Category Archives: Wine Industry
The 2025-2026 kosher wine-tasting event season is upon us
KFWE has been around in NYC since 2007, and it keeps evolving. The Los Angeles version was initially called the International Food and Wine Festival (IFWF). It started in 2008. Neither of the KFWEs (NYC/NJ or LA) is 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 ran from 2004 to 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 had 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 their club members a better version of those tiny bottles, which looks really cool! Followed by a KFWE – Jr in NJ, which I reviewed here. Then, the whole gamut of KFWE in 2023 is also reviewed here. The 2024 KFWE turned into a different beast; you can see my comments 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 quickly checked my mind of the top kosher wineries or kosher wine runs worldwide, and Royal probably imports about 85% of them. Sure, there are tons of wineries they do not import, but they are also not wines I mainly buy and covet. It is just a fascinating fact, in my opinion. It is somewhat scary but also very telling. Here is a wine distributor and importer that gets what sells and what does not, has successfully found the better options out there, and keeps adding more.
Remember, once again, KFWE will be open to the wine trade ONLY in the USA. KFWE in London and Miami are the only ones open to the public. KWD will return in 2026 for their third run, but links are not yet available. I will add them to this post as they become available. KFWE LA is NOT returning this year, sadly.
Overall, I think Florida needs more from Royal. The Wizo event is run by Wizo for the benefit of Wizo, and it is a worthy cause, indeed! However, I think Royal Wines should ensure more winemakers from their wineries participate in this event. Florida is becoming too large a buying public and is only growing! Given this is the ONLY publicly accessible KFWE in the USA, the event can be improved. To start, have a short trade event two hours earlier. This will enhance winery representation, benefiting both the trade and the public. It needs better food options and a bit more marketing punch by Royal. Then, we are looking at a killer event and a winning opportunity for Royal Wines.
2026 KFWE – Kosher Food and Wine Experience (KFWE)
Two years ago, I initially had serious doubts about the changes surrounding the Kosher Food and Wine Event (KFWE). Gone was the public access to KFWE. Throw in the fact that there was no European KFWE (London) in 2024, nor a Tel Aviv option, and I thought this was a bad idea.
Fast-forward to 2025, and I rewrote my thoughts regarding the 2024 Wine Tasting events. I still think the lack of a 2024 KFWE in Europe (London/Paris) or Tel Aviv was a mistake, and thankfully, that has been rectified this year, at least for London. As of this moment, London KFWE is open to the public, but we have no word yet on Tel Aviv.
When I first wrote this last year, I was worried about the lack of public access to wine education. Miami continues to excel, as it is open to the public, but at the same time, we have always had issues with the KFWE in the USA. The KFWE has always been very crowded, and the public was not allowed to appreciate the wines. As I wrote in my closing thoughts on wine tastings, this new approach may work well. It will depend on whether more events like KWD step up to fill the gap. For now, KWD is the only kosher wine tasting open to the public in 2026, and that was not the idea! Thankfully, this year’s timing is MUCH better than last year’s. First, we are not facing a Sunday Super Bowl; they finally decided to look at the NFL schedule. Also, as there is no KFWE in LA, wineries will be able to fully make both events (KWD and KFWE) and still promote wines in the NY/NJ area. This would have been the PERFECT year for the return of the Jewish Link Kosher Wine Festival. Sadly, that’s not in the cards this year either! So, we are looking at diminished public access and limited wine education opportunities. Which makes no sense when the VERY THING that the millennial and Gen Z need more than anything at a time like this, is more wine education!
Sadly, the KFWE London/Europe event needs to be a week later due to Wine Paris, a massive event that wineries all need to attend.
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The Best/Top kosher wines for Passover 2025 in all price ranges
As I have stated many times in the past, this list started from folks asking me to come up with a cumulative list. This year, there have been many such events. I went to three of them, and the number of great wines is growing along with the overall number of Kosher Wines.
First, here are a few caveats: This is MY list! This is not a list that will make many happy. These wines are the wines that make me happy. No wines here would be considered overripe, over-sweet, or all over the place. The wines here are listed in the order of cost. That said, the top-line wines – what I call Top-Flight wines, are not defined by cost at all. On that list, you can find 2018 Elvi Wines Herenza Rioja, Reserva. At the same time, the list includes some of the best high-end kosher wines I have ever tasted. Ultimately, price does not define your place on the Top-Flight Wines list, nor does QPR (Quality to Price Ratio); only pure quality gets you on this list. The list of Top-Flight wines are wines I would buy without hesitation, no matter the cost (if I can afford it of course).
Passover is a time of year when Jews buy the most wine, along with Rosh Hashanah, and the US New Year. That is why all the kosher wine events, usually, happen a month or two before the Passover festival. It allows the wineries and distributors to showcase all their wines, each appealing to different market segments. So, no there are no sweet or semi-sweet baseline wines here. There are many very good 25 or lower-dollar bottles of wine, that can be bought at Skyview Wines, Gotham Wines, Suhag Wine, Liquid Kosher, onlinekosherwine.com, kosherwine.com, and now Elk is live with his website, for those of you who live in the Miami area or are going there for Passover, or any other time of the year! Of course, those and others exist, support your local merchants! I have no real options, so I use the ones to the right of this blog, when viewed on the web (as always I NEVER make money from them and I never know or care what people buy, the list is whom I purchase wines from and so I feel comfortable recommending them to others).
Also, the amount of money you spend does not define the value or quality of the wine. Take, for example, the 16-dollar 2020/2021 Elvi Herenza Rioja, the 2023 ESSA Altira, and others. These are lovely wines; the fantastic price is only an added benefit. However, many low-priced wines are not on this list, as they lack the required quality, IMHO.
Seeing the list and checking it twice (could not help myself), I am sure there will be a question – what defines a wine as a Top-Flight wine, and why are there wines that are not on it? The Top-Flight wines are wines that impressed me when tasting them. That does not mean that the 2022 Chateau Moulin Riche, as lovely as it may or may not be, can compare to another wine on the Top-Flight Wine list. It does mean that when I tasted one of these Top-Flight wines, I was wowed, and I said this is a wine that everyone should get – no matter the price. In the end, the Top-Flight Wines is my way to whittle down the list of wines I enjoyed from thousands of kosher wines available here in America. In hindsight, I am sure I will have missed some wines. If you do not see a wine you love and it scored a 91 or higher on this blog somewhere, then I can assure you that it was probably an oversight on my part.
The sheer number of wines that I scored a 91 this year is crazy! The prices have significantly risen, but so has the selection. I have 200+ wines this year that got a 91 or higher. That is the highest number ever. Yes, some of that has to do with the sheer number of wines I tasted. However, that also has to do with the 2022 vintage from Europe and the 2021 vintage from Israel. Still, it is impressive.
Also, this is a PSA – please do not buy 2022 or 2023 rose wines! PLEASE! They are muted and a waste of your hard-earned money. Thankfully, there will be 2024 Roses out there soon!
