some residue is present. The most used technological aids are the so-called clarifiers, materials through which food liquids are passed to make them clear and remove impurities.
Clarifiers of animal origin are mainly egg albumin, casein, bone glue, islass and gelatin. How to recognize a vegan wine? Are there any indications on the label? To date, the discipline of vegan wine is not yet completely regulated specifically by community and national regulations. However, the new European regulation on labeling provides for the definition of rules for the use of information, including information on the characteristics of foods, to be defined as vegetarian or vegan. However, today this information is exclusively optional at the discretion of the manufacturer. However, there are some brands available in the market that clearly identify their vegan feature.
