Sabbath-sanctioned Sips

January 20, 2020 8:29 AM

Here are several hundred reviews of kosher wine and spirits by Yehoshua Werth.

#398 2015 La Fille Bouchert Cabernet Sauvignon: "...leaning very ripe strawberry, with the seeds, though, like you bit into them...just enough fruit to fill the mouth."

#49 Bear Hug Infusion Cranberry: "...before you break into a cranberry, it almost has a fruity steel: you get more dominant that instead of the alcohol."

#164 2011 Gvaot Gofna Pinot Noir: "I get a little more purple from this, a little more red from the previous vintage."

#432A 2016 Yarden Gewirztraminer: "Guava, guava, guava...no lychee...hmmmm maybe a litttle bit of lychee."

#340 2012 Chateunuff Du Pape: "I imagine this one is going to need some serious aerating."

#150 Smooth Ambler Contradiction Bourbon: "Mildly spiced. Subtly wooded. Butterscotch. Not caramel."

#246 1996 Herzog Alexander Valley Chalk Hill Cabernet Sauvignon: "Kind of a chocolatey thing going on...a little bit of a floor, fungal mushroom things going on...and, huh! Cherry skin!"

#187 2010 Tura Shiraz: "...this, like, goopy thick rice pudding thing going on."

#188 2012 Dalton Semillion Single Vineyard: "Mmm. Snappy one. On the finish, it's alive! But yet at the same time it's not making me ssslurppp!--you know, like, suck in my cheeks."

#122 Xicaru Mezcal: "You ever have someone trying to make fire and they're like cracking stones together? Imagine wrapping those stones in leaves, kind of gives that pop of smoke off the leaves and you get that fresh stone, like you're walking along a path next to a stream vibe."

Yehoshua Werth is the General Manager at The Grapevine Wine and Spirits, located in Wesley Hills New York.

L'chaim!

posted by youarenothere (8 comments total)

I’ll level with you, I was sort of hoping for Ozzy. These are still good though.
posted by mhoye at 9:12 AM on January 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

Just a quick click, the first link the camera is framed with such a orthodoxish/asceticish sensibility, that cap!
posted by sammyo at 9:32 AM on January 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

Ok, so #188 is better than Manischewitz Concord grape.... but that's a low bar to clear.
posted by dfm500 at 10:35 AM on January 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

I worked in my college's dining hall kitchen. During one summer session, the college hosted a Jewish educator's conference and we provided the food. They brought in cases of wine and as I recall they were from Shapiro's. The tagline was something along the line of "Flavor so thick you can cut it with a knife!".
posted by tommasz at 12:12 PM on January 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

My mom's brisket recipe calls for Manischewitz cream white concord. She insists that better wine doesn't give the right flavor. So when she came to visit and offered to make brisket, I went to the wine store which had the largest selection of good Kosher wines in the neighborhood. When I didn't see any Cream White Concord on the shelf, I had to ask the guy if they had any.

And he said, "Oh, honey..."
posted by Mchelly at 1:28 PM on January 20, 2020 [4 favorites]

For people who don't realize that the Kosher wine market is a lot broader than Manischewitz*, here's a good explainer on what Kosher wine actually is.
Here's an article on the growth of the premium Kosher wine industry in California.
Here's a piece on the rise of high-end private-label Kosher wines.
And here's natural wine maven Alice Feiring talking about the challenges of making a Kosher wine that meets her standards.

*even though that's what all the videos in this FPP are about
posted by neroli at 2:45 PM on January 20, 2020 [4 favorites]

From the explainer in the previous comment:

Kosher caterers and Kosher restaurants in the United States only serve “Mevushal Wine” (pronounced mev’ooshal). This is a Kosher wine that has been flash pasteurized, so it remains Kosher even if a non-observant or non-Jewish waiter serves the wine.

I know enough not to ask why when it comes to any kind of religious rule, but... why would pasteurization allow a wine to remain Kosher then? There's a leap that I'm just not getting.
posted by sjswitzer at 11:41 AM on January 23, 2020

Never mind, I googled it myself. It's pretty interesting.
posted by sjswitzer at 11:44 AM on January 23, 2020