Kosher wine

Any thoughts on kosher wine? I'm almost positive I've been served kosher wine when I had Passover seder at a friend's house. As I recall, it was good wine.

We are having our school auction at the JCC. It was recently remodeled and is a great facility -- the only catch is that the food and wine must be kosher. I'm not concerned because I've had great kosher meals. We had a wine distributor who was going to donate the wine but has come back saying:

M looked into kosher wine. It must be grown by orthodox jews. In a nutshell, it is all terrible. The only good wine is made in Israel, and he's not a distributor for it. As I understand it, he would rather contribute to the wall of wine than bring in crappy wine.

Is this a reasonable interpretation? I thought I had kosher wine from California -- and it wasn't Manishewitz (sp)!

[fluffhead]

Re: Kosher wine

Your distributor is an idiot misinformed.
There are tons of excellent kosher wines out there, grown in calif, australia, france, italy, AND israel. Certain steps of the process must be overseen by an observant Jew, but to say that the grapes must be grown by an orthodox jew is a gross oversimplification.
Anyway the days of sweet heavy red sacramental wines were over decades ago.
Some of the better brands include Recanati, golan, yarden?
see http://www.kosherwine.com
and http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyro ... oid=299687

[Meenah]

Re: Kosher wine

I've had some good kosher wine, I think from California. Maybe Vishenka can help you, she has the connections.

Re: Kosher wine

A heads up on the food (which you probably already know) - it not only has to be Kosher as in no meat / cheese combos, follow the rules Kosher, but Kosher also means prepared in a Kosher kitchen. The JCC probably gave you a list of approved caterers and I'm probably being redundant. I just remember not realizing the "prepared in a Kosher kitchen" facet of the rules until I was faced with bringing in snack to Jacob's preschool class at the JCC.

Re: Kosher wine

We are using a kosher caterer who also runs the cafe at the J.

Our theme (and I didn't pick it!) is a caribbean breeze or something like that. I wish it were "a middle eastern breeze" because that guy makes some mean falafel.

[DCJenn]

Re: Kosher wine

I've had some fab Kosher wines, too.

Unfortunately, none were available when I was in college. My poor room-mate and I survived but it was tough. (and I always found it funny that we used Maneshevitz (sp.?) as the communion wine, too.)

Jenn

[Vishenka69]

Re: Kosher wine

I've had some good kosher wine, I think from California. Maybe Vishenka can help you, she has the connections.

I wish I could but I'm not a big fan of kosher wines. I've had some in Israel that was good but couldn't find any in US (even NY) that I liked. Go with Fluff's suggestions.

Re: Kosher wine

I don't totally follow...but since we aren't a Jewish event we don't have to serve kosher wine. We are back to having all of it donated!

Thanks for the input on the kosher wines.

[planet]

Re: Kosher wine

We'll take it!! :hey:


Oh, you meant to the event. :bummer:

Re: Kosher wine

Sorry Janet.

[locumtenenswife]

Re: Kosher wine

I found an article in Sunset magazine re: kosher wines from California. Check out Herzog Wine Cellars Special Reserve Russian River Chardonnay or Chalk Hill Cabernet Sauvingnon. You can shop online at http://www.herzogwinecellars.com

Happy Holidays!