Kosher, for Everyone

Today's Kosher Wines Are Good Enough to Merit A Spot at Any Table, April 4, 2008; WSJ.

By Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher.

In late January, we hosted a wine tasting for about 200 movers-and-shakers on behalf of Dow Jones. We served three Pinot Noirs from around the world -- a $50 Burgundy, a $40 Pinot from Oregon and a $25 Goose Bay Pinot from New Zealand. All three wines had been among our own favorites in blind tastings. As far as we could tell, most people enjoyed all three. But when we asked the head bartender which was the favorite, he pointed at the empty bottles and said, "The Goose Bay. No question."
We wonder if the outcome would have been different if we'd told the tasters that the Goose Bay was kosher.
We didn't mention it because it wasn't relevant -- we chose the wine simply because it was good. But we also know that the k-word still turns off some wine drinkers who are living in another century. Today's kosher wines are diverse, interesting and often excellent. The Pinot Noir from New Zealand is just one example, but over the years we've written about scores. For some time now we have included kosher wines in our general tastings, and sometimes they are among our favorites. In addition, every year around Passover, when more people are looking specifically for kosher wines, we focus on them. This year, we decided to look at the world's greatest red and white grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, because those are the most popular varietals in America and we know many people will be looking for them to serve at Passover.
A World-Wide Selection
We bought, from retail shelves, about 50 wines each labeled by those varietal names. They came from all over the world, from Australia, Chile and many other countries, including Moldova. While we always include wines from Israel, we were pleased this year to find more examples from its growing number of boutique wineries. These small-production wines can still be hard to find at the corner store, but they are increasingly available at specialty stores and online at sites such as kosherwine.com and skyviewwine.com and many others. (Google "kosher wine" and from the stores that show up, look for one that can deliver to you.)
THE DOW JONES KOSHER CABERNET SAUVIGNON AND CHARDONNAY INDEX

