Is Red Wine Vegan?

Some is, some isn't. Red wine is fermented grapes, so you'd assume every bottle was vegan already. The catch comes after fermentation, at a stage called fining, and it's the reason a lot of red wine isn't vegan at all.

What fining actually does

Young red wine is cloudy. It's full of natural bits and pieces left over from fermentation, mostly tartrates, tannins and proteins, which make it hazy and can throw off the flavour and colour.

Fining clears all that out. Leave a wine alone for long enough and it does the job itself, the particles sink, the wine settles. But that takes months nobody has, so most producers add a fining agent to speed it up.

Which fining agents aren't vegan?

The traditional ones come from animals. In red wine the usual choice is egg white, which you'll see on a tech sheet as albumin. The others you'll come across:

Casein, a milk protein
Isinglass, made from fish bladders
Gelatine
Fish oil

They're all filtered out before bottling, so there's nothing left you could see or taste. But trace amounts can be absorbed on the way through, and that's enough to rule the wine out for vegans.

So how is vegan red wine made?

Two ways, and plenty of winemakers now use both.

Some skip fining altogether and let the wine settle naturally. Those bottles usually say unfined or unfiltered on the label.

The rest swap in a mineral or plant-based agent. Bentonite clay is the common one and works just as well as egg white. Activated carbon, limestone and pea protein all do the same job.

Either way you get a clear, stable red with no animal products anywhere in the process.

Does vegan red wine taste different?

No. Fining agents are processing aids, not ingredients, and they're removed either way. They don't touch the flavour, the body or the finish. A vegan red is just red wine made without animal products.

How to spot a vegan red wine

Harder than it should be. Fining agents count as processing aids, so producers aren't legally required to list them, which means the label often tells you nothing. Three things that do work:

"Unfined" or "unfiltered" on the label. Settled naturally, vegan by default.
A vegan mark. More brands print one now, usually on the back label.
The producer's website. Most decent ones state their fining method.

Every bottle on the site says on the product page whether it's vegan friendly, so there's nothing to work out.

Three vegan red wines from DrinkWell

All three are vegan, zero sugar and lower in calories than a standard red. All three have been through our tasting panel.

TRACES Merlot — 78 kcal

Our lightest vegan red, from France. Plum and red berry fruit, velvety tannins, a soft finish, and enough spice and mocha underneath to give it more weight than 78 calories suggests. 11% ABV, 0g sugar, 0g carbs.

Running Duck Organic Merlot — 84 kcal

South African, organic, no added sulphur. Blackcurrant and spice with plum and black cherry behind it. Fairtrade and organic as well as vegan. 12% ABV, 0g sugar, 0g carbs. Good with tomato-based pasta.

Ancora Sangiovese IGT Puglia — 86 kcal

Italian, medium-bodied and dry, with fresh red and blackberry fruit and a touch of spice. Plenty of flavour without the heaviness. 12.5% ABV, 0g sugar, 0g carbs. Perfect with a mushroom risotto.

Browse all vegan wines or shop the full red wine range. Free delivery over £99.

Browse Our Vegan Wine Collection

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