At the start of the New Year, I made a promise to myself to eat healthier by buying fresh foods, organic foods and making more homemade meals. In addition to making healthier choices, I also self-promised to workout daily for 15-30 minutes. Some days I feel less motivated to workout but I try to be physically active in some shape or form – walking, running, yoga or dancing. Since keeping up with this habit my body feels lighter and I have more energy. Now I am searching for healthier beverages.

One of my favorite beverages to drink is wine – Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. But what if I could get a healthier, more refreshing option of my favorite wines? This started my journey to natural wine, vegan wine.

What is Vegan Wine?

Vegan wine is wine that doesn’t include animal products. You may be asking “Don’t all wines not have meat?” That depends on the wine filtration process. Tiny particles , traces of meat are found in wine when filtered through animal products. With vegan wine you can avoid  animal products altogether without sacrificing the delicious taste of wine. Some common animal products you can find in traditional wines are:

• Albumin, the protein in eggs
• Casein, an animal protein found in dairy products
• Gelatin which from animal skin, bone and cartilage
• Isinglass which is the gelatin from fish bladders
• Egg whites
• Chitosan carb found in shrimp, crab, and crustacean shells

Older wines may also have dried blood powder. If this sounds gross to you, wine lovers have drunk wines with some if not these particles inside. But why are these ingredients in wine? The animal products help clarify, filter, and refine wines and beers. Inevitably small traces of those animal products are found in the final beer and wine products. The wonderful thing about vegan wine is that it doesn’t have to use animal products to clarify, filter and refine. Instead, bentonite clay can refine wines to make them 100% vegan.

If you are wondering whether you can easily spot vegan wines when shopping for wine, you may find it challenging because the refining ingredients are not actually in the wine and not required to be listed on the wine bottle. I recommend going directly to a wine maker or wine retailer to confirm which wines are vegan wines – a high quality vendor will always keep track of wines that are vegetarian-friendly. This is how I discovered Proud Pour , a vegan wine provider committed to pairing wines with solutions to local environmental problems.

About Proud Pour

Environmentally friendly products are very important to me because I want to be mindful of how my habits and behaviors impact the world around. Doing research on Instagram about vegan wines, I discovered the hashtag#CheersToChange – a tagline Proud Pour uses on their Instagram page @ProudPour. They have two wines available now.

Who still needs to buy a Valentine’s Day gift? Nothing says love like drinking to save the planet. #cheerstochange

A post shared by Proud Pour (@proudpour) on Feb 13, 2017 at 5:48pm PST

The first wine is The Oyster, a Sauvignon Blanc that restores 100 wild oysters per bottle. It also happens to be the perfect pair for oyster or seafood plates. This is appealing to me because I’m on a chicken and seafood diet now while also enjoying vegan food here and there.

The second wine is Oregon Pinot Noir that saves bees by planting 875 wildflowers. Pinot Noir goes well with salmon, roasted chicken, pasta dishes, casseroles, stews and game birds like duck or quail. It can also go well with chocolate desserts and those with caramel.

No matter your preference of wine type, both are sustainably grown, vegan wines (and soon beer come this summer or summer 2018) to save the environment. Between the Sauvignon Blanc and the Oregon Pinot Noir, I decided to go for the wine that saves the bees. Regardless you cannot go wrong with either because you are making a difference.

I look at the back of the Oregon Pinot Noir wine bottle and read the facts about the importance of wildflowers to bees. Bees pollinate one-third of the food we eat. Native bees are disappearing because of pesticide use, disease and lack of wildflowers and habitat. By buying this vegan wine from Proud Pour, I help ( and you can support too) the bees survive because Proud Pour plants 875 wildflowers when wine lovers buy. That amount of wildflowers is the equivalent of 90 sq ft of bee habitat. Where? Local farms. The project is called Xerces Society.

Wine Tasting of the Oregon Pinot Noir

The Oregon Pinot Noir is not only sustainably grown and vegan, it is delicious with supple tannins, earthy tones, and rich notes of red plum, rhubarb, and vanilla. What I absolutely love about Proud Pour is their attention to detail. The wine bottle is beautiful. It has an illustration of a bee with the description “This wine saves bee species.” It also comes with a lovely sack that has  seeds to plant wildflowers which I cannot wait to use when I get my first home. This wine has no eggs, casein or isinglass. I love it – cannot wait for my family and friends to try. Moreover, I am proud that a woman entrepreneur, Berlin Kelly, founder of Proud Pour produce this excellent wine for us to enjoy on date night, at weddings, corporate events and our favorite nights of TV.

About the Proud Pour Team

Berlin and business partner Brian Thurber launched Proud Pour because they wanted to drink to make a difference.  How many beverages can you really say make a difference when you go to the bar? Not many. They partner with local environmental group to do just that – and it’s awesome. Check out the list of non-profits Proud Pour supports today. The Proud Pour team encourages their fans to attend the non-profits’ events or reach out to see how they can help. Learn more on how they got started by reading ‘ Paired with Oysters, This Wine is Cleaning Up the New York Harbor.’

Where to Buy

The great thing about Proud Pour is that it gives wine lovers (and soon-to-be beer lovers) options on how to get their drink on. If you click Where to Buy at ProudPour.com you can find a Proud and Pour wine distributor near you or order right online. I love the buy online option because it allows me to buy in advance of special occasions and comes right to my door. Once it’s a habit, it’s easy.

Let me know what you think about Proud Pour by using the hashtag #CheersToChange