Where To Buy Kosher Wine
Get the door, it's the liquor store. Take a look at our Coverage Area (click here) to see whether or not we're in your area. If not, don't fret! We are ever evolving and working tirelessly to provide alcohol delivery to wherever there are those who will drink.
where to buy kosher wine
Sophisticated gourmands know that a meal is never complete without the perfect wine. Fortunately, there are many top ranking kosher selections, so kosher consumers can benefit from the best wines on the market.
Standard wine making techniques can be employed to make kosher wine, resulting in an abundance of superior wines available to kashrut observant wine drinkers. There are many boutique kosher wineries worldwide that produce excellent wines in all categories, even winning major awards, and the taste is undetectable from any type of non-kosher wine. Kosher wineries today produce exceptional wines that are full-bodied and aromatic.
Wine has particular status in the Jewish world. It is used to mark important events and commemorate sacred rituals such as Kiddush on Shabbat; the blessings recited under the chuppah, and the brit milah of a newborn baby boy. Wine accompanies us at our most joyous events in addition to any meal where we celebrate our lives.
Will that be Chardonnay, or is it Pinot Noir tonight? The array of kosher wines obtainable is astounding. From popular varieties such as Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, to more elusive selections like Syrah and Petit Verdot, you can find the perfect accompaniment for any fine dinner.
The sages say that there is no joyous event without meat and wine, and those who appreciate a fine glass readily agree. To find the appropriate pairing for your special occasion, our wine specialists can make recommendations. Our customers come from all over South Florida, including Broward, Dade, Collier and Palm Beach Counties, because shopping at Aroma is always a worthwhile experience.
For many Jewish families, maintaining a kosher diet is an important part of life, especially during the holidays, and while keeping kosher most often refers to food made following specific processes, it can also apply to wine. Kosher wine should be made by religious Jewish winemakers who follow certain practices at their vineyards.
Pavle Milic has worked in the wine industry for 32 years. He, along with James Beard Award-winning chef Charleen Badman, run FnB restaurant in Scottsdale. As co-owner and beverage director, Milic curated the wine list that earned the restaurant a James Beard Award semifinalist nod for the category of Outstanding Wine Program in 2017. In 2019, he launched a vineyard in southern Arizona called Los Milics Winery and Tasting Room.
For wine, there are two main requirements necessary for it to be classified as kosher. First, only kosher products and ingredients may be used in the wine making process, and second, the wine must be made and handled only by religious Jewish wine makers.
For example, a wine maker must wait until a planted vineyard is four years old before harvesting the grapes to make wine. This is because it takes four years for a vine to grow strong enough to produce a proper and full yield, Milic explains. Non-kosher wine makers sometimes take a smaller crop from young vines after three years.
However in modern times, Milic explained, wine makers, with the advice of a rabbi, often rotate portions of their vineyards, giving some vines a rest while others can produce grapes, so they can continue wine production.
While the general perception of kosher wine may be that it is a worse quality than regular wine, Milic says that is not always the case. Kosher wines offer the same variety of quality as all other wines.
"In the day and age where eating a plant-based diet or going a step farther in being vegan, vegans can drink kosher wine without having to worry about consuming animal-related products, because that is one of the requirements," he says.
For example, in conventional wine making, sometimes animal products are used in the process of fining, which is part of clarifying the wine. Common fining agents including gelatin, which is an animal product, and casein, which is a protein from milk.
Kosher wine is much more readily available in New York City, Milic says, where Jewish delis and corner stores often stock bottles. In metro Phoenix, finding kosher wine might be a little more difficult though not impossible.
Try a Southern Rhone Red from the Galilee. Bright cherry, berry aromas and a chewy, mouth filling flavor and a good refreshing acidity on the finish. Please note this is the only Capsouto wine that is not kosher.
"Over the past few years, many people - including a local Michigan rabbi - reached out to me about Sholom wine, telling me that they love the product but that it wasn't available anymore. I reached out to the team at St. Julian and they also said they've heard from many fans of Sholom who miss it and want it back. We began discussing whether it would be possible for me to certify the wine as kosher."
"After a visit to the winery and more in-depth discussions, it began to seem like a reality that Sholom wine would be in production again. Kosher Michigan is following the exact same kosher supervision process as the rabbis who previously certified Sholom wine for many decades, so there should be no concern that the highest kosher standards are being followed."
Kosher Michigan is a kosher certification agency founded by Rabbi Miller. KM certifies thousands of products throughout North America and India. Rabbi Miller is from Metro Detroit, Michigan and has served on several local and national boards. He is also an alum of the Rabbis Without Borders fellowship through the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, among many other accolades.
It used to be that the only game in town was Hagafen, which opened in 1979. That changed in 2005 with the debut of Covenant Wines. At the time, its wines were bottled at Herzog Wine Cellars in Oxnard, using mostly Napa grapes; in 2014, Covenant opened a winery in Berkeley.
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 15 or so dollar bottles of wine, that can be bought at Skyview Wines, Gotham Wines, Suhag Wine, Liquid Kosher, onlinekosherwine.com, kosherwine.com, and a new store I have been buying from kosherwinedirect.com (they also ship for free if you buy a case), along with the other wine stores I have listed on the right-hand side of this blog (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 13 of so dollar 2021 Baron Herzog Gewurztraminer, the slightly more expensive 2018 Elvi Herenza Crianza, the 2021 Domaine Bousquet Alavida Malbec, and many others. These are great 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.
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 13.5% ABV:
Just take a quick look at the wine notes below and you will find 6 QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) WINNER scores. That is incredible for such a small number of wines. Six out of ten WINNERS is just an incredible value-based lineup. Still, the prices are on the upper end of the QPR scale but the wines themselves are quite impressive.
The biggest name on this list and the most expensive was the 2017 Tassi Brunello di Montalcino, Bettina Cuvee, Brunello di Montalcino. I was ready for an over-the-top, bombastic beast of a wine, a trait that seems to be the calling card of the 2017 Brunello vintage. I was shocked when I opened the wine, first, the color threw me, and then the nose. The color of the wine, a characteristic I rarely talk about, was already bricking, but that seems to be par for the course with Brunello wines. Next, the nose was shocking, it smelled like a flower shop, filled with violets, geraniums, and very floral. Over the next two weeks I let this wine talk to me, yes, I wrote two weeks! The wine never went over the hill, it was rock solid, and it improved all the way to the finish line. Even two weeks later, the wine was not running out of steam, this is a wine that is built to go for a decade-plus, easily. Over time, the wine lost some of the floral notes and became more of what I expect from a Brunello, though it never went too ripe and never lost its precision, the only real issue I had was it felt more like a very nice Chianti than a Brunello. The tannin structure told you this was no Chianti, but the weight was clearly affected by whatever the winemaker did to counteract the screaming hot 2017 climate.
I had the Super Tuscan, the 2019 Rocca di Frassinello Le Sughere di Frassinello, Maremma Toscana twice and it showed far better this time. From the time of opening till it was done some 5 days later the wine never lost a step and shined throughout. The Sangiovese fruit shows more at the start while the Merlot makes its presence felt more later in the glass. I found the wine overall to be very nice and balanced with good acidity but overall lacked a step on the Aqua Bona. 041b061a72