The four glasses of wine required for a traditional Passover seder symbolize the four stages of exodus that led Hebrew slaves to freedom in the Promised Land: freedom, deliverance, redemption and release.
These four servings of wine symbolize one of the most victorious and celebratory events in Jewish history — which is all the more reason to ensure the wines are as enjoyable as they are kosher.
Jewish families in the United States have served sweet kosher wines for major holidays and life events for more than a century. For some, it’s the only kosher wine they’ve ever known.
“It’s a little embarrassing to admit, but when I was really young I actually liked the Manischewitz wine at seder,” confessed Lauren Cohen of Shoe Shine Wines, a San Francisco-based winery specializing in Solano County Petite Syrah. Although Shoe Shine doesn’t produce kosher wines, Cohen acknowledges that fine kosher wines are slowly gaining popularity. “It’s difficult to find good kosher wines, but they exist and are well worth the search,” she adds.
Highly acidic Concord grapes were the only grapes readily available to Jewish immigrants arriving on the East Coast in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, forcing them to add sugars to their wines to balance the high acidity. The resourcefulness of these early American immigrants created a tradition of cloyingly sweet kosher wines for years to come.
To earn kosher status, a wine must follow Jewish dietary laws, or kashrut. Kosher wine must be made from beginning to end by a Sabbath-observant crew — from the winemaker to the cellar rat cleaning the equipment. They may also choose to make the wines mevushal — literally meaning cooked, or flash-pasteurized — so the wines can be served by non-observant Jews or non-Jews. (According to kashrut, mevushal wines are deemed unfit for idolatrous use.) In Israel, kosher winemakers must follow much stricter kashrut laws, such as letting their vineyards lie fallow every seventh year.
Kosher winemakers are also forbidden to use clarifying agents such as bull’s blood, isinglass (fish bladders) and egg whites to clarify wines of natural particles suspended in the wine during production. Because kosher winemaking uses alternatives such as clay filters, vegetarians and vegans often prefer kosher wines as well.
A handful of California wineries lead the charge in making fine, dry kosher wines, including Hagafen Cellars and Covenant in Napa, and Baron Herzog in Oxnard. Wineries in Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, Italy, Spain and South Africa, among other nations, also produce fine kosher wines.
Israel continues to be the largest exporter of kosher wines. In 1882, Baron Rothschild of France ignited Israel’s modern wine industry by establishing European grapevines and winemaking practices. Today, Israel’s largest wine producer, Carmel Winery, is a legacy of the Baron’s efforts to rebuild Israel.
Since wine is meant to be enjoyed with food, a traditional Passover seder poses pairing challenges for the best of wine experts: Gefilte fish. Borscht. Asparagus. As with any wine and food pairing, it’s best to follow the golden rules: pair like with like, and progress from light to heavy wines.
Gefilte fish can be the most challenging Passover menu item to pair with wine, but a light-bodied Pinot Noir such as the Hagafen 2004 Napa Valley Pinot Noir ($28.99) or a French Beaujolais such as Abarbanel Beaujolais Villages 2005 ($12.99) would not only pair swimmingly with the gefilte fish, but would also transition nicely to brisket or a roast chicken.
Wine store proprietor and wine merchant Gerald Weisl of Burlingame’s Weimax Wines & Spirits recommends pairing traditional favorites such as matzah ball soup with a dry Riesling, such as Hagafen 2005 White Riesling ($17.99). If dill weed makes an appearance in the soup, he recommends a crisp Sauvignon Blanc such as Weinstock Cellar Select Sauvignon Blanc ($14.49).
Because chemical compounds in asparagus (and artichokes) can make wine taste strangely sweet or metallic, asparagus is a difficult vegetable to pair with wine, but according to Weisl, “asparagus would work well with a kosher white like Sion Creek by Golan [Israel, $9.99], a white blend of aromatic varieties that is not bone dry, but not sticky sweet, either.”
One of the most enjoyable dishes during the seder is any variation of charoset with apples, walnuts, wine, honey and cinnamon as its staple ingredients. Weisl recommends an off-dry Riesling or a Chenin Blanc to complement the rich flavors found in this Passover favorite.
“[In a Riesling or Chenin Blanc] you have apples, a little nutty character and cinnamon, and those elements would pair up nicely with the charoset.” In the tradition of pairing like wines with like foods, try the sweet but balanced Baron Herzog Chenin Blanc Late Harvest 2004 ($15.99).
If Bubbe isn’t keen on abandoning the traditional Concord grape, transition into fine kosher wines with a sparkling red Italian Lambrusco (Bartenura, $7.99), which would pair well with borscht, lamb and brisket. The lush black fruit, tobacco and black-pepper flavors in the Baron Herzog 2003 Lodi Zinfandel ($12.99) would also pair well with these dishes.
The Internet offers a wealth of information on kosher wines and food pairings. Two reliable sites to find more kosher wines for the Passover seder or year-round are www.kosherwines.com and www.guidetokosherwine.com.
Reform Judaism magazine has also published a 24-page “RJ Insider Guide to Kosher Wine” with a pullout chart of the “Top 50 Kosher Wines in the World.” The guide is available online atwww.reformjudaismag.org and as a reprint by contacting [email protected].
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The laws of shmita and orlah by shelly paz So what exactly makes wine kosher, anyway? “Kosher wine starts in the vineyard with the orlah, which means that it is forbidden to use the grapevines from the first three years of the planting, but only from the fourth year,” said Aryeh Ganz, the main kashrut supervisor for Carmel, Israel’s largest winery. Most Israeli vineyards strictly observe the Jewish law of shmita — the final year in a seven-year cycle during which land in Israel must lie fallow and debts are canceled. Unlike in other countries, where dead or weak grapevines are replaced every year with new plants, Israeli vinters cannot do this because of the shmita and orlah laws. Jewish law also bans letting the wine be touched, and sometimes even seen, by a non-Jew or even by a non-observant Jew, from the moment of pressing the grapes to the bottling. Likewise, all substances used in the process, such as yeast, sulfate, sulfur dioxide or tartar, most of which are made in European factories and supervised by the relevant kashrut institutions, have to be kosher. Jewish law stipulates that kosher wine can become nonkosher “nesech” wine if it is opened and poured into glasses by a non-Jew or a non-observant Jew, unless it has been previously boiled, he said. Nesech wine was used by pagans in religious rituals and was forbidden to Jews in the days of the Sanhedrin. |