Villa Maria Cellar Selection Sauvignon Blanc is Not Vegan Friendly

Update (April 2025)

Jacqueline notes that the Reserve Sauvignon Blanc Clifford Bay Marlborough 2023 has a "suitable for plant based diets" mention on the label. The vineyard explained:

"To answer your enquiry, any of our wines with that claim are made with no animal based fining products or any other animal products. We just don’t say specifically vegan because we don’t have any 3rd party audit or certification.

"We actually make sure they are separated, and tanks and bottling equipment have specific cleaning between other products which may have had animal-based fining. Since we are certified for organics and keep those products separate in similar ways our system is adaptable to that. So I would be happy to recommend them to those who maintain a vegan diet."

Their website also indicates that their EarthGarden range is vegan (https://villamariawines.com/ca/introducing-earthgarden-our-new-premium-organic-wine-range/)

Company email (September 2017)
"Unfortunately Villa Maria do use animal products (milk, egg and fish) as fining agents to clarify wines. The fining agent(s) selected will vary with wine varietal – reds versus white wine. Milk (casein) and fish added to white wines; egg white to red wines. In addition to the fining agents we do use gelatine (from animal origins) as a processing aid to assist in wine settling in some of our wines."

Company email (circa 2011):
"Unfortunately in this case all our wines have some form of fining agent used in their preparation for bottling, be it egg whites for reds or isinglass or casein (a milk product) for whites. At this particular point in time, we do not produce any wines that are exempt from the above."