In a broad blind tasting of kosher wines labeled Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay, these were our favorites. We list them only to give an idea of the very broad range of kosher wines available these days. The Alfasi, Barkan, Terroso and Teal Lake are mevushal. While some of these names are well-known and widely available, we also included some boutique wineries in this tasting and they would be hard to find. They are good examples, though, of the increasing number of small-production kosher wines available on shelves that are worth a try.
CABERNET SAUVIGNON
Orna (Orna Chillag) 'Riserva' 2005. Galilee, Israel ($24*) Very Good Best of tasting. Serious wine. Dottie called it "a wine with some shoulders" and "a wine of conviction." Blueberries and black earth, with hints of strong tea. Could stand up to a serious meal. Age-worthy.
Alfasi 2005. Valle del Maule, Chile ($7.99) Good/Very Good Best value. Delightful. Easy to drink, with good fruit, some earthiness and fine acidity. Buy more than you think you need, and drink now.
Carmel Winery 'Appellation' 2004. Galilee, Israel ($25*) Very Good Remarkably dark color. Peppery and chewy, with awesome tannins. Reminded us of a big Australian Shiraz.
Dalton 'Reserve, French Oak Finish' 2004. Upper Galilee, Israel ($36.99) Very Good Bold wine, with blackberries, blueberries, earth and chocolate. Nice balance and a particularly long, warming finish. We also liked Dalton "Oak Aged" 2006 ($24.99).
Yarden (Golan Heights Winery) 2003. Galilee, Israel ($28*) Very Good Looks pretty and it tastes pretty and crisp, too, with lovely, restrained fruit and very nice structure. Great with food.
Recanati 'Reserve' 2004. Galilee, Israel ($23.99) Good/Very Good Grapey, but with some depth, too, which makes it interesting and complex. Soulful and classy.
CHARDONNAY
Ella Valley Vineyards 2005. Ella Valley, Israel ($25.99) Good/Very Good Best of tasting. Clean, fresh and vibrant, with some butteriness and sweet oak, but restrained. Happy wine.
Terroso (Chilean Wines Company) 2007. Valle del Maule, Chile. ($5.99) Good/Very Good Best value. Light as a feather and almost Muscat-like in its easy, friendly drinkability.
Barkan Wine Cellars 'Classic' 2006. Dan, Israel ($10.99) Good/Very Good Clean and fresh, mild and pleasant, with bright, lemony fruit and some crispness. Remember this for summer drinking.
Teal Lake 2006. South Eastern Australia ($13.99) Good/Very Good Very pleasant, with a little sour tang that adds interest and depth. Apple-like crispness and nice fruit-oak balance. Easy.
NOTE: Wines are rated on a scale that ranges: Yech, OK, Good, Very Good, Delicious and Delicious! These are the prices we paid at wine stores in Illinois and New York. *We paid $25.99 for Orna, $29.99 for Carmel and $29.99 for Yarden, but these prices appear to be more representative. Prices vary widely.
What makes a wine kosher? It starts with special attention to cleanliness and supervision by observant Jews, but the rules can be complex. One place that explains the process in-depth is the Web site of the Abarbanel Wine Co. at kosher-wine.com. Click on "Kashrut" and then on "history, background and information." The part of kosher winemaking we're most-often asked about is mevushal. A mevushal wine is one that can be handled by the general public, such as a non-Jewish waiter, and still remain kosher once it's opened. During the wine-making process, a mevushal wine is heated in seconds by flash pasteurization. We are often asked if the mevushal process harms the wine. In our tastings through the years, we haven't found a consistent difference in taste between mevushal and nonmevushal kosher wines. The Goose Bay Pinot was mevushal. In this tasting, about a third of our sample and about a third of our favorites were mevushal.
How were the wines? The Israeli Cabernets, especially, showed well in our blind tastings. Because we tried so many of them, from wineries both big and small, it was interesting to discover a consistent theme among them -- they were quite a bit bolder, earthier and more herbal than American Cabernet. In the best cases, these qualities made the wine distinctive and good with hearty food, but without proper restraint, we found that they could go overboard to a bit leaden. Our best of tasting, called Orna, from Orna Chillag winery, was particularly notable for its class and structure. The importer, Royal Wine Corp. of New York City, says 600 cases were imported and distributed in 10 states.
Getting What You Pay For
This is worth noting: We found that, when buying kosher Cabernet, price matters. While almost half of the wines we tasted cost less than $20, just one of our favorites did. That favorite, by the way, was Alfasi from Chile, just one more example of the great bargains in wine coming from there.
The Chardonnays were less successful than the Cabernets. We found far too many of them, from all over the world, heavy and over-oaked. This is common among Chardonnays everywhere these days, both kosher and non-kosher. Our best of tasting, again from Israel, was Ella Valley Vineyards, which showed what a vibrant wine Chardonnay can be when made with a deft hand. (Importer Victor Kosher Wines of Sunny Isles Beach, Fla., says about 1,200 cases were distributed in 12 states. It also said that 2006 is the current vintage, though we only saw the 2005.) We have to say, however, that we might want to look to another varietal for a kosher white. We have found in the past that kosher Rieslings are consistently pleasing, for instance, and we'd suggest taking a look at those.
The big picture here, though, is that the world of kosher wine now is pretty much limitless. You might have to spend some time looking around, but you can find all sorts of good, interesting kosher wines these days. If you really like Chardonnay, look for a kosher Chablis from France; if you really like Cabernet, look for a Bordeaux. They're out there. As we always say, it's a great time to be a wine-lover with a sense of adventure because there have never been so many interesting wines on shelves, and that's true of kosher wines, too.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher write "Tastings," the weekly wine column of The Wall Street Journal. They also are the authors of "Wine for Every Day and Every Occasion," "Love by the Glass: Tasting Notes from a Marriage" and "The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine." A complete revision of that book, called "The New and Improved Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine," was published in September 2002. Ms. Gaiter and Mr. Brecher have been married since 1979. Ms. Gaiter was a national reporter and editor covering issues of race for the Journal from 1990 to 2000. Mr. Brecher was Page One Editor of the Journal from 1992 to 2000. They began writing "Tastings" in 1998 and became full-time wine columnists in 2002.