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Vegetarian wine website launches

Vegetarian Wines Limited, which runs winesforvegetarians.co.uk, said it believed it was the “only website offering so many wines all of which are suitable for vegetarians” and that the potential for vegetarian and vegan wine in the UK was “enormous”.

“There are over four million vegetarians living in the UK aged 18 or over and the equivalent for vegans is 600,000 adults,” it said. “Their national average per capita consumption of wine is about 35 bottles at an average shelf retail price of close to £10. That represents a UK domestic market for vegetarians and vegans in excess of £1.5 billion.”

It plans to tap into this potential spend by launching its range, which is said “embraces still and sparkling, red, white and rose, comprised of the top ten grape types and 30 varietals thereof, and from each of the leading nineteen wine producing countries in both hemispheres.”

It added that existing wine labelling in the UK is “haphazard, poor and inconsistent so vegetarians and vegans may inadvertently consume wines which are not actually consistent with their lifestyle, and not consume eligible wines which are poorly labelled.”

And it said “about 30% of wines on offer in the UK are not suitable for vegetarians because the wine maker uses fish bladders, egg derivatives and dairy derivatives. Vegetarians and vegans alike would reject such wines. In addition, some wine makers use ground sea shells which are acceptable to vegetarians but not to vegans.

“Vegetarian wines do not use any consumable food derivatives in the wine making process (for the clarification process of the wine juice) such as fish and dairy based products regardless of whether the producing creature is killed in the process. And vegans will not use inanimate animal derivatives such as wool or sea shells, regardless of whether the producing creature lives or dies.”

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