Discovering Modern Kosher Wine

There’s a lot to discover when it comes to modern Kosher wine. Up until the 1960s, most Kosher wine would have been characterized by sweet, the largest producers coming from the American northeast where Concord grapes were the primary grape used. It’s this grape, coupled with a particular processing step unique to Kosher wine, that made the product sweet. New processes and broader use of grape varieties have changed the profile of modern Kosher wines.

What’s the special step used in making Kosher wine? Boiling it. There are religious texts that indicate wine has to be purified by boiling it. You can imagine that applying heat does something to the flavor. This process destroys tannins that give other wines that delightful little bite found in drier wines. Of course, there are other processing rules in place to maintain compliance with the religious texts but this one step of boiling the wine has a direct impact on the flavor contributing to the widely recognised and sweet end product. This method of heating wine is no longer the only way to get the required level of purity. Now, there are ways to flash pasteurize wine that help maintain contributing flavor components that result in dry wines on par with non-Kosher products.

Added to the sweet wine result is the variety of grapes primarily used. The Concord grape was developed to grow in the cooler climates of the northeastern United States. It’s a very sweet grape and it’s commonly used in grape juice and grape jam. It’s this flavor profile that’s used in grape sodas, too. It’s one of the only grapes used in wine making that’s also available as a table grape. It’s no wonder, that wines derived from Concords are sweet. There’s no reason Kosher wine has to come from only this variety of grape, however, and in recent years a new passion for producing dry Kosher wines has lead to highly ranked wines being produced not only in the US but in Israel, France, Germany, South Africa, Italy and Australia where wine grapes are grown in hotter climates. That means, no more Concord grape as the sole variety used. Grapes used in wine making all over the world are now being used in making Kosher wines. Because of this, Kosher vintners are able to make table wines that everyone can enjoy every day. Take a chance and see for yourself. Kosher wine has certainly changed over the years.

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