Molly Snyder Edler's blog yesterday about fish bits in Guinness led to a talkbacker pointing out that the same product is used to clarify wines from California.

Being a devoted drinker of barbera and other wines from Piemonte, I asked my friend Domenico Ravizza of Vicara in Rosignano, Italy, about the use of animal gelatins in wine there. Ravizza is also president of Compagnia dei Vignaioli del Monferrato, an association of winemakers in the area. Milwaukee wine drinkers can buy a couple Vicara wines at Discount Liquor on Oklahoma Avenue.

"In effect, many gelatins used to clarify are animal-based and there are also products on the marketplace of vegetable origin. It's a product used to clarify and it doesn't leave residues in the treated product," says Ravizza via e-mail.

"There are many (such) practices that many use as the standard, above all in the large, industrial (wine) businesses and it's not required to declare their use if they don't create allergy problems."

I explained to Domenico that the question here was about whether or not the products would be considered vegetarian.

"Certainly for purist vegetarians, it could cause a problem."

However, if there is no labeling and some producers use a vegetable-based product, short of contacting every winery that produces the wine you drink, you either have to hold your nose and drink with your fingers crossed or give up the grape altogether. And no one wants the latter.