With the Jewish holiday of Passover beginning tonight ”“ Wednesday, April 5 ”“ many people will be choosing to serve wines that are kosher-certified. So how is kosher wine different from a nonkosher vintage?
“When it comes to taste, there”™s no difference between kosher and nonkosher wine,” said Jay Buchsbaum, executive vice president of marketing and director of wine education at Royal Wine Corp., the top kosher wine purveyor in the United States, which owns and operates the Kadem Winery in Marlboro, New York. “In fact, many kosher wines are award-winning, beating out their nonkosher competitors for top varietal prizes, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Rosés as well.”¯
“There”™s a common ”˜urban legend”™ that wine is rendered kosher after being blessed by a rabbi. That is incorrect. For a wine to be made kosher there are strictly supervised purity guidelines that need to be followed from the moment the grapes enter the winery to when the wine is bottled.”
Any ingredients used, including yeasts and”¯fining agents, must be kosher.
Some Kosher wines are processed as”¯Mevushal, which means “cooked” in Hebrew. Some wineries produce their Mevushal wines by heating the grape juice prior to fermentation, while others apply that procedure to the final product, prior to bottling.”¯”¯
When kosher wine is produced, marketed and sold commercially, it will bear kosher certification granted by a specially-trained rabbi, who is responsible for the supervision from start to finish.”¯
Recent years have seen increased demand for kosher wines, prompting a number of vintners in countries not previously represented ”“ such as Canada, Chile and South Africa — to produce sophisticated kosher wines under strict”¯rabbinical”¯supervision in addition to traditional sources such as California, Israel, France, Spain and Italy.
Ten more things to know about kosher wine:
1.Kosher wine is made in precisely the same way as regular wine. The only difference is that there is rabbinical oversight during the process and that the wine is handled by Sabbath-observant Jews.
2. Not all”¯Israeli wines are kosher. Only about 30% of Israeli wine brands are certified kosher, but these kosher wineries produce more than 90% of the Israel wine industry”™s output.
3. In the 1980s, there were”¯few kosher wines. Buchsbaum said that Royal Wine only imported three kosher wines from Bordeaux back then.
4.”¯The number of producers of kosher wines has dramatically increased in the past 10 to 20 years.”¯ To date, Royal Wine Corp., with winemaking roots dating from 1848 Czechoslovakia, represents more than 60 kosher wine producers. This is due to an increase in interest from consumers who are adding to their kosher wine portfolios and, in some cases, building actual kosher wine cellars in their homes, a rare sight just two decades ago.
5. While several well-known wineries in countries from all over the world ”“ including France, Spain, Italy and Argentina ”“ are crafting special runs of kosher wine, California is not. Except for Marciano Estate, which produces a kosher run of its Terra Gratia, a high-end Napa Valley Blend, all kosher California wine is made by fully kosher wineries such as Herzog Wine Cellars, Covenant and Hagafen. (The Herzog family owns and operates Royal Wine Corp. in the U.S.)
6. The reason many Passover dinners feature red wine is because there”™s a rabbinic opinion that red wine is preferable since it”™s the same variety that Jews used during their Seders after they escaped Egypt.
7.”¯Kosher wines can range in price from $5 a bottle to $500. The average price for a bottle of good kosher wine is $25.
8.”¯The most popular Moscato in the U.S. happens to be kosher. Bartenura produces the largest selling imported Italian Moscato here. The Moscato in the iconic blue bottle sells more than five million bottles annually, only a fraction of which is to the kosher market.
9. There is a steady increase in total wine consumption and a great interest specifically in high-end Israeli wines, as well as the better French wines.
10. Drinking wine can be a Mitzvah (good deed). Kosher wine is prescribed for use in many Jewish rituals ”“ Bris Milah (circumcision), the wedding chuppa (canopy), and the Kiddush that starts all Sabbath and holiday meals. While most occasions call for just one cup, on the holiday of Purim, abundant wine accompanies the festive meal, recalling wine”™s significant role in the “banquets” described in the Megillah story. On Passover, Jews are required to drink four cups of wine at the Seder.
For more, visit royalwine.com.