Arba Kosot (The Four cups of Passover)
Finally, it is the Jewish custom to drink four cups of wine on Passover. The “requirement” is to gulp down these wines. This is far too hard for me (the concept here is to drink the base quantity of wine to fulfill your requirement – which is a Revi’it, within a certain period). In the past, I was drinking red, Israeli wines that were simple to drink, not complex or impressive, with my regular kiddush cup. However, with time, I found a better option, drinking the Revi’it from a small cup that fulfills the legal quantity of wine. I have further shifted my approach by drinking Yarden Rose Brut Sparkling wine. It is Israeli, not Mevushal, “red”, a lovely wine that is easy to gulp down and an acid BOMB!
For the main course, I am happy to open a Top-Flight wine and enjoy it at a calm and enjoyable pace. Another option is to get some of these great glasses from Stolzle. According to most Rabbis, this fulfills the official four-cup requirements regarding volume and respect. The glasses hold 3.5 fluid ounces of wine, which according to almost every source fulfills the concept of Revi’it.
It does not fulfill Chazon Ish’s requirements of 5.1 ounces, but if you wish to meet that requirement, use these glasses by Libby’s. Also, remember that you should drink the entirety of the cups, which is why I recommend the smaller cups. If you cannot, some allow drinking the majority of the cup, but that is not the best approach. Finally, the LAST CUP, should be drunk in totality, as that is the ONLY cup upon which you say an “After Bracha (Blessing)”, and as such you must have drunk at least 3.3 ounces to say the last blessing.
NOTE: Again, I make nothing from these Amazon links. They do not have sponsor links or whatever. I do not have that and never will. These are just suggestions—buy what you want. They are only there for ideas.
Four Cup Options
Like much of what I do on this blog, I was recently asked to develop some 4 cup options for people. I am not big on pounding good wines for the 4 cups. My Rabbi mixes wine and grape juice and pounds that. No rabbi says you must use the best wines for the 4 cups. I know that sounds horrible, but honestly, the point of the 4 cups is to drink wine in their Halachic format, not to drink great wines slowly, in their non-Halachic format. The priority is drinking red wine quickly and according to the proper shiur (assigned minimum liquid intake). Still, while I will be doing my 4 cups on the Yarden Rose Brut, I have a list of other options here. ALL OF THESE wines are available here in the USA and are at/below 13.8% ABV (VERY HARD By the way!!!). The 2022 Vintage in Bordeaux and the USA has made keeping the ABV low – a pipedream. So, many great wines are not on these lists below because they come in at 15% ABV!:
All White wines (non-Top-Flight Wines) – Sauvignon Blanc:
- 2022 O’Dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc
- 2024 Covenant Sauvignon Blanc, Red C
- 2023 Domaine J. de Villebois Pouilly-Fume
- 2023 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc
All White Wines (non-Top-Flight Wines) – Various:
- 2023 ESSA Riesling
- 2023 Hajdu Proprietary White Wine
- 2023 J De Villebois Sancerre Silex
- 2023 ESSA Altira
All White Wines (Top-Flight Wines):
- 2022/2023 Covenant Solomon Blanc
- 2021 Domaine de Chevalier L’Esprit de Chevalier
- 2021/2022 Le Nardian
- 2021 Chateau Olivier Blanc OR
- 2021 Domaine Vacheron Sancerre, Grand Champs
All Sparkling Wines:
- N.V. Drappier Carte d’Or
- 2017 Golan Heights Winery Yarden Rose, Brut
- 2018 Golan Heights Winery Blanc de Blanc, Yarden
- NV Raziel Brut
All Red wines (non-Top-Flight wines):
- 2020 Chateau Teyssier
- 2022 Philippe Le Hardi Mercurey 1er Cru
- 2023 Covenant Pinot Noir, Landsman
- 2022 Chateau Larcis Jaumat (14%)
All TOP Red Bordeaux’s:
- 2020 Château Pontet Labrie
- 2022 Chateau Moulin Riche (14%)
- 2022 Chateau Malartic Lagraviere Grand Cru Classe de Graves (14%)
- 2018 Domaine Roses Camille (14%)
All TOP Red (Top-Flight Wines not from Bordeaux) – I gave up! 14% or under
- 2022 Domaine Aegerter Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru, Fonteny
- 2022 Philippe Le Hardi Clos De Vougeot, Grand Cru
- 2023 Jean-Philippe Marchand Gevrey-Chambertin
- 2022 Philippe Le Hardi Aloxe Corton
All Top California Wines:
- 2021 Hagafen Cabernet Sauvignon
- 2022 Hagafen Pinot Noir
- 2021 Shirah Pinot Meunier
- 2022 Four Gates Pinot Noir
All sweet wines:
- 2008 Ya’acov Oryah “Old Musketeer” Dessert Wine
- 2018 Chateau de Rayne Vigneau 1er Grand Cru Classe
- 2021 Tokaj-Hetszolo Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos
- 2022 Chateau Piada
Inflation has wrecked my price lists
Wine prices have gone up anywhere from 15 to 25% and as such the wine price lists, at the lower prices, are getting thin. Wines that cost 24 dollars are now 31 dollars. Israeli wines, which already were not worth what they charged, before they raised prices, are now even less interesting. The few that do exist are not QPR anymore, as the overall market, which QPR compares against, has NOT risen as much as Israeli wines have. The French market is higher as well, but that only shows at the higher end. Therefore, fewer wines will be QPR going forward, I think, but hey, it is all in the math!
Finally, quality at lower prices is almost non-existent. Looking for quality reds under 20 dollars should not get me two options. We have a lot of quality white wines at lower prices – but sadly the reds have fallen in quality and have driven up their prices.
France-Only Options
I have to be honest, the France-only section has grown by leaps and bounds and it was the hardest part of this whole post! I had to keep jumping back and forth. Overall, the number of wines in France is incredible as is the number of horrible ones! I am very happy to see the list keeps growing and adding incredible deals!
In Closing
I have a few more comments here. I hope I have included all the wines I have tasted here, but I almost posted this a few times, and then only at the end did I remember I forgot a few. This is the first time, in many a year, that I have several Israeli wines, and the 2021 vintage has helped.
In the end, these are my picks. Again, the criteria for making the list are:
- I like the wine (A score of 91 or higher wines at the minimum)
- They are readably available. Other than the Four Gates wine on the list above (in case you got lucky)
- I added a French/European list as there are French-only options
- Price is not a matter on this list (for the top-flight wines) – all that matters is that they are really good!
So there you have it – enjoy good kosher wine for a reasonable price and enjoy the Passover holiday safely and in health! Happy Passover to you all. Post what wine you will be enjoying, I would love to hear from you guys about what you will be drinking throughout the holiday!
