Fine wine and swim bladders?

I know this is something that I don’t have to worry about with regards to my pint-sized vegetarian (as she is only 7 years old!) however, as a vegetarian myself, albeit recently converted, I do worry about animal derivatives in my wine. Animal parts in wine, for crying out loud, as with most things, you just have to let your jaw drop.
Until recently it had never occurred to me that I should look at the bottle label to see if my wine is suitable for vegetarians, why would it have meat in it?

According to the Vegetarian Society the use of animal derived products in the production of alcoholic beverages is fairly widespread not because no alternatives exist, but because they always have been used and there is little demand from the consumer for an alternative.

The main obstacle when trying to judge the acceptability to vegetarians of any given product is a clause in the 1984 Food Labelling Regulations (UK) which exclude from the 1984 Food Act all drinks with an alcohol content exceeding 1.2% by volume (ABV), leaving only very low or non-alcoholic beers, wines and ciders being required to list all ingredients.
The main appearance of animal derived products is in the fining or clearing process, though others may be used as colorants or anti-foaming agents.
It must be pointed out that alcohol is routinely tested on thousands of animals each year (though this is not usually done directly by any individual company).

Beer
Cask-conditioned ales need fining to clear the material (especially the yeast) held in suspension in the liquid. This is invariably done by adding isinglass, derived from the swim bladders of certain tropical fish especially the Chinese sturgeon, which acts as a falling suspension. If you were to hold a pint of real ale up to the light and see cloudy lumps swirling around that would suggest that the cask had been recently disturbed and the isinglass shaken up from the bottom. Bottled naturally conditioned beers will not always have been treated with isinglass. Keg Beers and Lagers are pasteurised and usually passed through Chill Filters, as are canned beers and some bottled beers, however a considerable number of breweries still use isinglass to clear their pasteurised beers, though sometimes only to rescue selected batches which are considered too hazy. Also occasionally the sometimes animal derived additive Glyceryl Monostearate is used in place of 900 Dimethylpolysiloxane as a foam-control agent in the production of keg beers.

Cider
Most of the main brands of cider will have been fined using gelatine. Scrumpy type ciders are less likely to have been fined.

Wine
With wine, it is again in the fining process that animal derived ingredients make an appearance. Finings can be isinglass, gelatine, egg albumen, modified casein (from milk), chitin (derived from the shells of crabs or lobsters) or ox blood (rarely used today). But alternatives do exist in the form of bentonite, kieselguhr, kaolin and silica gel or solution.
Also newer methods such as centrifuging and filtering are becoming more popular.
You might like to note that the Wine Development Board claim that the fining agents are removed at the end of the process with the possible exception of very minute quantities.

Spirits
Most spirits appear to be acceptable to vegetarians, with the possible exception of Malt Whisky, some blended whiskies and Spanish Brandies which have been conditioned in casks which had previously held sherry which may have been treated with animal derived finings. (Brandy itself is not produced from wine which has undergone any fining processes). Also some imported Vodkas may have been passed through a bone charcoal filter.

For more information visit: www.vegsoc.org/info/alcohol.html