Vegan Prosecco
When you’re having a celebration or getting together with the girls, sparkling wine is the obvious beverage of choice. However, not all sparkling wine is vegan - so if you’re a vegetarian, vegan, or you’re just making positive changes, it’s important to be careful when choosing a bottle.
At ThinK Wine, our vegan prosecco tastes (if not more) delicious than leading brands, and you can enjoy it knowing that it matches your lifestyle.
What Is Vegan Prosecco?
Veganism is becoming increasingly popular, and there’s more knowledge about alternatives to animal products, so it’s not too difficult to find a prosecco that’s suitable for vegans.
There’s a common misconception that vegan options aren’t as tasty, but our vegan-friendly prosecco certainly proves this wrong. Keep reading to learn more about vegan prosecco, the difference between vegan prosecco and regular prosecco, and how vegan prosecco tastes.
Although some prosecco is vegan, many vintners will use animal products when making the wine. Wine is made from fermented grapes, so where do the animal products come in?
There are typically no animal products listed in the ingredients on the label, but animal products tend to be used while fining the wine.
The wine fining process is a way of stabilising the wines and giving them a clear, fresh look. It also gets rid of any sediment, yeast, protein, and unwanted flavours - leaving us with the clear, crisp taste we know and love.
Fining agents are used to filter the liquid - and some ingredients in these fining agents include:
- Blood
- Bone marrow
- Casein (milk protein)
- Gelatin
- Fish bladder gelatin
- Fish oil
- Egg whites
- Chitin (from crustacean shells)
These ingredients are used on a very small scale, and they will likely get filtered out or evaporate, but this still means that the final product is unsuitable for vegans and vegetarians.
The use of egg whites and milk proteins is still suitable for vegetarians, but it’s still not a vegan option. Our vegan-friendly prosecco is suitable for both vegans and vegetarians and hasn’t been near any animal products.
Vegan prosecco is prosecco that either hasn’t gone through the fining process, or it used alternatives to animal products as fining agents.
Some natural, cruelty-free alternatives to animal-based fining agents include:
- Kaolin (a type of clay mineral)
- Silica clay
- Silica gel
- Pea gelatine
- Kieselguhr (sedimentary rock)
Why Choose Vegan Prosecco?
More and more people are taking steps to become cruelty-free. Many items you find on the shelves of supermarkets don’t directly contain animal products, but animal products have been used in the production process - prosecco being one of them.
Winemakers are following suit, and in 2021, there’s more vegan wine and prosecco options than ever that don’t use animal products as fining agents. This is beneficial in more ways than one - it’s not only healthier but also better for the environment, and is inclusive to people with a cruelty-free stance.
It’s Better For The Environment
The animal agriculture industry is one of the biggest polluters on the planet and results in a lot of waste. The UN says that meat and dairy account for 14.5% of all manmade greenhouse gas, which roughly equals the exhaust emissions of every car, ship, train, and aircraft on the planet.
If the world went vegan, food-related emissions across the globe would drop by 70% - which just shows how animal farming damages the environment.
Feeding grain and water to farmed animals on a mass scale as well as processing, transporting, storing, and killing them requires a lot of energy and space. Forests are cut down on a huge scale to accommodate this and meet the demands of the industry - and we need forests to absorb excess greenhouse gases.
Avoiding animal products is a statement that you care about our planet, and opting for vegan prosecco instead of regular prosecco is a positive step in the right direction.
It’s A Healthier Option
Unfiltered prosecco is likely to contain more healthy bacteria that are good for your gut. These types of bacteria can also help you manage your weight better and boost your metabolism.
Vegan prosecco is also more likely to contain fewer chemicals and preservatives. When it comes to organic prosecco, vintners will avoid using herbicides and pesticides on their grapes in the vineyard and will avoid using anything artificial while filtering and bottling the wine. This is a healthier method as your vegan products are the finest and is less likely to cause any health problems, as long as you drink in moderation!
Organic prosecco generally has a higher amount of resveratrol - up to 32% more than standard prosecco. Resveratrol has numerous benefits - it has anti-ageing properties, can increase your lifespan, and can help protect your body against cancer.
It’s Cruelty-Free
There are many reasons more and more people are taking steps to reduce their animal product intake - and cruelty is one of them. More people are opening their eyes to the cruelty that goes into farming animals - the animals don’t just die, chances are, they live their (short) lives in pain.
The animal products used in the wine fining process can easily be substituted. The egg whites used are likely sourced from chickens that live their lives in tiny cages - and the same goes for bone marrow, milk protein, blood, and gelatin. Cruelty is pretty much always involved when sourcing these ingredients.
No animal products are used in the making and filtering of our vegan wines and prosecco, so you can enjoy glass after glass knowing that you’re not participating in animal cruelty.
Does It Taste Different?
You may notice a difference in taste and texture if you choose an unfiltered prosecco. As it hasn’t gone through the fining process, this type of prosecco may appear slightly thicker and cloudier.
However, if you choose a vegan prosecco that uses substitutes for animal products in the filtering process, it’s very unlikely that you’ll notice a difference in taste or texture. You may have even tasted vegan prosecco without realising, as many brands don’t include the fact that it’s vegan on the label.
Vegan prosecco will taste just like regular prosecco - the only difference is that it hasn’t been filtered using animal products. With regular prosecco, the animal products get filtered away or evaporate, so the taste doesn’t remain - meaning you won’t notice a difference.
Vegan Prosecco FAQ
Is Prosecco Vegan?
Similar to wine, a prosecco being vegan is dependent on how it has been fined. This is because when the wine is fined, there are fining agents that are used and many of them are not animal friendly. Some of the wine fining agents include gelatine, bone barrow extracts and egg whites which are not vegan friendly.
