Montinore Estate 2007 Whites is Not Vegan Friendly

Company email (April 2018)
"I noticed that your website has our red's marked as non vegan from an email that was sent 8 years ago. No animal by products are in our red or white wines."

Company Email (circa 2010)
"As a general rule, we don't use any animal products in the production of our wines, however there are sometimes exceptions, so it is always best to check directly with us on the wine or wines you are considering buying.

The only two animal derived products we may occasionally use are skim milk and egg whites. Skim milk powder is very occasionally used on white wines to reduce phenolic bitterness, and egg whites are occasionally used on a couple of our red wines to reduce astringency/overly tannic character.

At the moment, there are no current white wines which have had any animal product used on them. Only two single vineyard pinot designates have had egg whites used on them, both from the 2007 vintage. ( I would have to double check this, but cannot do it right now as I am on vacation )

So I believe all our white wines fall in the vegan category at the moment.

As an aside, I think it is important that our customers are aware of the distinction between additions made to the wine, and fining agents which act on the wine, but importantly do not stay in the the wine.

An example of an addition, would be Tartaric acid, which is an additive to the wine and stays in the wine.

Fining agents include skim milk, egg whites and gelatin, which act on the wine but do not stay in solution. I appreciate that to vegans, this still means animal product has come into contact with the wine and therefore they cannot consume it, but I have met many people who think that these products are added to the wine and become part of it's structure, which is incorrect.

I think it is always wise to check with individual wineries first, before making a purchasing decision, unless it is marked on the bottle that the wine is suitable for vegetarians and /or vegans."