Organic Champagne for New Year's

photo from contexttravel.com

Do you want to greet 2011 with an organic toast? Well, if it's organic bubbly you're after, you may be interested in knowing that Domaine Carneros offers an organic sparkling wine--the only certified organic sparkling wine in the United States. All 350 acres of the estate at Domaine Carneros are certified organic, with official certification from California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) in 2008.

Most sparkling wine and champagne is not vegan, but Domaine Carneros is. . . 
Wine goes through a process called "Remuage," the clarifying process after the second fermentation process, which is where the bubbles come from. The fermentation process typically leaves sediment, usually pushed through the necks of the inverted bottles by either egg whites or isinglass (an extract from sturgeon bladders). Then this agent is removed from the wine, but there are particles left over. Domaine Carneros uses "Clarifiant S, sodium bentonite,"  a clay-based product, to remove the sediment and clarify the sparkling wine, thus eliminating the animal products and making a vegan wine.