Amie (organic vegan rosé wines)

Amie Wine is a brand of wine that offers organic rosé vegan wines, which donate a portion of sales to clean water charities. This ‘wine for friends’ is produced in the South of France.

Most councils collect wine bottles (wrap broken glass in thick paper and bin). If bottle banks are full, there is usually a number to call (don’t leave bottles outside full banks). Rinse beforehand (you can leave on screw-top lids and labels).

For tinned wine/spritzers, pop ring-pulls back over holes before recycling (pinch tops shut) to avoid wildlife getting trapped. Send used corks to Recorked (corks are too dense to compost and choking hazards), if left around).

Many wines are filtered with gelatine (animal bones) or fish bladder (isinglass). So choose vegan wines in stores, which tend to be the ones that carry organic labels (these are also less likely to give you a hangover!)

What would help is if off licenses and supermarkets grouped them by which wines are vegan, as often you have to go trawling through the aisles, looking for a vegan logo on the bottle. Many brands are not vegan or vegetarian (for instance, some wines by Blossom Hill and even Co-op are neither).

Also read our post on sustainable sparking wines.

How much wine should we drink (?!)

If you like your wine a bit too much, know that NHS guidelines are per week:

• 6 glass of wine or
• 6 pints of beer or
• 14 units of spirits

So if you only drink wine – that’s one glass per night, with a day off! You’ll then at least be drinking within proper guidelines!