Wines below 20 dollars:
2020/2021 Elvi Wines Herenza Rioja (Semi)
2022/2023 Essa Altira
2021/2023 Elvi Herenza White (AKA InVita)
2022 O’Dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc (sadly I have not yet tasted the 2023)
2019 Cantina del Redi Pleos Toscana Sangiovese
2021 Domaine Bousquet Alavida Malbec – NOT 2022 (2022 is not good)
2023 Palais de L’Ombriere
2022 Godin Vihno Tinto, Red
2023 Godin Branco, White
2015 Chateau Lavagnac Bordeaux Superieur
—– France ONLY options—–
2021 Chateau Le Lescot
2020 Chateau Pouyanne Blanc
2018 Ribeauville Riesling, Rosacker
2021 Château La Baronne Les Lanes
2019 Cave de Ribeauville Pinot Noir, Vendanges Manuelles
2019 Elvi Wines Adar (also Israel)
Kosher Wine Tasting events of 2025 – Wrap-up
After the perfectly timed, strategized, and executed Kosher Wine Tasting events in 2024, the 2025 events had massive shoes to fill. While there were some clear highlights in 2025, there were also some things missing. We sadly did not have the Jewish Link Wine Guide Grand Tasting, and once again, KFWE chose to do the tasting the day after the Super Bowl. Further, can food stop being a part of these events, period? The food options at KFWE NY/NY were Falafel, Pizza, or fruit. At the KWD event it was cholent? These events are not being presented to most as the Food Extravaganza – that nomenclature should be removed, IMHO.
KWD’s Wine and Food Night
However, let’s zoom in and start talking events. Unlike last year, KWD’s event was first on the list—not last. This was a forced matter because of the return of KFWE LA and the fact that KFWE NJ was hosted the day after the Super Bowl! This forced KWD to have their event the week before. Again, as I spoke about in the preamble post, this was a horrible idea!
Still, I think KWD did a splendid job. I will ignore all food for all of these events because food was a non-factor. In ALL the events, food was essentially a non-starter. The only place that is NOT true was KFWE Oxnard, as the food from Tierra Sur was probably the main event along with Herzog Wines. Still, I will comment on the one word that should never be stated at a wine tasting event – Cholent – even worse, Cholent-Off. Apologies to all the Easties, that is as bad an idea or worse than buying Cholent Thursday night at a 7-11. Maybe next year, forget the food and forget about ideas from a promoter, that is more about himself than the product! Now, let us get to the good stuff!
Let us start with the ONLY things that matter regarding wine tasting. First, the wine glasses were great! There is ZERO point in pouring whatever wines you have and forcing me to taste them in a tiny glass. Bravo! Next, there were no drunk people, at least not by the time I left, which was around 9:15 PM. There was water on all the tables, and the spittoons were emptied somewhat consistently (this was the only minor slight). There were crackers and the tables were not overly packed. When you put this together you have a WINNER!
This year’s KWD was even better wine-wise, IMO. Royal’s wines at the event were mid-level with a few higher-level wines. Royal was able to highlight some real winners, like the 2022 Royaumont, Mevushal, the 2023 Vitkin Pinot Noir, and the excellent ESSA wines. The 2023 ESSA Riesling is quite a wine along with the 2020 ESSA Emunah and the 2022 ESSA Cabernet Franc.
The entire M&M lineup was impressive. That table was the REAL WINNER! M&M continues to impress with solid to great wines. I had already tasted those and posted them; otherwise, I would be screaming their praises.
The wines at Narrow Bridge were nice enough, and I see Josh Klapper’s hand all over them. Good on you all! The wines by Ari had a lovely wine – the 2018 Allegory Cabernet Sauvignon, Mount Veeder, that is a sure BUY IT NOW wine. Sadly, I had to leave and missed the wines from Bam, I had tasted them all before, and I hope to taste them again soon.
Red Garden had a couple of lovely wines. The 2024 Bat Shlomo Sauvignon Blanc is a sure QPR WINNER. The 2024 La Foret Blanche Talpiot, Dry White Wine, is not bad, but is not yet available here.
Happy Hearts also had a lovely wine, the 2024 Puzzle Rose. It is a WINNER. Allied had some nice wines like the 2023 Dalton Wild One and the 2023 Dalton Sauvignon Blanc, Family Collection, which is a WINNER.
River Wine had some lovely Shirah Wines, like the incredible 2021 Shirah Pinot Meunier and others.
Overall, I think the crowds, the passion, and the interest people had in the wines more than in getting drunk made for an enjoyable and successful second event by the KWD crew! Bravo, guys!
KFWE NY/NJ
The 2022, 2024, and now the 2025 KFWE NY/NJ needs to change the name. I am sorry, guys, there is no Food Extravaganza here. I know, I said it above, and I am repeating myself, but I feel a poor showing of food actually makes the overall event look lackluster. Make more pizza (the only edible food at the event), or just skip the pizza and the food altogether and stop the charades. Worse were the odors of burning dough and frying Garbanzo beans. Try tasting a 2022 Philippe Le Hardi Clos De Vougeot, Grand Cru with Pizza baking in the background. Yeah. If this event is meant to portray the best that Royal Wines has to offer, then let the wine speak and not Pizza (no matter how enjoyable it may be).
Moving past the only real issue, we can move on to the rest of the event, which for me was all roses. As stated above, let us start with the usual list of basic needs for a wine event to work. Let us start with the ONLY things that matter regarding wine tasting. First, the wine glasses were great! There is ZERO point in pouring whatever wines you have and forcing me to taste them in a tiny glass. Bravo! Next, there were no drunk people, at least not by the time I left, which was at closing time. There was water on all the tables, and the spittoons were emptied consistently (at a better rate than at KWD). There were crackers and the tables were not overly packed. When you put this together you have a WINNER! Do not get me wrong, there were far more people at KFWE NJ than at KWD, but overall the flow worked. Finally, unlike previous times at the Hilton (now called something else) – the hall had no lingering smells of new carpet, formaldehyde, paint, or horribly bad smelling cleaning spray or equipment.
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The 2024-2025 kosher wine-tasting event season is upon us
KFWE has been around since 2007 in NYC, and it keeps evolving. The Los Angeles version was initially called the International Food and Wine Festival (IFWF). It started in 2008. Neither of the KFWE (NYC/NJ or LA) is the oldest kosher wine-tasting event, which 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 their club members a better version of those tiny bottles, which looks really cool! Followed by a KFWE – Jr in NJ, which I reviewed here. Then, the whole gamut of KFWE in 2023 is also reviewed here. The 2024 KFWE turned into a different beast; you can see my comments 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 quickly checked my mind of the top kosher wineries or kosher wine runs worldwide, and Royal probably imports about 85% of them. Sure, there are tons of wineries they do not import, but they are also not wines I mainly buy and covet. It is just a fascinating fact, in my opinion. It is somewhat scary but also very telling. Here is a wine distributor and importer that gets what sells and what does not, has successfully found the better options out there, and keeps adding more.
Remember, once again, KFWE will be open to the wine trade ONLY in the USA. KFWE in London and Miami are the only ones open to the public. KWD will be returning again—links are down below. KFWE LA is returning again this year, only for the wine trade.
KFWE Miami 2024
The KFWE Miami, which happened last week or so on December 17th, 2024, was okay for me. I had tasted almost all the wines there, minus a few new 2022 French Bordeaux that arrived recently. The food options were once again a miss, either overcooked or tasteless. The only reasonable option, food-wise, was the sushi, and the long lines proved it.
