Fred Tasker’s Jewish Holiday Wine Suggestions

Years ago, kosher wine meant sweet, viscous wine made of the concord grape in upstate New York. To many traditionalists, it still does.

But these days a younger generation is demanding top-quality, dry kosher wines, and started producing them from Israel to France to California. The range is amazing – you can get a kosher version of just about any kind of wine you can name – from albarino to zinfandel.

             To be kosher, a wine must be made according to Jewish dietary laws. Often, the word kosher does not appear on the bottle. Instead, it may be identified by the symbol of a U in a circle, meaning it has been approved by the Orthodox Union.

              The letter P following the circled U means the wine is made to even stricter standards and is kosher to Passover. The word “mevushel” on the label means the wine has been “flash pasteurized” and may be poured for observant Jews by non-Jewish servers, as at a Seder held in a hotel.

            Here are some good kosher wines:

                        *           From France, there’s the Barons Edmond & Benjamin de Rothschild Bordeaux,  from the famous Rothschild wine family, which is Jewish.

                        *           From New Zealand, there’s Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc – one of the hot, new New Zealand wines in a screwtop bottle – very trendy.

                        *           From California, there’s the Hagafen Lake County White Riesling, from a longtime Jewish family winery.

                        *           And from Israel, there’s the Yarden Cabernet Sauvignon. Its appellation is Galilee, Israel. Pretty good stuff.

                        So even at Passover, the only reason you might need to pour wine from a square bottle is what they say in Fiddler on the Roof. TRADITION!!