When Non-Kosher Wineries Make Kosher Wines

Years ago, drinking only kosher wine meant missing out on renowned wines from prestigious regions like Bordeaux and Tuscany. Baron Edmond & Benjamin de Rothschilds’ Chateau Clarke released the first kosher Bordeaux in 1988, and other wineries followed. Today, many top wineries worldwide collaborate with local kosher supervisors to produce wines under esteemed labels that wine connoisseurs desire.

Unfortunately, the elite Bordeaux First Growths have yet to offer kosher wines, and there are still significant gaps in the market, particularly for options like Port, Sherry, and many wines from Italy and Australia. However, major Jewish population centers are increasingly well-stocked, with selections from notable wineries like Pontet Canet, Le Dome, Domaine Chevalier, and Smith Haute Lafite in Bordeaux, with more available online. Burgundy remains under-represented, but Maison Aegerter, a leading producer, has worked with IDS to provide an increasing number of kosher options. In addition, Ralph Madeb has secured products from Italian wineries producing kosher wines for the first time.

Are the kosher wines produced by these non-kosher wineries as good as their mainstream non-kosher versions? The answer is nuanced, primarily revolving around the production process rather than the ingredients themselves. While some fining agents and specialty yeasts must be certified kosher (due to concerns about ingredients that can include by-products from non-kosher animals), these factors are not usually significant to the wine’s final taste. The critical difference in kosher wine production lies in the availability of the kosher supervisor, or “mashgiach,” who must be present from the very beginning of the winemaking process. Since winemaking begins immediately after grape harvesting, the mashgiach must be on-site immediately.

Top winemakers closely monitor grapes in the vineyard, continually testing sugar and acid levels and assessing ripeness to determine the optimal moment for harvest. Different parts of a vineyard may experience varying sun exposure or soil conditions, leading to different harvest dates. Additionally, different varietals intended for blending might require specific harvest timing. This raises questions about whether a mashgiach, potentially hours away in Paris, can reach Bordeaux in time or if the team in Florence or Rome can make it to Tuscany during the busy harvest period. Because the harvest often coincides with Jewish holidays like Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot, as well as regular Saturdays when work is prohibited, availability can be challenging.

During my recent visit to Chateau Léoville Poyferré in St Julien, the winemaker explained that he bottles grapes from different sections of his vineyards into separate barrels to taste and assess the subtle variations before creating the final blend. To cope with the occasional unavailability of kosher supervisors, he leaves the end of each row in the vineyard unharvested until the mashgiach are available. The grapes left to ripen longer may experience varying weather conditions, impacting their flavor.

In the winery, winemakers adopt different approaches: some seek to reflect the local terroir with minimal intervention, while others engage in intricate blending—grapes from different vineyard areas, stainless steel versus wood fermentation, or grapes that have undergone different handling processes. The degree of intervention by the winemaker can vary significantly. While efforts are made to have a kosher supervisor present, there are times when these specific steps might be skipped or delayed, creating subtle distinctions in the final wine. At Leoville Poyferre, the various varietals in this Bordeaux blend are fermented separately, but the kosher production is co-fermented since it’s a much smaller amount.

So, where does this leave us? During a recent visit to Bordeaux, our group’s first question to each winemaker was: how did kosher production in a given vintage differ from your general production that year? In some cases, the kosher wine was identical to the non-kosher due to minimal intervention or availability of the mashgiach team. In other instances, differences were noted, with the question of better or worse left to the consumer.

Rabbi Raphael Wolff, a kosher wine supervisor from the Top K certification, shares an anecdote about the late critic Robert Parker. Parker once blind tasted both the kosher and non-kosher versions of Château Vallandraud of St. Émilion, rating the kosher version one point higher. Further investigation revealed that the kosher grapes were harvested two days later than the general harvest, which had coincided with the holiday of Shmini Atzeret when kosher supervisors were unavailable. Somehow, this timing resulted in a wine that, according to Parker, was superior. Divine intervention, perhaps, in this case, but all winemakers may not be so blessed, leaving us to conclude that the caliber of each kosher vintage at a non-kosher winery is indeed a matter of fate.

PHOTO ALBUM (Photos by the author, Jules Polonetsky)