What Wine Can I Gift To A Vegan?

Christmas is coming up, and it can be difficult thinking of Christmas gifts at the best of times. However, if you’re gifting for a vegan, the options are seemingly fewer.

Wine is a great go-to gift, but is it suitable for vegans? Which wine is best to gift to those with a vegan diet?

Keep reading to learn more about the winemaking process, vegan wines, and for some great ideas on what wines you can gift to vegan friends, family members, and partners! 

Isn’t All Wine Vegan?

You may be surprised to hear that no - not all wine is suitable for those with a vegan lifestyle.

Although wine is essentially a mixture of grapes and yeast, wine can contain animal products making it unsuitable for vegans, vegetarians, and pescatarians alike.

The stage at which animal products may get added to the wine is the fining process - but before we get to that, let’s talk about what happens to make the wine need to be fined.

The fermentation process is the most important stage of the winemaking process - it’s the stage where alcohol is produced, creating wine from grapes.

Yeast is added to the grapes which triggers a chemical reaction with the naturally occurring sugars in the grapes. As well as alcohol being produced, heat and bubbles are also an outcome.

Fermentation is a necessary part of the winemaking process, but there can be some effects that many don’t like. For example, fermentation can give the wine a cloudy appearance, and there can be molecules floating around.

The molecules may be phenolics or tartrates - but if it’s a red wine, they could be tannins. Although they are completely natural and won’t harm you to drink, many people prefer a smoother, clearer wine.

This is why many vintners will put the wine through the fining process. The fining process eliminates any unwanted residue, aromas, and textures, making sure that the wine looks and tastes as delicious as it should.

However, some vintners will use fining agents that include animal products. Some of the most common animal products used in the fining process are gelatine (usually from animal skin and tissue), isinglass (fish bladders), casein (milk proteins), and egg whites.

Despite the fact that these animal products will get filtered out or be evaporated, the final product has still come into contact with animal products, making it unsuitable for vegans, vegetarians, and even pescatarians.

However, more and more people are becoming vegan - and vintners are following suit by using vegan fining agents. Some vegan fining agents may include kaolin (clay mineral), silica clay, silica gel, kieselguhr (sedimentary rock), and pea gelatine.

So no, not all wine is vegan - but with our help, you’ll be able to find the perfect vegan wine to gift to vegan loved ones now that more people than ever are opting for a vegan diet.

Where Can I Find Vegan Wine?

It can be difficult to know for sure which wine is vegan as many wine manufacturers won’t include certain information on the label.

As the animal products used in the fining process aren’t technically an ingredient in the wine, they often aren’t included on the label - making it difficult to know which wine is suitable for vegans and vegetarians.

The good news is that most large supermarkets have introduced vegan sections, and this includes vegan shelves in the wine aisle!

When you’re looking for a vegan wine in your local supermarket, there are some helpful terms to look out for that will give you an insight as to whether the wine is vegan or not.

Look out for the words ‘non-filtre’ on the label of French wines, (sins-filtrar for Spanish, and non-filtrato for Italian) - this means that the wine hasn’t been filtered.

This is a sure-fire way of knowing whether the wine is vegan or not - because if the wine hasn’t gone through the filtration process, then no animal products were used.

Another way of choosing vegan wines for your vegan friends is by opting for organic wines. Organic wines often haven’t been through the fining process, meaning that they’re suitable for vegans.

Organic wines make a great gift, especially if you’re gifting to somebody that’s environmentally conscious. Organic wine is wine that has been made using organic grapes, grown in an organic vineyard.

Organic vineyards don’t use harmful chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fertilisers. The best way of finding organic wines is by looking on the label, or searching the internet.

ThinK Wine

One of the best ways you can find a gift for your vegan friends and family members is by searching through the ThinK Wine website.

At ThinK Wine, our wines are both organic and vegan - and you can gift any of our products to those with a vegan diet.

Prosecco makes a brilliant gift, and is perfect for celebrations. Whether you’re gifting for Christmas, a special birthday, or even an anniversary, vegan Prosecco is an excellent choice.

Our excellent ThinK Prosecco is both vegan and organic. It’s also a great choice if you’re gifting to somebody who is health-conscious, as they have reduced sugar and reduced calories in a bottle of Prosecco.

It’s made from the best Glera grapes in our vineyard in Treviso, north-east Italy. However, you may be tempted to buy a bottle for yourself as well! It’s fresh, satisfying, and luxurious - and is a perfect gift solution for a loved one with a vegan lifestyle.

If you have several vegans in your friendship group and you’re struggling for Christmas gift ideas, then you could make the most of our smaller Piccino bottles. You can put these small vegan wine bottles in Christmas stockings, or as part of a larger gift.

For something more substantial, or as a main gift, you can purchase a full-sized bottle or even a mixed case of 6x 75cl bottles of vegan organic ThinK Wine!

However, there’s no better ThinK Wine gift than one of our gift bags. In one of our large vegan gift bags, you can find 3 of our small vegan wines, a stylish bauble, 2 champagne glasses, a Love Lane lager, a Love Lane pale ale, a small bottle of Whitney Neill Quince Gin, and Luisa’s vegan chocolate or fudge!

Your vegan friend, partner, colleague or family member is sure to appreciate it - and the best part is that all the hard work sourcing vegan products and gifts have been done for you by the ThinK team!

Online

Another way of finding quality wines to gift to your vegan friends is by searching online. Although you may be tempted to search on Google, it’s always best to ask others in the vegan community for their advice.

After all, anybody can buy an ad on Google - but that doesn’t mean their wine is up to standard. Try asking in Facebook groups or searching Quora forums.

There are countless vegan groups and even vegan wine groups on Facebook that you could join and read through for advice. After all, nobody knows vegan wines better than those with a vegan lifestyle!