I remember dabbling around in the Kaikoura New World market in New Zealand, looking for a nice birthday wine for my friend. My attention was immediately drawn to a label that said Vegan Wine. I was dumbfounded. In all of my years as a polite, mindful, wine-sipping twenty-something, I had assumed, no-brainer, that wine was vegan.

It’s GRAPES, people! How much more plant-based can you get?

But seeing this label called to my attention a completely different reality. It is true that, in fact, all wines are not created equal. Yes, they all contain fermented grapes and the bottles that appear on the supermarket shelves are not stuffed full of mysterious animal-byproducts.

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