This year, Passover will start on April 22, 2024, which means that we are now in the midst of the major wine shopping season for kosher consumers. Wine consumption is down across the US, and the kosher market is no exception, making this holiday shopping period critical for wineries and retailers. Although the kosher wine market is usually heavily dependent on the strictly kosher observant consumer, the Passover seder meal and ceremony is a tradition widely observed by Jews of all traditions, with many choosing kosher wines to complement the holiday meals. With the traditional 4 cups of wine to be consumed at the seders, additional libations at the Passover holiday meals, and large gatherings of family and friends, kosher wine is flying off the shelves at many retailers.

But choosing wine for the seder meals can be complicated, at least for those who want to stick to the traditional rules while also enjoying quality wines. Many traditionalists stick to red wine and consume a minimum of 3.5 ounces in each of the 4 cups and down the majority of each full cup in a prescribed time. Lower-alcohol and easier-drinking wines are preferable to full-bodied California cabernets, no matter how fine the bottles. In recent years, easy-to-drink rosé wines have become popular for seder meals, and luckily, the market has responded with a number of quality rosé options.

I spoke to Gabriel Geller, wine expert and Director of PR at Royal Wines, the leading US distributor of kosher wines, to get his recommendations. Geller advised he would be drinking rosé for the four seder cups but would open a “special” bottle to consume with the actual meal. Options he recommends from the Royal portfolio start with the relatively inexpensive Baron Herzog, which has a slight sweetness but is nicely balanced. Note that Royal owns Herzog wines, and despite the noble “baron” title, Baron-Herzog-labeled wines are the brand’s entry-level, affordable bottles, while the Herzog-branded bottles can be more elite reserve wines. Another somewhat more complex and expensive option is the Tura rosé from Israel. This bottle still has a bit of residual sugar. For a drier rosé, and for those who want to support Israel during this difficult time, consider adding the Israeli Gush Etzion rosé. For a higher-end, oaked, and fuller-bodied option, spring for the French Chateau Roubine Inspire Cru Classe.

Why not have fun and go with a sparkling wine? Wine writer David Raccah drinks Yarden Rosé Brut Sparkling wine from Israel for all four cups. I will probably go with the Hagafen Rosé Brut from California.

Before I let Geller off the phone, I asked him about some of the newly kosher wines Royal is bringing into the US for the first time. Chateau Dauzac Margaux is a respected Bordeaux winery that has been making wine for more than 500 years and has made a kosher wine for the first time! You will have to shell out about $80 for this cabernet-merlot blend. Dauzac, an 1855 Cru Class wine, produces a “second” wine certified kosher, the more affordable Aurore De Dauzac Margaux.

Another first for the kosher market is the Rocca delle Macie Chianti Classico, a famed Italian Tuscan winery Royal has worked with to produce a kosher vintage.

I plan to drink a sweet dessert wine for the final cup, which kicked off some consternation among my kosher wine group pals. Many of the dessert wines are high in alcohol, and drinking the full amount required by the strictures of Jewish law might be much after three previous full cups of wine. They have a point, but I can’t resist opening a bottle of Yakov Oryah’s new skin-macerated late-harvest wine. I tasted this wine at the Jewish Link Wine event with the winemaker and was blown away by the balance between sweetness and acidity. Oryah told me he doesn’t like to call his skin-macerated white wines “orange wines” because the orange wine movement means organic or biodynamic, which his wines are not. But whatever he calls his wines, this one is a winner. It’s not technically a red wine, but skin-macerated whites are fermented with their skins in the same manner as red wines. That may not please the strictest seder traditionalists, but it certainly will please my palate.