For many a 'tofu aficionado' the below will seem tiresome but the rest there's..



How can a wine be non-vegetarian let alone non-vegan you may ask, well its all about fining. Fining is a clarification process, clarifying the wine makes it bright and sparkly. Gravity would naturally do on its own, but fining speeds it up a little. In some cases if the wine is in bad condition fining can help to improve the wine, removing hazes and altering flavour. Keep reading…

Fining agents or 'finings' include:






Gelatin
Isinglass
Bentonite
PVPP
Albumin
Casein
Chitosan
Carbon
Silica


The ones to watch out for:

Gelatin - 100% animal derived. (From the boiled up bones of our farmyard friends). Mainly used in reds.

Isinglass - A very pure protein obtained from the bladders of various unfortunate fishes including the sturgeon. Used in red and whites.



Albumin - Used to remove harsh tannins in red wines. Egg whites are normally the source; up to five fresh egg whites are used per 225L cask of wine. Bear in mind though as with most finings only trace elements of the fining remain. If your wine smells of egg it is probably over sulphured. (See Sulphur).


Casein - The principal protein of milk. Often used in whites to remove off colours.

Chitosan - From the shells of shellfish and crustaceans.



Almost all of our wines are vegan, being as they are non-fined or fined with bentionite. There are a couple of exceptions and in these cases the wines are clearly identified as vegetarian. Rest assured that this is a one off and the producer does not make a habit of using finings.

We share the opinion of many of our growers which is that the more a wine is interfered with, the less it expresses its true character. Fining is a great example, a very invasive process, fining is intended to remove and alter the flavour of a wine. It is widely viewed as unnecessary and normally the practice of overly commercial estates who are looking to cut corners and rush the winemaking process.



Here’s a good explanation of the science behind fining:

'The simplest explanation is that of electrostatic attraction, whereby the fining (fining agent) carrying a particular electric charge reacts with wine constituents carrying the opposite charge and the neutralized combination precipitates. An example is the reaction between positively charged gelatine and negatively charged tannin.'

From Making Good Wine, by Bryce Rankine, Macmillan 1989.




This section is really a continuation of the Organics page in regard to winemaking.

The certifying bodies for both methodologies promote minimal intervention in the winemaking process. If fining is required then only authorised finings may be used. For instance if albumen (egg whites) were to be used, then the eggs would have to come from Organic or Biodynamic (and intrinsically free range) chickens.

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