By Mark Warren, Happs winemaker
These days consumers are very aware that not all foods are the same. There is certainly growing interest in how things are made, what inputs have been used and whether these products offend at a chemical, ideological or philosophical level. To that end there appears to be an increasing interest in the use of animal derived products in the winemaking process. Whether this is driven by vegetarian and vegan concerns, allergy concerns or simply consumers wanting knowledge about the products they ingest is unclear. Nonetheless, the topic appears to need some clarification.
In essence each of the animal products used in winemaking is a processing aid and in the wine industry they are referred to as fining agents. Each of these agents is simply a source of protein which when added to the wine reacts with tannin and then settles out thus removing the tannin. This is why the industry calls them processing aids as they theoretically do not remain in the wine. Because tannin tends to make the wine dry and hard it is a way of softening the wine to make it as pleasant as possible for the consumer. The amounts added are small and usually less than 0.2g/l of which the large majority settles out during processing such that at worst only traces remain.
Most of the products used are quite common in domestic kitchens – things like gelatine, skim milk and egg white. It is the high level of protein in each of these products that makes them useful in winemaking. Interestingly, each of the fining agents contain different sized proteins which precipitate different sized tannins. Thus the effect that each offers to a wine is different and the winemaker performs trials with each to see which fining agent makes the wine taste best. There are some synthetic options (PVPP: polyvinylpyrrolidine) available as well as a new product derived from peas but again these will be trialled by the winemaker and the best option is chosen.
In terms of wine labelling the only processing aids that need to be listed are those considered to be potential allergens. Thus things like egg and milk need to be listed. However products like gelatine and isinglass (which is derived from fish) do not need to be listed so if trying to avoid all animal derived products in wine the wine label will not tell the consumer the information they are after. Furthermore wine labels are often printed well in advance of these fining decisions being made by the winemaker so labels are often printed with all possible allergens to cover what ever decision the winemaker makes in the future. The problem here is that a wine may end up meeting a consumers ideological or philosophical requirements but a generalised label statement would lead you to think otherwise.
At Happs our aim is to make the best wine possible so in general we will use the fining agent that gives the best outcome. In our experience most white wines need some type of fining to make them soft on the palate. So our white wines will regularly have an animal derived processing aid added but on occasion the synthetic product will be preferred. The one white wine exception where we never use an animal derived product is our Preservative Free White. In essence this is a philosophical position. With this wine the primary aim is to avoid the use of the antimicrobial and antioxidant sulphur dioxide which some people have an allergic reaction too. However we have extended that philosophy to mean free of all potential allergens and animal derived fining agents.
Thus our Preservative Free White contains no sulphur dioxide or animal based product.
The situation with red wine is a little different because tannin is desirable in red wines. However there are many different types of tannin and not all are desirable. As a basic explanation the longer the tannin molecule the softer and more textural the mouthfeel, while the shorter the tannin molecule the drier and more gripping it is. Sometimes the winemaker will choose to fine a red wine with an agent that targets these drier more gripping tannins and egg white is commonly used for that purpose. This is a very common practice for wines made to be released young and drunk early. The down side of fining red wines is there is always an element of flavour stripping so some winemakers will use other techniques to avoid using fining agents. During production very small amounts of air can be used to encourage tannins to link together thus becoming longer and softer. The humble yet expensive oak barrel is very good at transmitting minute amounts of air through its wood into the wine. Another option is simple aging in the bottle where with time tannins naturally join together again becoming larger and softer.
At Happs we believe that to make the best red wines the best approach is to use both barrel aging and bottle aging to allow tannins to soften naturally over time. This means we avoid the use of potentially flavour stripping fining agents. So in the main our red wines are not fined using any product animal derived or otherwise. On the rarest of occasions we encounter a wine that we feel barrel and bottle aging are not going to be sufficient to soften the tannin. When this occurs we use a fining agent derived from peas. We use this agent not because of any philosophy or ideology but because it is better than the normally used agents. We find it far less flavour stripping and it is an added benefit that this product is plant derived.
So for those concerned about animal derived products in wines you can confidently drink any of the Happs or Three Hills red wines as well as the Happs Preservative Free White. Our other white wines and rose’s typically do have either milk or isinglass or both added – but not always, so the list below might be of some assistance.
