When most people think of seasons – they think of either the 4 environmental seasons, or the holiday seasons (Jewish or otherwise), and then there are the more obscure – seasons, like the kosher wine tasting season. Yes, it is a once a year season and it starts in December and goes through late March. The exact dates are not set, as they depend on the Jewish Lunar calendar with the start of Passover. Yup! Passover drives the entire kosher wine tasting season – and that makes sense since 40 to 50% of ALL kosher wine sold, happens in the month around and before Passover! That is totally crazy!

So, with that in mind let the festivities begin! The first tasting that kicks off the season happens in Miami, and it has finally been “officially” added to the KFWE calendar. The KFWE family has officially expanded and subsumed what was already really KFWE events (including Israel and Miami) and now just made it official.

KFWE – Kosher Food and Wine

KFWE has been around since 2007 in NYC, and it keeps evolving and growing. Originally, the Los Angeles version was called International Food and Wine festival (IFWF) it started in 2008. It is not the oldest kosher wine tasting event, that would be the now-defunct  Gotham Kosher Wine Extravaganza. Sadly, they stopped hosting those tastings, such is life, their first one was in 2004, and it ran until 2014.

As I have pounded on and on in these virtual pages, we need more wine education and the wine education leader, IMHO, is also the kosher wine 800-pound guerilla, Royal Wines. Recently I did a quick check in my mind of the top kosher wineries or kosher wine runs from around the world, and Royal probably imports about 80+% of them. Sure, there are hundreds of wineries they do not import, but they are also not wines that I particularly buy and covet. It is just a very interesting fact IMHO, somewhat scary but also very telling. Here is a wine distributor and importer that gets what sells and what does not, and has successfully found the better options out there and keeps adding more.

Cross distributor tastings

Besides the Royal wine events – AKA KFWE, there are events in Israel, namely Sommelier, the only wine event in Israel publicizing Israel’s diverse wine culture. That happens every year in and around the month of January, as stated earlier exact dates for any of these events is only locked down a few months in advance and the date changes every year.

Israel wines may be going off the deep end, in terms of date juice and all, but Sommelier continues to do a wonderful job of keeping a continuous focus on Israel and its potential in the wine world. Bravo to them!

There is also the Bokobsa event in Paris, which I went to this past year, which is NOT officially part of the KFWE family, but Royal wines is represented there as are other wineries that Bokobsa imports into France.

Royal wine imports many Bokobsa wines into the USA, but Bokobsa itself makes kosher wines (like the fantastic 2007 and 2012 Sancerre Chavignol, though I wish they made a new one already), and imports wines into France as well. The whole kosher wine import game is what drives these events. These are importers/winemakers that need to sell product and they need to advertise what they are selling, so these events are a win-win for us all!

Besides, Sommelier, there are a couple of wine events that happen closer to Passover that is not about a single importer but rather about kosher wine options overall. These events are not as deep as the Royal or Bokobsa wine events, which will showcase almost every single wine these importers make/import. Rather, it is a curated and diverse set of wines that span across multiple importers and distributors. So, Yarden, Rashbi, and others are at these events and it gives the chance to taste other wines outside of the deep vertical shows like KFWE.

One of them is The Grapevine Wines & Spirits Kosher Grand Tasting, it is a very nice event that normally in the middle of the kosher wine tasting event season, they will be hosting their 6th event in 2018. The last event of the season is always the biggest of this style, the Jewish Week Grand Wine Tasting, they are in their 9th year (this coming 2018).

Another event that sadly has stopped was the Kosher Wine Society’s wine tasting which was also one of those cross distributor wine tasting event, but that has gone away with the KWS founder, Aaron Ritter, getting married and I guess being too busy to pull it off any longer. As much as I may miss the event, I am super happy for him and his family!

Wine events happening all the time

So there you have a quick history of the wine events that are coming up. There are also a few one-off events going on in NYC (nothing happens in LA or Norcal other than KFWE), like the upcoming Shirah event on December 3rd and the 2017 Long ISLAND kosher Wine EXPO that just completed on November 7th. Keep an eye open for them!

Kosher wine tasting events this season – in chronological order:

Name: Bon & Oak Tour De France – a pre-Miami KFWE event showcasing Royal’s new 2015/2016 kosher French wines
When: December 11th, 2017
Time: 7 PM to 11 PM
Where: 26 Bridge
26 Bridge St
Brooklyn, NY 11201 United States
Link to signup or for more information: http://www.bonandoak.com/event/tour-de-france-kosher-french-wine-and-culinary-experience – use the code KOSHERWINE15 for a 15% discount!

Name: KFWE Miami
When: December 13th, 2017
Time: 7 PM to 10 PM (6 PM VIP access)
Where: Turnberry Isle Miami
19999 W Country Club Dr, Aventura, FL 33180
Link to signup or for more information: http://www.kosherfoodandwinemiami.com/

Name: Sommelier
When: January 15th and 16th, 2018
Time: 1 PM to 6 PM Trade and 6:30 PM to 10 PM public
Where: Heichal HaTarbut
Huberman St 1, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
Link to more information: http://www.sommelier.co.il/sommelier/
Sign up link: https://events.eventact.com/runreg2/event/RegForm.aspx?Event=29365&Company=61&Form=24639&Account=0&lang=he&hc&login=383773245964

Name: KFWE Tel Aviv
When: January 29th, 2018
Time: TBA
Where: Tel Aviv, Israel
Link to signup or for more information: http://thekfwe.com/

Name: Bokobsa tasting of Grand Cru Cachers
When: January 30th, 2018
Time: 4 PM to 5:30 PM Trade and Public 5:30 PM till 9:30 PM
Where: Intercontinental Paris – Avenue Marceau
64 avenue Marceau, 75008 Paris, France
Link to signup or for more information: https://www.weezevent.com/degustation-de-vins-11

Name: KFWE London
When: January 31st, 2018
Time: 3:30 PN for trade and 6:30 PM for public
Where: Sheraton Grand London Park Lane
Piccadilly, London W1J 7BX, United Kingdom
Link to signup or for more information: http://thekfwe.com/ (choose London – then buy ticket)

Name: KFWE NYC
When: February 5th, 2018
Time: 5:30 PM – 9:30 PM EST (VIP is 5:30 PM)
Where: Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers, New York, NY
Link to signup or for more information: http://thekfwe.com/ (choose New York – then buy ticket)

Name: KFWE LA
When: February 7th, 2018
Time:  6:00 PM – 9:00 PM PST (VIP is 6 PM)
Where: Petersen Automotive Museum
Link to signup or for more information: http://thekfwe.com/ (choose Los Angeles – then buy ticket)

Name: The Grand Kosher Wine Tasting
When: February 18th, 2018
Time: 6 PM – 9 PM
Where: The Grapevine Wines & Spirits
455 Route 306 Wesley Hills, New York
Link to signup or for more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/331269254056948/

Name: Grand Wine Tasting and Kosher Wine Guide
When: March 12, 2018
Time:  5:00 PM for premium tasting, 6 PM to 9 PM for general admission
Where: City Winery NYC
155 Varick St, New York, NY 10013
Link to signup or for more information: http://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/discount-tickets-grand-wine-tasting/ (discounted tickets from this link)