KFWE has been around since 2007 in NYC, and it keeps evolving and growing. Originally, the Los Angeles version was called the 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. In 2015, the first year that the IFWF became the West Coast KFWE, David Whittemore, and the gang from Herzog Winery pulled out all the stops and created what I still think was the best KFWE, with the first-ever VIP session, which was copied in almost every KFWE version, and hey “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. I was sad to see the L.A. KFWE move from the Petersen Automotive Museum, where it has been for three years, in 2016, 2017, and 2018. However, the 2019 and 2020, KFWE L.A. at the Palladium were freaking EPIC. Then we had COVID and no in-person events for 2021, though the innovative approach with those bottles, while flawed was a hit. Today, Herzog is sending a better version of those small bottles to their club members, which looks really cool! Followed by a KFWE – Jr in NJ, which I reviewed here. Then the full gamut of KFWE in 2023, is also reviewed here.

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 85% of them. Sure, there are tons of wineries that 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.

KFWE Miami 2023

The KFWE Miami, which happened a month ago, or so, on December 7th, 2023, was ok for me. I had tasted almost all the wines that were there, minus the Israeli wines. The food options were a huge miss, either overcooked or just tasteless. Most of the wines were current and the pouring was done very well. There were a few misses, especially on the Israeli side. There were almost no winery representatives, other than a scare few, and Herzog Winery was unrepresented, altogether. If you were to be educated, it lacked, and that was unfortunate. It was a preamble, in ways of what was about to be announced for 2024. It also was the first night of Hannukah, and a Thursday night, so getting back home for Shabbat would have been impossible for most, other than hardened insane folks like me. I took a direct flight on one of the longest cross-continental flights you could take on one of the shortest Fridays of the year! As I said, horrible scheduling as always, subpar to bad food options, OK enough wine selection, and IMO, very good wine pouring.

Just a slight side note here – Jay Buchsbaum, the Executive VP of Marketing and Director of Consumer Education at Royal Wine, asked me to choose three wines I liked from the KFWE Miami event. Now, I took it further and stated that I would do so minus my usual crutches, like French and Italian wines from the usual suspects, and stick to new to less-known wines. Even further, I forced myself to find an Israeli winery that I liked enough, that I would drink, outside of the tasting setting, and a winery not among Vitkin, Netofa, or Domaine du Castel wineries. This was no easy task!

Also, I tasted every single Israeli wine they had at the event. One side was totally Israeli wine and the other side was everything else, including French, Italian, USA, and everywhere else.

So, for all intent and purpose, I tasted every wine at the event and these are the three I chose:

1. 2017 Nadiv Elyone, a wine made by Pierre using Yatir’s grapes (outside of a couple of other wines from Netofa, Vitkin, and Castel – this was the sole Israeli I could stomach)
2. 2020 Castellare di Castellina Chianti Classico Riserva – yes there were some M&M wines in Miami
3. 2022 ESSA Altira

So, there you go Jay, it was great seeing you and hanging out for a bit!

Slight disclaimer
To be clear, there were all the French wines from 2020 and 2021 (a bit of each – the French selection was messed up a bit) I will post soon and there is nothing to scream about there. The 2021 vintage is a horrible mess in Bordeaux, IMO. I refused to use Terra di Seta or Elvi Wines as a crutch either, so their wines were out of the running. There was the INSANELY good 2021 Covenant Cabernet, Solomon, Lot 70, and the 2021 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley, but I had already tasted those two, and they are epic, but yeah, I already knew those. The wines on the entire Covenant table were hits as were the 2021 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon wines, but I had them before. To be 100% transparent, I had the 2022 ESSA Altira as well, but it was such a joy tasting it again, rich, round, and tart, so it popped on the list.

2024 KFWE – Kosher Food and Wine Experience (KFWE)

So, with that backdrop, I was shocked to hear that KFWE will not be hosting an event in NYC for the public, as it has every year, other than 2021. The KFWE NYC will again become KFWE – JR in NJ, as it was in 2022, but it will be open to the trade and press only. Further, there will be no KFWE Los Angeles, at all. At this time, I am NOT sure of the status of KFWE London, or KFWE Tel Aviv, though I see no reason for them to stop. However, I still currently see no reason for either NY or LA to be doing what they are doing!

If we remember the reason for these events, kosher wine education, why would you bail after so many years of cumulative education? Why would one not continue educating the public who buys more than 50% of the kosher wine sold in the year, at this time, for their Passover needs? I look at Kosherwine and they are selling wine like hotcakes, at least from the out-of-stock wines anyway.

