Great Estates Niagara Winery is Not Vegan Friendly

Company email (August 2021)"
"Generally, we do not use animal products in the production of our wines however we do not submit our wines for any classification under the ‘vegetarian’ or ‘vegan’ title.

Sometimes wines are treated with additives, called "fining agents", which are used to make the wine smoother and give it greater visual clarity. All fining agents used in our winemaking process have been approved for use by Health Canada.

Some of these fining agents contain allergens, which are proteins that cause certain individuals to have reactions. Common allergens that are sometimes found in wine are albumin (eggs), casein (milk), and isinglass (fish). Although some of our wines have been treated with allergenic fining agents, there are no allergens remaining in the finished product. All of our wines have been sterile filtered, and Health Canada considers wines that have been sterile filtered to be allergen-free, regardless of whether these fining agents were used in the winemaking process."

Company email (December 2011):
"Fining agents are used on a lot-by-lot basis to optimize the quality. Some fining agents contain proteinaceous materials. Proteinaceous fining agents
are used to react with color and/or tannin molecules to make them removable by subsequent filtration. Both the fining agent, the color and/or tannin it reacts with are removed by the filtration process.

All of our fining agents are government approved. One of our standard fining agents contains Micronized potassium casseinate [casein is milk protein], food grade gelatin, egg albumin and other food grade components."