Most of the wines were current, and the pouring was done well. There were a few misses, especially on the Israeli side. Regarding representation, Menahem Israelievitch was there to talk about French wines. Avi Feldstein was there for Feldstein and Barkan Wineries. Herzog Winery was represented by David Galzignato, and Covenant Winery was represented by Jeff and Jodie Morgan. If you were looking to be educated overall, I think they missed the opportunity, which was unfortunate, given this is the only KFWE in the USA open to the public! Again, KWD will act as the Public KFWE going forward, but that does not excuse this oversight. IMHO, Miami is the next NY/NJ in terms of sales and prospective buyers. LA continues to be a dream that Royal refuses to give up on, and while I appreciate that, the only value for KFWE LA is maybe a few caterers and restaurants and ONLY Mevushal wines. Which, for all intent and purpose, is the definition of Herzog wines. A winery that produces good to great Meuvshal Cabernet wines.
A few years ago, Jay Buchsbaum, the executive vice president of marketing and director of consumer education at Royal Wine, asked me to choose three wines I liked from the KFWE Miami event. Since that year, I have taken it upon myself to find good, new Israeli options, and once again, I was successful! As usual, I did so minus my usual crutches, like French and Italian wines from the usual suspects, and stuck to new to less-known wines. 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:
- 2021 Odem Mountain Volcanic Merlot
- 2021 Vitkin Old Vine Carignan
- 2023 Baron Rothschild Flechas De Los Andes Gran Malbec
So, there you go, Jay. It was great seeing you and hanging out for a bit, both at KFWE and the event the night before. Thanks for your continued work!
My disclaimer
To be clear, there were some lovely new 2022 French wines—a few winners. Four new Burgundies were also released, including the return of a Clos Vougeot! The 2022 wines showed well enough. There were a few misses and some nice QPR WINNERs as well.
However, as stated, I did not want to use French and Italian wines—those are too obvious a choice. Covenant continues to impress. They were my 2023 Kosher Winery of the Year, and they continue to excel. Their wines were all wonderful. Herzog also had a few solid QPR WINNERs, but I had already tasted them and posted them here. ESSA Winery also showed well and had a large selection to choose from. Elvi Winery was also a Winery of the Year winner in 2021, and they had their full lineup for tasting, minus the EL26, for reasons no one knows!
Overall, I think Florida needs more from Royal. The Wizo event is run by Wizo for the benefit of Wizo, and it is a worthy cause, indeed! However, I think Royal Wines needs to ensure that more winemakers represent the wineries at this event. Florida is becoming too large a buying public and only growing! Given this is the ONLY publicly accessible KFWE in the USA, the event can be improved. To start have a short trade event two hours earlier. This will allow for better winery representation, benefiting BOTH trade and the public. It needs better food options and a bit more marketing punch by Royal. Then, we are looking at a killer event and a winning opportunity for Royal Wines.
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KFWE VIP Experience 2024 is coming to Herzog Winery! Get your tickets!
I have written often about the need for wine education. People walk into wine shops or go online and they are offered an ever-growing list of kosher wine options. The dream is for those organizations to have local tastings, helpful employees, and wine managers. Some do, but then you are always left with the nagging question of whether that person is biased or if they are looking out for the customer? I am not talking of any one wine store, this exists in the world of kosher and non-kosher. Ultimately, the customer is best suited to find the wine that they want. The issue is how they can learn that without tasting the wines?
So, for the longest time, I have been telling folks to go to the larger wine tastings, like the ones that occurred earlier in the year. In the post wrapping up the week of wine tastings on the East Coast, I stated what was needed was a return of KFWE to LA, more akin to its early days, when it was called the IFWF (International Food and Wine Festival).
Some 12 years ago, Herzog Wine Cellars put on an event to commemorate their 25 years in the wine business, It was the IFWF but in August! Then they did it again in 2014, !! This year, Herzog is pulling out all stops, and once again, the IFWF (now called KFWE VIP Experience) is returning to Oxnard CA! I have always said, KFWE belongs at the winery. It is the best way to show off the wines, the winery, and the people so deeply connected with the wines that are produced!
From what I have read so far this is a limited event, much like the one in 2012, with just One Hundred and Fifty tickets, which are selling fast, and a lineup that will feel like KFWE, just in LA! The wines are all Royal Wine offerings. This VIP event will feature wines from the most prestigious areas around the globe, featuring Old World wines from Spain, Italy, France, and Portugal as well as New World favorites like Israel, Australia, South America, and The United States. Your ticket includes access to all the wines, spirits, and all-you-can-eat from a wide variety of treats prepared exclusively by Chef Austin and the Tierra Sur team.
Those wines will be paired with the wonderful food from the Tierra Sur restaurant, which will be producing dishes to pair with the wines. There will also be a long list of spirits to enjoy.
The event is taking place at the Herzog Winery (3201 Camino Del Sol Oxnard, CA 93030) on September 10th starting at 6 PM.
The best/top kosher wines for Passover 2024 in all price ranges
As I have stated many times in the past, this list started from folks asking me to come up with a cumulative list. This year there have been many such events, I went to three of them, back-to-back-to-back. After that, there were a few smaller ones as well, all in the NY/NJ area, and one in Miami.
A few caveats first, this is MY list! This is not a list that will make many happy. These wines are the wines that make me happy. No wines here would be considered overripe, over-sweet, or all over the place. The wines here are listed in the order of cost. That said, the top-line wines – what I call Top-Flight wines, are not defined by cost at all. In that list, you can find a 2018 Elvi Wines Herenza Rioja, Reserva. At the same time, the list includes some of the best high-end kosher wines I have ever tasted. In the end, price does not define your place on the Top-Flight Wines, nor does QPR (Quality to Price Ratio), only pure quality gets you on this list. The list of Top-Flight wines is ALL wines that I would buy without hesitation, no matter the cost (if I can afford it of course).
Passover is a time of year when Jews buy the most wine, along with Rosh Hashanah, and the American New Year. That is why all the kosher wine events, normally, happen a month or two before the Passover festival. It gives the wineries and distributors a chance to showcase all their wines that each appeal to different market segments. So, no there are no sweet or semi-sweet baseline wines here. There are many very good 25 or lower-dollar bottles of wine, that can be bought at Skyview Wines, Gotham Wines, Suhag Wine, Liquid Kosher, onlinekosherwine.com, kosherwine.com, and now Elk is live with his website, for those of you who live in the Miami area or are going there for Passover, or any other time of the year! Of course, those and others exist, support your local merchants! I have no real options, so I use the ones to the right of this blog, when viewed on the web (as always I NEVER make money from them and I never know or care what people buy, the list is whom I buy wines from and so I can recommend them to others).
Also, the amount of money you spend does not define the value or quality of the wine. Take for example the 16-dollar 2020/2021 Elvi Herenza Rioja, the 2022 Chateau Les Riganes, Blanc, and some others. These are nice wines and the great price is only an added benefit. However, many low-priced wines are not on this list, as they lack the quality required, IMHO.
Seeing the list and checking it twice (could not help myself), I am sure there will be a question – what defines a wine as a Top-Flight wine, and why are there wines that are not on it? The Top-Flight wines are wines that impressed me when tasting them. That does not mean that the 2020 Chateau Clement-Pichon, as nice as it may or may not be, can compare to another wine on the Top-Flight Wine list. What it does mean was that when I tasted one of these Top-Flight wines, I was wowed, and I said this is a wine that everyone should get – no matter the price. In the end, the Top-Flight Wines is my way to whittle down the list of wines that I enjoyed from a set of thousands of kosher wines available here in America. In hindsight, I am sure I will have missed some wines. If you do not see a wine you love and it scored a 91 or higher on this blog somewhere, then I can assure you that it was probably an oversight on my part.