Then throw in that KFWE Los Angeles is totally backing down and it feels like a gut punch. How is the average wine buyer meant to learn about wines? The real issue continues to be the lack of strong education at wine stores, outside of a few Brooklyn, Teanek, and Lakewood shops. Even with those shops, there are no weekly wine tastings that buyers can count on and they rarely will pour a Leoville or a high-end Yarden (yes Yarden is not Royal – but shops are not Royal specific).

Bemusing aloud, I find this a mistake. I do not run Royal Wines and would never want to either. However, KFWE is an investment, just like Royal’s employees and warehouse upgrades. You do KFWE to continue pushing the new and old wines. What are the small wineries that are imported by Royal meant to do now? How do they talk with the buyers? Sure, they can and should be in the stores a few times a year, especially in NYC, but not every one of them can do that. Further, what about the LA buyers?!

It feels more like a decision around how they want to spend their marketing monies, which makes me think doubly about what is Royal’s job in this overall kosher wine industry? Are they the importer they say they are or are they also, essentially, the manufacturer? Do they ask more of wineries and push them in directions, much like a producer would do, as they see the whims of buyers changing? If they are producers they may see KFWE as a waste of marketing dollars, if they are truly importers, then maybe the issue here is the event itself. If they feel they need to eat the majority of the cost – they need to rethink what the event is and how it should be run. No matter which way you cut it, they are Cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face. A more prudent approach would have been to baby step into this, maybe cut back on what they pay for, change the venue to a more financially viable one, slim down the restaurants, and focus more on the wines, either way, cutting the public out, is not the “baby step” that I see valuable to them.

Now, again thinking aloud, an angle that Royal may be thinking is that they will support/sponsor other cross-distributor events and show up with more than just Barkan and French Herzog wines. They need to show up and present their top wines! I texted the promotor of one of the two cross-distributor events, below, and I said, throw the hammer down. This is your event. Of course, you should be asking for the wines on your lists, the ones you will like, but you also need to make sure that whoever the distributor is, they need to show up with a diverse portfolio, of BOTH wines you liked, along with their top-selling wines, and their most expensive or their most highly rated (outside of your list). Now, I understand that the most expensive and most highly-rated wines mean nothing! Good lord Decanter scored one of the most vile wines I tasted this year a 93, so yeah, I get it! But we need to try! Push the vendors to bring options beyond the Barkan-like wines (AKA supermarket wines in Israel or Trader Joe’s wines here in the USA)! So, maybe that is the plan, let the trade folks see the wines in Royal’s curated KFWE-light experience and let the public see the wines they think the public needs to be educated about at the cross-distributor events. I just hope it is not a bunch of Barkan!

Cross distributor tastings

With all of that said, the football line, next man up, is going to come into complete focus this year, though not as man-focused as Football! This year, KFWE will be on Monday, February 26th, 2024 (still getting used to writing that, check this flight out!). Following that there will be two back-to-back wine-tasting events hosting a day apart from each other, the first one in NJ and the next one in Brooklyn.

My feeling is, great, let’s see if the lack of KFWE spawns the return of good, basic, but also profitable wine events in 2024! It is about time that we get back to these cross-distributor wine events! As stated above, the OG wine event was Gotham Wine’s event and you can look back into time (there we go again) and read how those events went. I am not sure if they were profitable for Gotham, but they sure sold wines for them, that I know.

The two events are the Jewish Link Grand Wine Tasting and A Wine Night at KJC by KWD. The Jewish Link event will be Tuesday night, Feb 27, 2024, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM, at the Factory 220, 220 Passaic St, Passaic, NJ. So back-to-back NJ events with the Trade-only KFWE near the football stadium/American Dream, and then the Jewish Link event in Passaic. That will be followed up by A Wine Night at KJC by KWD Wednesday night, Feb 28, 2024, 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM at the Kingsway Jewish Center, in Brooklyn, NY.

The Jewish Link event is essentially a reboot of the City Winery tasting. It will be run by the same people and I hope they are very successful because I want continuous, yearly, events that showcase kosher wines from more than just Royal wines! The magazine will be printing their wines for Passover in the Jewish Link magazine and the list will be available online as well. You can see last year’s list here. I hope that we will get to taste more than just their winning/top wines, time will tell!

