Kosher wine

Too good to pass over

by David Marglin

Being Jewish means growing up with wine. Wine is part of the weekly Sabbath service, and it plays a major role in the Passover Seder, where four glasses of it are consumed -- and that's just during the ceremony. There are no limits on how much you can drink with the meal.

At Passover (the first night this year falls on April 19), most people use the same wine they use for the Sabbath: Manischewitz. Manischewitz is essentially sweetened Concord-grape juice -- "wine" in the technical sense of being fermented, but lacking the complexity we associate with wine. To people who care about wine, Manischewitz is a punch line.

But kosher wine, fortunately, does not end with Manischewitz. Nowadays, owing to improved technique and increased demand, there are lots of good -- and sometimes better than good -- kosher wines being made. I saw an ad recently in the New York Times for a store that offers more than 400 kosher wines! They're not all so easy to find in Massachusetts, but the selection here is steadily growing, as is the demand.

What, you may wonder, makes wine kosher? Well, it "boils down" -- as you'll see below, that's a pun -- to three laws, easy to explain but rather expensive for winemakers to follow. (These rules are quoted from the Web site of the Royal Wine Corporation, www.kedemwines.com, which makes or imports a number of high-end kosher wines: Baron Herzog in the US, Alfasi from Chile, and Teal Lake from Australia.) The laws:

1) Equipment used to make the wine must be used exclusively for the production of kosher products.

2) The grapes and wine must be handled, from grape crushing to consumption, only by Sabbath-observing Jews, unless the wine is mevushal (pasteurized).

3) Only certified kosher products (yeast, filtering agents, etc.) can be used.

You can see why these rules are hard for most winemakers to follow. It's costly to have equipment used only for kosher wines -- and to have a rabbi around to certify that the equipment is not used for anything else. (Note: good rabbis do not come cheap.)

But rule two is where things really get juicy. One way for winemakers to make everyday kosher wine is for them essentially to boil it, resulting in the wine known as mevushal. This pasteurization makes it impossible for the wine to lose its kosher status, even if it is touched by non-Jewish hands. Ironically, the practice evolved from an ancient pagan belief that boiled wine was unfit for pagan ceremonies. Jews would therefore boil the wine they produced for their own ceremonies, in order to keep it out of the hands of "idol worshippers."

Pasteurization as a rule isn't good for wine -- extremes of temperature tend to ruin its flavor -- but, of late, techniques have improved. In my opinion it is almost impossible to tell the difference between mevushal and non-mevushal wine from the same manufacturer. (For example, Royal Wine's basic red in magnum bottles is non-mevushal, but in 750 ml bottles it is mevushal; I couldn't really tell them apart.)

But mevushal wine is unfit for use in the more observant Jewish temples -- going back to the temple in ancient Jerusalem -- and thus strict Jews want non-mevushal kosher wine to use for Passover and other rituals. So the high road to being kosher, it turns out, is to make wine touched only by Jews, from the vine all the way to the glass. Winemakers who make non-mevushal kosher wines must assemble a Sabbath-keeping Jewish work force to harvest the grapes and make the wine.

As a final twist, "everyday kosher" and "kosher for Passover" are two different things. To be kosher for Passover, wine -- like any food product -- must be free of certain additives, including legumes and corn syrup. This is a problem for the makers of Manischewitz, most of which is sweetened with corn syrup, and also for wineries that use other non-kosher products in their wines. Manischewitz has to make a special kosher-for-Passover wine using a different sweetener. Almost all kosher wines that are not so sweet, however, will be kosher for Passover.

Kosher wines are now being made all over the world, but the selection tends to be limited: hybrids, cabernets, merlots, and Rhône varietals for reds; and chardonnay and some rieslings, along with hybrids, for whites.

Now, however, Normans of Australia has made the first kosher pinot noir, which joins its decent kosher chardonnay and excellent kosher shiraz -- all imported by Royal Wine and sold in this country under the Teal Lake label (the pinot noir is not yet available in Massachusetts, but look for it later this year, or next).

You can also find great kosher wine from the Médoc and, of course, Israel. Baron Herzog wines made here in the US have been uniformly good the past few vintages, both the regular and the reserve. You can even find some excellent Italian kosher wines.

As quality increases, kosher wines are not going to be just for Seders and the Sabbath. Most of the wines recommended below would be excellent on any occasion -- and you can impress friends by explaining to them what makes a wine kosher. We've come a long way from Manischewitz, baby.

1997 Alfasi Merlot (Valle del Maule, Chile) ($7.99). No depth, but it's decent red wine. Drinkable, for sure. Still, not something I would serve save for Passover.

1998 Contour Weinstock Cellars (Clarksburg, Santa Barbara, California) ($11.95). A light and fruity chenin blanc, cut with a dash of chardonnay. Great clean taste, excellent citrus notes in the middle, with green hints toward the finish. A winner, any night of the year.

1999 Teal Lake Shiraz (Australia) ($11.99). Definitely shiraz, with loads of fruit right up front. Built to be drunk young, especially with red meats and roast turkey.

1999 Teal Lake Chardonnay (Australia) ($11.99). True varietal flavors of butter and peach. Quite basic; minimal oak. Great with chicken or fish. Not a monster, but easily quaffed.

1997 Yarden Riesling (Galilee, Israel) ($12.99). Lots of fruit, clean pure flavors, a hint of mint and apple. Refreshing with anything spicy.

1997 Baron Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon (California) ($12.99). Mevushal by the masters. This blend of grapes from Paso Robles, Napa, and the Alexander Valley in Mendocino County is bright and fruity (like all the wines Royal makes and imports, it seems), with a nice punchy center. Not deep by any means, but stylish -- not too oaky, and wonderful with lamb leg or roast turkey.

1995 Golan Galil Region Cabernet Sauvignon (Israel) ($16.99). Low in alcohol, with a lot of sweetness (somewhat reminiscent of Manischewitz -- but in a pleasant way). A touch of overripe, even stewed, plums. Believe it or not, this will work well with gefilte fish and matzoh with haroseth.

1995 Chateau Devise d'Ardilley Haut-Medoc (Bordeaux) ($23.99). This one is non-mevushal, and it is a mouthful. A full-on Médoc wine, with tar and tobacco on top of a tight berry core. Great year, well crafted. This is a wine for your red meats or matzoh-crusted chicken. A crowd pleaser, but you pay for the satisfied smiles.

David Marglin can be reached at wine@phx.com.

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