Also, this is a PSA – please do not buy 2021 or 2022 rose wines! PLEASE! They are muted and a waste of your hard-earned money. Thankfully, there are a lot of 2023 roses out there.
Arba Kosot (The Four cups of Passover)
Finally, it is the Jewish custom to drink four cups of wine on Passover, but to gulp down these wines is far too hard for me (the concept here is to drink the base quantity of wine to fulfill your requirement – which is a Revi’it, within a certain period). In the past, I was drinking red, Israeli wines that were simple to drink, not complex or impressive. However, with time, I found a better option, drink the majority of a small cup that fulfills the Revi’it quantity of wine. This way, I can drink an Israeli, not Mevushal, red wine – like a Netofa wine. This is explained more below. As has been my approach over these past many years, I think I will go with Yarden Rose Brut Sparkling wine, again. It is Israeli, not Mevushal, “red”, a lovely wine, and an acid BOMB!
For the main course, I am happy to open a Top-Flight wine and enjoy that at a calm and enjoyable pace. Another option is to get some of these great glasses from Stolzle, that fulfill the official four-cup requirements in terms of volume and respect, according to most Rabbis. The glasses hold 3.5 fluid ounces of wine, which according to almost every source fulfills the concept of Revi’it.
It does not fulfill Chazon Ish’s requirements of 5.1 ounces, but if you wish to meet that requirement use these glasses by Libby’s. Also, remember that you should drink the entirety of the cups, which is why I recommend the smaller cups. If you cannot, some allow the idea of drinking the majority of the cup, but that is not the best approach. Finally, the LAST CUP, should be drunk in totality, as that is the ONLY cup upon which you say an “After Bracha (Blessing)”, and as such you must have drunk at least 3.3 ounces to say the last blessing.
NOTE: Again, I make nothing from these Amazon links, they do not have sponsor links or whatever. I do not have that and never will. These are just suggestions – buy what you want. They are only there for ideas.
Four Cup Options
Like much of what I do on this blog, I was recently asked to come up with some 4 cup options for people. I am not big on pounding good wines for the 4 cups. My Rabbi mixes wine and grape juice and pounds that. No rabbi says you must use the best wines for the 4 cups. I know that sounds horrible, but honestly, the point of the 4 cups is to drink wine in their Halachic format, not to drink great wines slowly, in their non-Halachic format. The priority is drinking red wine quickly and according to the proper shiur (assigned minimum liquid intake). Still, while I will be doing my 4 cups on the Yarden Rose Brut, I have a list of other options here. ALL OF THESE wines are available here in the USA and are at/below 13.7% ABV (VERY HARD By the way!!!):
All White wines (non-Top-Flight Wines) – Sauvignon Blanc:
- 2021 O’Dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc
- 2023 Covenant Sauvignon Blanc, Red C
- 2022 Domaine J. de Villebois Pouilly-Fume
- 2021 Jean-Pierre Bailly Pouilly Fume
All White Wines (non-Top-Flight Wines) – Various:
- 2022 Shirah Marsanne
- 2021 Philippe Le Hardi Mercurey Blanc
- 2021/2022 Pescaja Solei’ Arneis
- 2022 Hajdu Pinot Blanc
Kosher Wine Tasting Week 2024 comes to a close – and it was a SMASHING SUCCESS!
As I have been posting for a few weeks now, KFWE 2024 was going to be Trade-only, KFWE LA was canceled, as they moved to every other year, and there were two new entries into the Kosher Wine Tasting season. Those new entries were the Jewish Link Wine Guide Grand Tasting and KWD’s Wine and Food Night. These events were back to back to back, three nights in a row. The first two were in the NJ area, KFWE returned to the Hilton MeadowLands, as it did in 2022, and the Jewish Link Event occurred in Passaic, NJ.
All in all, as we will delineate in detail, the week was a smashing success. I know the next question will be which was the best? Were they a Mosh Pit or in the current vernacular – a Kiddush Scrum?? Which had the best wines? Were they mostly idiots who attended? Could you really taste anything? All of these and more will be clarified below.
KFWE – the approach should change
Look, ask most of the public why they go to KFWE and they will reply to have a good night out. Think of it as a more expensive dinner for two, throw in VIP, and it is a very expensive dinner for two. Many of the VIP folks from last year never left VIP, they had their wine, not very good food, but it was comfortable and they did not have to travel back and forth between the buildings. Read my post about last year’s KFWE and you will see that the food failed them last year and that VIP was a mess, food-wise, but again, comfortable.
Fast forward to 2024 and sure, KFWE dropped the public, shrunk the footprint, expanded the wine selections, and made an overall better product for those who need the opportunity to taste that large a portfolio in one location. The point here is that KFWE, looking back at it, with the proper lens, was always a lose-lose proposition. It was too much of a mosh-pit, even during Trade hours to do any proper tastings. It was also, too much selection, a classic overload for the average person hoping to learn something new. In the end, neither came out with what they wanted, and the sheer size of the humanity made for an unappealing outcome.
As we progress through this retrospective, I must admit that much of this was an epiphany that I garnered by the end of the week, after attending all of the events. Let us start with the fact that they really should rename it KWE, the food was an afterthought, which is 100% reasonable, given the year’s focus. Still, as we move through this retrospective, this will become a sticking point.
I was thinking of doing pros and cons – but this is a more streamlined approach (AKA my stream of consciousness) – so my apologies.
- The food options were passable – at best, other than the pizza, the fried tortilla with Cilantro, while the Sushi was acceptable.
- There were not enough pourers but it was not HORRIBLE, but it could have used more
- The biggest tactical error they made was to remove the water towers they had at the last KFWE NYC. Having a single place for the Hotel’s staff to go and fill up water, allowed them time to also clean out the spit buckets
- The outcome of removing the water towers was the spitoons being full on most of the tables I tasted at. To be fair, the clientele was spitting far more than in previous years, but the reason for the full spitoons was not the clientele, it was the lack of staff, which I think was exasperated by the need to go to every table and fill every bucket on those tables. A multiplicable time suck, exaggerated worse by the number of pitchers and tables. Essentially, it was the perfect storm, caused by a single mistake. Overall, it was a tactical error that NEEDS to be fixed next year. It was beyond gross when more than 4 tables I was on had spittoon buckets filled to the top! Sorry, this was a big issue for me.
- The Tam Tam crackers on all the small tables – may well have been the best food at the event.
- Overall, I have never had the opportunity, even if I wanted to, to get to taste so much wine in one event, to me that means the event was a success. The crowds were controlled and the tables had issues but overall, I tasted through all of the Israeli wines and that was cool.
