Is your wine vegetarian?

It would be a natural assumption that all wines are vegetarian, right? They are made from grapes and other additives that are not animal based.

WRONG!

Unfortunately some wineries will use an animal-based product called finings to remove the small impurities in the wine. Since most finings do not remain in the wine, the wineries do not need to list the finings as an ingredient. Because of this you will not know if the wine you are drinking is vegetarian unless you direct questions to the manufacturer.

Luckily there are web sites that already have that info:

• Veggie Wines
• Vegitarian Network Victoria
• Frommers Vegan Wine Guide
• Barnivore

Unfortunately, many wine makers change their recipes from year to year so a wine that is deemed vegetarian one year, may not be in the next.