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Friday, March 23, 2007

Kosher Wines

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Anonymous said...

A Kosher Sampler
To get an idea of the broad range of international kosher wines on shelves these days, we bought more than 50 from all over the world. These were some of our favorites, listed from white to red and from lighter to heavier. We have chosen these not only because they are good, but also because they demonstrate the wide variety of kosher wines available today. As always, it would be frustrating to look for any specific wine, but these will give you an idea of how broad the selection is these days.

VINEYARD/VINTAGE PRICE TASTERS' COMMENTS
Rashi Moscato d'Asti 2005 (Italy) $10.99 It's hard to go wrong with any Moscato d'Asti as an aperitif or after-dinner wine. This one is a delight: fresh, fruity, slightly spritzy and filled with orange blossoms, kiwi and tangerines. We also liked Bartenura's Asti ($10.99).
Abarbanel Vin d'Alsace Gewürztraminer 2004 (France) $17.99* We're big fans of Alsatian Gewürz and this is an excellent example, clean and spicy, with a nose of roses and tastes of white pepper. Lovely wine. Best white of the tasting.
Ramon Cardova Rioja Blanco 2003 (Spain) $13.99 White Rioja isn't very common, so we were delighted to see this and it was excellent, filled with minerals and a little bit of muskiness that was quite attractive and made it food-friendly. Nicely dry. A white that could stand up to brisket. We also liked Cardova's red Rioja in this tasting and in the past.
Dalton Rosé (Israel) 2005 $14.99 A good example of the increasing number of good rosés available from all over the world. Crisp, filled with fruit and just slightly sweet, with lots of strawberry tastes and lively acidity. Serious minerals on the finish make it a good pair with food, especially roast chicken.
Dalton Barbera 'Oak Aged' (Upper Galilee) 2004 (Israel) $21.99 We tasted a couple of Italian Barberas, too, but this was better, with exuberant, lemony fruit and simple in the best sense of the word. Great with pasta.
Goose Bay Pinot Noir (East Coast) 2005 (New Zealand) $19.99 Wine-lovers are excited about New Zealand's Pinot Noir and this is a good one, with a haunting nose of earth, pepper and a little funk and a silky, fruity taste. Best red of the tasting. We also liked Goose Bay's 2005 Sauvignon Blanc ($13.99), which was crisp, juicy and very easy to enjoy.
Teperberg Family Estate Meritage (Judean Hills) 2005 (Israel) $12.99 Lovely, Bordeaux-like nose, crisp and structured. Earthy, with good fruit and a long finish. Could age nicely. Good with brisket.
Bartenura Nebbiolo (Colline Novaresi) 2004 (Italy) $15.99 Interesting and tight, with intense, earthy fruit and the smell of blue flowers and rich earth. Fragrant. Good with all Italian food.

NOTE: These are the prices we paid at wine stores in New York and New Jersey. *We paid $21.95 for Abarbanel, but this price appears to be more representative. Prices vary widely.

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March 23, 2007 at 2:58 AM
Anonymous said...

Kosher -- for Any Wine Lover
A World of Wines Worth Discovering; Riojas and Pinotage
March 23, 2007; Page W7
More good kosher wines are available to more people now than ever. From Chilean Carmenère to New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc to fine Bordeaux and semisweet reds from Georgia, fine kosher wines are on the shelves -- and, critically, on the Internet.

We have been conducting broad tastings of kosher wines for almost a decade. We have found that anyone who keeps kosher no longer has to settle for simple, sweet wines and anyone who loves wine shouldn't avoid the kosher aisle. We routinely include kosher wines in our general tastings and some of them have been among our favorites. In a tasting of midrange American Cabernet Sauvignon, for instance, Hagafen Cellars was one of the best, way up there with Jordan Vineyard & Winery.

International Flavor

To get a sense of the international flavor of kosher wines these days, we bought more than 50 kosher wines -- right off the shelves, as always -- that we felt demonstrated the great breadth of kosher wines today: red and white, sparkling and still, dry and sweet. They were from all over the world, from Argentina to Italy. In the past, we have written about kosher wines made from the most common grapes -- Chardonnay, Merlot and so on -- so we focused this time on imported wines that some people might not expect to find in the kosher aisle, such as Rioja from Spain.

A KOSHER SAMPLER



We bought more than 50 from all over the world. These were some of our favorites.Some wines are kosher, some are kosher for Passover and some are mevushal. Most kosher wines are kosher for Passover. The most notable exception is one part of the Manischewitz line. Manischewitz's sweet Concord is the kosher wine many of us grew up with. A spokeswoman for Constellation Brands, which makes Manischewitz, says it is still the No. 1 kosher wine in America, with more than a million cases produced each year. From the end of December through Passover, the company produces kosher-for-Passover wines. For the other eight months of the year in its kosher wines, Manischewitz uses fructose, a sweetener derived from corn, which is forbidden at Passover. The company urges customers looking for kosher-for-Passover wines to read its labels closely.

Some wines are both kosher for Passover and mevushal. A mevushal wine is one that can be handled by the general public, such as a non-Jewish waiter, and still remain kosher once it's open. A mevushal wine is heated in seconds by flash pasteurization. We are often asked if the mevushal process harms the wine. In our tastings through the years, we haven't found a consistent difference in taste between mevushal and nonmevushal kosher wines. In this tasting, we liked two-thirds of the wines that were nonmevushal but only one-third of the wines that were, but our favorite red and our favorite white -- a New Zealand Pinot Noir and an Alsatian Gewürztraminer -- were both mevushal.

The tasting would be an eye-opener for anyone who still doubts the range of kosher wines. Earthy Portuguese reds, Italian Pinot Grigio, South African Pinotage -- you name it, you're likely to find a version that's kosher. In the attached index, we have listed a few of our favorites as examples of the kinds of wines that are out there. We also saw a more-interesting selection of kosher wines from Israel this year, including a Pinotage, which is a grape usually associated with South Africa (it was made by Barkan and, while not among our favorites, was good and worth trying). We even tried a couple of wines from the Republic of Georgia, which weren't among our favorites but were still interesting and well-made.

Where to Find Them

Now, about getting them. We understand that some places have a far better selection of kosher wines than others. But thanks to the Internet and the burgeoning number of excellent wine stores willing to deliver to many states, it's possible for most people to order good kosher wines. Binny's in Chicago (binnys.com1) lists about 100, Wally's in Los Angeles (wallywine.com2) around 55 and Wine Library in New Jersey (winelibrary.com3) about 80. If you might be interested in ordering wine online, drop us a note at wine@wsj.com4 and we'll send you our column about how to do it, and the names of some stores that have good general-interest wine Web sites. There are still some people around the country who are out of luck. The state stores of Pennsylvania, for instance, have a limited kosher selection, almost entirely from Israel. A spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board told us that "currently, the PLCB has a kosher wine program focused on increasing the kosher wine selection in anticipation of Passover and other Jewish holidays."

Actually, in many places, the selection of kosher wines tends to grow as Passover nears. In fact, the one caution flag we'd raise is that some places seem to hold on to their kosher wines far longer than they should, so every year we see old, tired bottles that should have been given away or poured out long ago. Be sure to look at vintages carefully.

Wine stores still generally keep the kosher wines in a separate section, which is fine if you're specifically looking for kosher wine, but probably means that too many people are passing them by. Next time you're in a wine shop, even if you don't keep kosher, you really should take a look.

You can contact us at wine@wsj.com5.

March 23, 2007 at 3:00 AM

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