- The 2021 Bordeaux vintage really put a damper on the overall wines that I would say “ARE GREAT”. People asked me throughout the tasting – which was the GREAT one and I had to think hard. Most of my TOP wines of the year are not from Royal. Such is life – this year! The 2020 Leoville Poyferre, was lovely as was the 21 Herzog Alex Cab, the Covenant 21 Solomon Cab, the 2020 Chateau Lascombes, and the 2020 Elvi Wines Clos Mesorah. That says a lot. Next Year will be very different, I think.
- The stupid music was so annoying – I could not even HEAR myself think, let alone talk to the winemakers or the folks at the table – HARD PASS! Further, for the given focus and clientele, the music was a hindrance.
- Overall, 2021 red Bordeaux are painful, 2023 white and rose wines from Israel are water and not much else, 2021 Cali reds rock, 2021 Israel reds are VASTLY improved over all the other years I tasted. Again, these are generalizations, there are exceptions, but sadly, those exceptions are far and few between.
- Finally, I was saddened by the lack of focus of Herzog, as was promoted. There was no KFWE LA this year and the lack of a deep Herzog lineup bummed me out! Sure, the mainstays were there but I have tasted many wines from Herzog that were not there. Further, the marketing of the KFWE East Coast event made clear that Herzog and Israeli wines would be a focus. I think they swung and missed there. Sure, they brought a single bottle of a barrel sample for a wine that has not been released yet. Sure, that is cool, it was stuck on the side, more like a worth check. Were you worthy of a dram of this wine? Sorry, either this is something to showcase Herzog and it should have been in greater supply or it should have not been there like other wines. Yes, I tasted it, this is not sour grapes (which it was not), but it is a point that Herzog was not focused on enough.
In the end, the lack of selection, and the lack of focus, made me feel like Herzog was just punting here. I think for trade they should have been more active, more present, and showing more of the portfolio! How else will new restaurants, wine shops, or retailers know about the many cool wines that are being produced at Herzog? Showing older wines that do not promote the brand well, undermines Herzog and undermines the point of KFWE, especially for Trade partners.
KFWE Miami was also a swing-and-miss, no one was there to promote the Winery. That is crazy to me. I know it was Hanukkah, but hey wine is a business.
The Top and Best 28 QPR Kosher Wine WINNERS of 2023
In May 2020 I wanted to drive home the need for QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) wines. So I set out to create what I thought a QPR metric should be! Gone were arbitrary price ranges and such. Instead, I let the market define what the QPR price range should be. I did this by grouping the wines by their type (white, red, rose, sparkling, and dessert) and then further refined the grouping by age-ability within the white and red wines. This gave me the following groups:
- Drink “soon” White Wine (Simple whites)
- Rose Wine (always drink soon)
- Drink “soon” Red Wine (Simple reds)
- Mid-range aging Reds (4 to 11 years)
- High-end Red wines (11 and more years)
- High-end White wines (7 and more years)
- Sparkling Wine (No need here for extra differentiation)
- Dessert Wine
I then made the mistake of trying to create an Orange wine range/group – that was a HUGE mistake. Again, the wines themselves were not the issue, the issue revolved around trying to group such a small sample set into its group. They will go into their respective white wine category, next year.
Throughout the year, I posted many QPR posts, for almost all of the main categories. I will continue down this road until I find a better way to categorize and track wines that are QPR WINNERS. Talk about WINNERS, that secondary QPR score was a 2.1 revision to my QPR scoring, and that is explained in this post. All the wines listed here are QPR WINNERS from my tastings in 2023.
Let us discuss the approach
I have heard from a few of you. I do not understand your QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) scoring. So, let us take another shot at this! Every time a customer comes into a shop or goes online to buy kosher wine they have a choice of a few thousand wines, online, or many hundreds in a store. The question is how does a buyer differentiate one wine from the next?
If they like Terra di Seta wines, as I do, and it costs 30 dollars then he/she will compare other wines to that wine, in regards to the wine and the price. That is the same for any wine they like and any wine they are looking at buying. Price matters! Now, the real question is how can you compare two wines to each other. Any two wines in the world of kosher wines? What characteristics can you use to compare them?
Let us say they like the 2018 Elvi Wines Clos Mesorah, the 2022 wine of the year (AKA best-priced QPR wine). It is a red wine from Montsant, Spain. OK, what other wine can you compare with it? You can compare other Montsant kosher wines, like the Cellar Capcanes wines. However, the Cellar Capcanes wines have an issue – they have been poor for many years! As the ratio states it is QUALITY to price! Quality is primary; once you have a good wine, you can attempt to compare it with similarly good wines.
OK, so we need equal or comparably equal quality and that is it??? So, let us say there exists a rose from Montsant that scores the same quality score as Clos Mesorah are they comparable? What about a white wine – same? Can/should compare them? I will tell you that no one would act in such a manner. People will compare similar items. OK, so are we then forced to compare Montsant wines with Montsant wines – again I will tell you no! People will compare like-scored red wines with like-scored red wines. Further, there are literally SIX Monstant Kosher red wines on the market. How can one compare six wines to each other? It has no value.
OK, but what is “like” – that is the body of work that my QPR approach works to answer. If you agree that people will attempt to compare items that are similar in nature but not locale, region, or price, what is that characteristic that they will use to compare two arbitrary kosher wines? Price IS NOT the answer.
So, let us recap – we have two similarly scored wines (AKA quality) but they are very different in many ways. Let us look at three of the wines below, two of which are from the greater Medoc region:
- 2020 Chateau Clarke, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Listrac-Medoc – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
Drink from 2025 until 2032. - 2020 Chateau Fourcas Dupre, Listrac – Medoc – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
Drink from 2024 until 2035. - 2019 Chateau Royaumont, Lalande de Pomerol – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
Drink from 2024 until 2032.
These wines priced were between 38 dollars to 55 dollars. The question you need to ask is are they comparable? I would state they are and I would further state that wine buyers compare them every time they read my lists and other lists that like these wines. Again, the primary requirement is quality – and these all scored the same quality score.
So, next, would you at least compare two Listrac-Medoc wines to each other? The Chateau Fourcas Dupre and the Chateau Clarke? I would say yes for sure. Well, why is the Royaumont any different? They are very different wines, of course, but in the end, what do oenophiles buy such wines for?? To store them and share them at a later date, meaning that wine buyers classify wines by regions but ultimately they classify them by their ability to age gracefully or not! This means some wines age beautifully and many are good to enjoy in the coming years.
So, now you see the logic to the categories I use to compare wines – this is the list once again:
- Drink “soon” White Wine (Simple whites)
- Rose Wine (always drink soon)
- Drink “soon” Red Wine (Simple reds)
- Mid-range aging Reds (4 to 11 years)
- High-end Red wines (11 and more years)
- High-end White wines (7 and more years)
- Sparkling Wine (No need here for extra differentiation)
- Dessert Wine
Essentially, ignoring sparkling, rose, and dessert wines, there is white wine and red wine. Each of those two major categories is broken into their age-ability. Red wines have three age ranges while white wine has two. Then there are the other three aforementioned groups, rose, sparkling, and dessert wines.
Once you have scored a wine – IRRELEVANT to the price – this is KEY you are then required to place that wine into one of the 8 categories listed above. Once you have done that any wine in that category is available for comparison. Using the median approach wines are stacked and ranked by their price, within that category, and some rise above others, by having an equal or better quality for a lower or equal price. Please read more about this here and here.
