Branches Winery is Vegan Friendly

Company email (December 2016)

"The short answer is "no". We stock all of the fining agents you mentioned in our lab, but we have not had occasion to use them, nor do we anticipate it.

Fining agents such as Isinglass, egg albumen, gelatins are normally employed when things go wrong (bad color in final wine due to oxidation, smoke taint, off odors such as hydrogen sulfite, etc.). The best option is to not have things go wrong. We have been fortunate that that has been our experience.

Although I have considered using honey as a sweetening agent, but plain old white sugar is cheaper.

The only ingredients we use in our wine are:

o Grapes (not organically grown)

o water (from an annually tested well)

o Commercial yeasts

o Yeast nutrients to aid fermentation

o Sulfites (to protect against microbial problems)

o Sugar

o Oak (barrels, staves, chips)

o occasional addition of acids (Tartaric/citric) or de-acidification products"