Cullen Wines (2007 onwards)

Company email (May 2017) "All wines produced by Cullen from 2007 are vegan friendly. "Currently no animal derived products are used in the production of Cullen wines. Since adopting Biodynamic practices in our vineyard, the grapes have achieved better balance and ripeness eliminating the need for adjustment of our wines using (animal) fining agents. "The white wines only have bentonite (a mineral clay used to remove unstable grape protein) and sulphur dioxide (a preservative) added to them. The bentonite is not soluble in the wine and is easily removed by settling or filtration after fining. "The red wines only have a sulphur dioxide addition. Most red wines are grape protein stable due to the presence of tannins and other phenolics. Tannins and other grape phenolics will combine with soluble grape protein and precipitate from the wine and can then be easily removed from the wine. There has been no need to use protein fining agents to adjust tannin levels in our red wines since the winery converted to Biodynamic farming. "Neither bentonite nor sulphur dioxide have any connection or derivation from an animal source. As a result the winery can safely claim that all the wines produced from 2007 onwards are vegan friendly. Some of the wines produced before 2007 may have had animal products used as fining agents e.g. isinglass; a fish product or egg whites."