The Summary
Before we get to the list of the best QPR wines for this past year – I wanted to give some raw stats. I tasted more than 1200 wines this past year. In actuality, it is probably far more, I just did NOT care to write notes on hundreds more because all it would have said was NO. I made sure to taste all the Israeli wines at three KFWE and almost none of them were worthy of a wine note. The pain was all I remember. In the end, of the actual number of wines I noted, 155 of them were scored with a QPR score of WINNER.
I have stated it over and over again now, there is no way we can buy all the good wines out there unless you have a local warehouse to store them and you drink two or more bottles a day. That is the great news about Kosher Wine today! I hope we have not yet hit peak QPR Winner. Remember, this INCLUDES the 2021 Bordeaux season which was a total failure on all accounts.
This year, the list came to a total of 28 names, and none had to dip below 93 in the scores, which is a large number and better scores overall than last year, but again, the pool from where they are culled continues to grow, and the diamonds in the rough are getting harder and harder to find. There are 28 or so QPR WINNER who scored 93 this year but not in a single area.
The 4 regions that encompass the 28 WINNERS are in order of size, France (11), USA (9), Italy (5), and Spain (3). Within France, it is not all Bordeaux! You have 6 from Bordeaux, Sancerre, Alcase, Burgundy, Languedoc, and Chateauneuf du Pape.
Of the 28 WINNER, 5 of them are white and 23 are red. However, at the lower price and quality QPR WINNERS (think 20 dollars 91 scoring wines), you will find that white wines are the majority!
This year there are no cross-WINNER scores. Meaning, a WINNER in Europe but not the USA. Many of the wines that are WINNER are not available in Europe, but I do not denote that.
Sadly, there were no new Sparkling or Rose wines to make it to the score of 93 and to meet its counterpart pricing. To me this is a HUGE issue in the kosher wine market! The kosher wine market has lifted up one of the previous sad wine categories, white wine! Which is HUGE! Sadly, we have not moved from there. We have a dominating red and white kosher wine scene. What is lacking sorely, is quality, sparkling wines! The rose wines will never reach the upper echelons, at least in the Kosher wine markets! But Sparkling wines – there is real demand there and sadly the products being sold are pathetic!
Maybe, Avi Davidowitz, from Kosher Wine Unfiltered, can create a list like that for Israel, this year, a bunch of wines became available there, and a proper QPR list would be worthwhile!
The wines on the list this year are all available here in the USA, and in Europe, and a few can be found in Israel, as well. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2018 Elvi Wines Herenza Rioja, Reserva, Rioja – Score: 94+ (QPR: WINNER)
I crave this in wine – balance, complexity, elegance, and all bottled for a price that makes it a WINNER! The nose of this wine is beautiful, balanced, and complex, showing a drop hotter than in 2017, but still bold, rich, and expressive, with soy sauce, umami, rich mushroom, loam, spices, blue and red fruit, and sweet star anise, lovely!
The mouth on this medium-plus-bodied wine is lovely, balanced, juicy, elegant, herbal, smoky, and dirty, with intense acidity, juicy and ripe boysenberry, plum, spiced raspberry, and sweet spices that give way to a mouth-draping tannin structure, plush, nicely extracted, elegant, with soy sauce, sweet nutmeg, and cinnamon, beautiful. The finish is long, and balanced, with leather, root beer, sweet baking spices, cloves, cinnamon, sweet cedar, milk chocolate, soy sauce, and lovely acidity that brings this wine all together. Bravo!! Another smash! Drink from 2025 until 2032. (tasted May 2023) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14.5.%)
2021 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Special Reserve, Alexander Valley, Alexander Valley, CA (M) – Score: 94 (QPR: WINNER)
This may well be one of the best Alexander Valley wines in the past 10 years, better than 2014, just impressive. The 2021 vintage has been a blessing for California. The nose of this wine is ripe, it is even riper after a few hours as well, showing notes of ripe and juicy boysenberry, squid ink, black fruit, anise, white pepper, cocoa liqueur, sweet oak, milk chocolate, smoke, and nice minerality. The mouth of this ripe but balanced full-bodied wine has nice acidity, blackberry, ripe and juicy boysenberry, plush, rich, concentrated, extracted, and elegant, all at the same time, with nice tension, sweet oak, milk chocolate, elegant and draping tannin, and a plushness that helps to balance the extraction, with salinity and lovely minerality. The finish is long, ripe, extracted, balanced, and earthy, with nice loam, and smoke but the finish shines with its ribbons of graphite, saline, and tense tannin that lingers long. Bravo!! Drink until 2034. (tasted December 2023) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.5%)
2021 Chateau Olivier Blanc, Grand Cru Classe, Pessac-Leognan – Score: 94 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is stunning, captivating, redolent, and elegant, with rich fruit, grapefruit, minerality, saline, dry grass, gooseberry, and passion fruit, a beautiful wine that hits the mark! BRAVO! The mouth of this medium-plus-bodied wine is stunning, layered, complex, plush, and concentrated with rich acidity, minerality, slate, flint, and saline wrapping the gooseberry, grapefruit, peach, orange peel, and passion fruit, showing an impressive complexity. The finish is long, mineral-driven, dense, weighty, and plush, with rich salinity, flint, wet rock, and slate, and extremely refreshing and mouthwatering. BRAVO!!! Drink by 2027. (tasted November 2023) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13.5%)
The Best and Top 12 Kosher Mevushal wines of 2023
If you ever wondered what Kosher wine or the Mevushal process is, well I made a post these many years ago and nothing has changed about those facts, because kosher wine is kosher wine! The Mevushal process has evolved a bit over the years but the premise is still the same and the best craftsman in this space are Hagafen Cellars and Herzog Wine Cellars.
Royal Wine Europe does a good job as well, though from time to time, the white wines do not show as well after they go through the Mevushal process. The red wines are indeed done very well as I saw this past November 2023.
The whole premise for Mevushal wine is really a U.S. concept. Europe and much of Israel do not care for or need the wine to be Mevushal to serve at restaurants or events. The USA Rabbinic leaders think that there are too many issues and potential concerns at events and restaurants – given the vast number of servers being non-Jewish. As such, they demand Mevushal wines be served at the events. I have been to events where the pourers were all Shomer Shabbat Jews and that is what they do in Europe and Israel, but those are far and few between, here in the USA.
Overall, the 12 Mevushal wines scored higher than my previous post of 2021 options These scored higher without a single 91 or 91+ in the bunch! Of course, the 2021 California harvest has the majority of these wines (7 of the 12). You can find a single 2019 Rouge Bordeaux, a 2022 Blanc Loire Valley, and a 2023 White New Zealand Wine. The rest are still from the USA but from other vintages than 2021. To be clear, California makes up 9 of the 12 top-scoring Mevushal wines.
The new kid on the block is the 2021 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Black Label. It is a lovely expression of Napa Valley.
Mevushal – done incorrectly absolutely does cause damage to wine, and I have had many a “cooked” Mevushal wine. However, Herzog and Hagafen do not have these issues. Royal Europe, does a good job, but not as good as the previously mentioned wineries. The new Covenant Mevushal Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, not their first entry into the Mevushal market, seems like a success, but we will need more examples to be sure.