The third event is KJC presents “A Wine & Food Night by KWD” Wed Feb 28, 2024, 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM at Kingsway Jewish Center, Brooklyn, NY. The event was the brainchild of Isaac Gottesman, who started the KWD Whatsapp chat. It will be another cross-distributor wine event.

Best Case Scenario for these events!

I hope the other vendors (outside of Royal) bring the house! Bring us everything! Come on! Let’s taste the wines! KosherWine, let’s get a chance to taste the KW-exclusive wines! Allied, Red Garden, Happy Hearts, The River Wines, Yarden, Rashbi Wines, Nobl Wines, Goblet Wines, Israeli Wine Direct, Liquid Kosher, KosherWine.com, Tabernacle, Emerald Imports, BAM Imports, M & M, Palm Bay, Skurnick, and so on! Let’s go! Let’s see these wines – let people taste them! If there is any time to let loose – these two events are it!

Maybe split some across the two events or maybe dedicate your wines to one of the two! Maybe you feel your strongest base is NJ – go with Jewish Link! Maybe you think NYC is your jam then go with the KWD event! Either way, I really hope to see a strong showing by all the other distributors and producers NOT CALLED Royal!

The best case is they both sell out, they both have strong showings from the other importers/producers not called Royal and they both keep going after 2024!

Israel and elsewhere

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.

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! The date is currently moved up to April 2024.

Sadly, given the current state of affairs, I am not sure what they will do but B”H God watches over us all and things should improve quickly for our brothers and sisters in Israel!

We cannot forget the KFWE Tel Aviv which has returned for 2 years now in 2022 and 2023 and I hope it will continue in 2024, but again, I have no idea!

Europe

There is also the Bokobsa event in Paris, which I went to in 2020, which is NOT officially part of the KFWE family, but Royal wines are represented there as are other wineries that Bokobsa imports into France. They had one this year, in 2022, along with the KFWE London, but I was not able to make it to either of them. Hopefully, they will have one this year after taking a year off last year.

Royal wine imports many Bokobsa wines into the USA, but Bokobsa itself makes kosher wines (like the fantastic 2007 and 2012 Sancerre Chavignol, the lovely 2017/2018/2019 Fume Blanc, the unimported 2017 Pascal Bouchard Chablis, Premier Cru, and the lovely 2021 L’Indiscrete Sancerre (and 2020 – though the 2021 was imported and is now sold out).

I hope KFWE Europe, which has had its event these past two years in June/July, will continue in London. However, given the state of KFWE NYC/LA, I have serious doubts.

I will keep updating this page – so bookmark it and I will try my best to keep it up to date!

Kosher wine-tasting events this season – in chronological order:

Name: KFWE Miami
When: December 7th, 2023
Time: 7:30 PM to 10 PM (6:30 PM VIP access)
Where: JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa
19999 W Country Club Dr, Aventura, FL 33180
Link to signup or for more information: http://www.kosherfoodandwinemiami.com/

Name: KFWE NYC
When: Monday, February 26th, 2024
Time: 3 PM – 9 PM EST (TRADE only)
Where: Hilton East Rutherford, NJ (Two Meadowlands Plaza, East Rutherford, NJ 07073)
Link to signup: 
Link for more information: https://kfwe.com

Name: Jewish Link Grand Wine Tasting
When: Tuesday, February 27th, 2024
Time: 6 PM – 10 PM EST 
Where: Factory 220 (220 Passaic St, Passaic, NJ 07055)
Link to signup: https://www.jlinkevents.com/events/jewish-link-grand-wine-tasting
Coupon Code: Early35 for $35 off tickets until Jan 8
Link for more information: https://www.jlinkevents.com/

Name: A Wine Night at KJC by KWD
When: Wednesday, February 28th, 2024
Time: 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM EST 
Where: Kingsway Jewish Center (2810 Nostrand Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11229)
Link to signup: https://buytickets.at/kwd
Coupon Code: musingsdiscount for $25.00 off general admission (ticket price then comes to $100 plus taxes) starting 1/8/2024
Link for more information: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/kwd

Name: Sommelier
When: April 1st and 2nd, 2024
Time: 11:30 AM to 5 PM Trade and 6:00 PM to 9:30 PM Public
Where: Heichal HaTarbut
Huberman St 1, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
Link to more information: http://www.sommelier.co.il/sommelier/

Name: KFWE Tel Aviv
When: TBA
Time: TBA
Where: TBA

Name: KFWE London
When: TBA
Time: TBA
Where: TBA
Link to signup or for more information: https://www.kfwelondon.com/