Also, we do not have examples of Mevushal wines that scored 95 points, again, this is not a cause and effect but rather the issue that people do not yet have Mevushal Pontet-Canet! Mind you, as I stated before, it is not from a lack of desire, on behalf of Royal Wines, they would boil anything to be able to sell more Mevushal wines. Still, so far, of the top wines that I have scored, the highest-scored Mevushal wine is now the 2021 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley, Special Reserve.
More and more wines are Mevushal to meet the needs of restaurants and caterers that want high-end Mevushal wines for their venues and events. The theme of the wines here is mostly Hagafen or Herzog with some smattering of European names as well.
Here is my list of the top 12 Mevushal wines that are available here in the USA. They are listed by score and after that in no particular order. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2021 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Special Reserve, Alexander Valley, Alexander Valley, CA (M) – Score: 94 (QPR: WINNER)
This may well be one of the best Alexander Valley wines in the past 10 years, better than 2014, and truly impressive. The 2021 vintage has been a blessing for California. The nose of this wine is ripe, it is even riper after a few hours as well, showing notes of ripe and juicy boysenberry, squid ink, black fruit, anise, white pepper, cocoa liqueur, sweet oak, milk chocolate, smoke, and nice minerality. The mouth of this ripe but balanced full-bodied wine has nice acidity, blackberry, ripe and juicy boysenberry, plush, rich, concentrated, extracted, and elegant, all at the same time, with nice tension, sweet oak, milk chocolate, elegant and draping tannin, and a plushness that helps to balance the extraction, with salinity and lovely minerality. The finish is long, ripe, extracted, balanced, and earthy, with nice loam, and smoke but the finish shines with its ribbons of graphite, saline, and tense tannin that lingers long. Bravo!! Drink until 2034. (tasted December 2023) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.5%)
The Best and Top 25 Kosher Wines of 2023, including the Wine of the Year, Winery of the Year, the Best Wine of the Year, and the Best Mevushal wines of the year awards
Like last year, I wanted to make this post short and sweet – so the criteria are simple. I could care less about price, color, or where it was made. All that matters is that it is/was available this year sometime to the public at large that I tasted it in a reliable environment, not just at a tasting, and that it scored a 93+ or higher.
We are returning with the “Wine of the Year”, “Best Wine of the Year” “Winery of the Year”, and “Best White Wine of the Year”, along with a last year’s new addition the – “Best Mevushal Wine of the Year”. Wine of the Year goes to a wine that distinguished itself in ways that are beyond the normal. It needs to be a wine that is easily available, incredible in style and flavor, and it needs to be reasonable in price. It may be the QPR wine of the year or sometimes it will be a wine that so distinguished itself for other reasons. The wines of the year are a type of wine that is severely unappreciated, though ones that have had a crazy renaissance, over the past two years. The Best Wine of the Year goes to a wine well worthy of the title.
The Mevushal wine of the year is something I dread. I understand the need for a wine that can be enjoyed at restaurants and events, but when we start seeing Château Gazin Rocquencourt and Chevalier de Lascombes go Mevushal – we know we have a problem. As I have stated in the past, if this is what needs to happen, then please sell both options as many do with Peraj Petita/Capcanes, Psagot wines, and many others. Still, it is a wine and as such, it needs a best-of-the-year moniker, so we do it once again!
This past year, I tasted more wines than I have ever, in the past. Now to be clear here, I did not taste many Israeli wines as they have proven to me over and over again, even with the much-ballyhooed 2018 vintage that they are not worth my spending my money on. Still, I did taste a large number of Israeli wines both in my home and at KFWE events. I spent a fair amount of time tasting all the French and European wines I could get my hands on and I feel that is where I added the most value, IMHO. For those who like the Israeli wine style – other writers/bloggers can point you in some direction. This past year, was a return to below-average because of the massive failure in Bordeaux and all over Europe in the 2021 vintage.
We were spoiled with the 2019 wines from Bordeaux and all over Europe, even the 2020 vintage had OK options. This year, there are FOUR wines from Royal Wine’s portfolio (really three) they are the 2017 and 2018 Elvi Herenza, Reserva, the 2021 Domaine Raymond Usseglio & Fils Chateauneuf du Pape, and the 2021 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley. Overall, 2021 from California is what I am buying from the 2021 vintage, worldwide, outside of a few wines, for vertical interests, and the CDP.
The vast majority of wines on this list are from M&M Importers and a couple from Andrew Breskin’s Liquid Kosher portfolio. This is a FIRST for me and these lists and I am truly happy to see Italy and other regions rising to the top of the lists. There are a couple of Four Gates wines as well.
There are also interesting wines below the wines of the year, think of them as runner-up wines of the year. There will be no rose wines on the list this year, none were close to this star-studded group. This year we had a crazy large number of WINNER wines, 152 in total, but the top-shelf wines were smaller with fewer.
Now, separately, I love red wines, but white wines – done correctly, are a whole other story! Sadly, in regards to whites, we still had no new wines from Germany, still. Thankfully, we have some awesome entries, from the incredible 2021 Gustave Lorentz Riesling, Grand Cru, 2020 Domaine de Chevalier, Blanc, 2020 Domaine de Montille Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru Les Chalumeaux, 2021 Chateau Olivier Blanc, Grand Cru Classe, and the 2021 Domaine Vacheron Sancerre, Grand Champs. This will be the largest number of white wines in the top wine list for any given year – I hope we have NOT hit peak White Wine! We need more options. Thankfully, there are also many good lower-priced white wine options as well in the kosher market a large shift is underway!
The wines on the list this year are all available here in the USA, and in Europe, and a few can be found in Israel, as well. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
The 2023 Kosher Winery of the Year
This award continues to get harder and harder each year. The sad cold, hard truth is that there are too few great kosher wineries. When I started this award, some 4 years ago I thought it would only get easier. Sadly, there are a few truths that limit my ability to give out this award.
First, as much as we have been blessed with great Kosher European wines, in the past 6 years, most of those blessings come under the auspices of single-run kosher wines. Chateau Leoville Poyferre, Château Smith Haut Lafitte, you name it, are all based upon kosher runs. What we have in Europe, kosher-winery-wise, is Terra di Seta, Cantina Giuliano, and Elvi Wines (including Clos Mesorah). Along with this year’s winner, Domaine Roses Camille. Officially, Domaine Roses Camille only became 100% kosher in 2020, but for all intent and purpose, they have been producing the vast majority of their wines in kosher, since 2011.
The requirements to receive this award are simple, the winery must be kosher, not a kosher-run, the quality must be consistent, and the wines must be readily available. The last requirement is the main reason why Four Gates Winery has yet to win the award, but at this point, it is only a matter of time, as kosher wine availability is becoming less of an issue overall, given the sheer number of cult-like kosher wineries that exist today.
This year the award goes to Covenant Winery. I have been pounding the table about the good wines coming out of there over the past two years. Yes, there are a couple of wines I do not love, but given the vast swath of wines they make, the vast majority scored a 91 or higher.
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