If you're roughly familiar with kosher laws, you'll be forgiven for being nonplussed by the term kosher wine. You know the score on pigs, shellfish and the like, but how would you make a wine kosher?
The first thing to bear in mind is that kosher laws are determined in different ways in the Jewish religion, depending on where you sit in the spectrum (from orthodox to liberal).
In kosher winemaking, the Kashrut (dietary) laws are more concerned with who makes the wine, rather than what is used to make it. A sabbath observing Jew needs to be involved at every step of the wine making process, from harvesting, through fermentation to bottling. Fining agents popularly used in conventional winemaking are not allowed, notably casein (from dairy products) gelatin (from pigs) and isinglass (from non-kosher fish). Gentiles can be involved in the winemaking process, but not in a direct physical way.
Kashrut law is also concerned with what happens to the wine after it has left the winery. Flash pasteurisation is a very popular method for kosher wines, as the wine becomes mevushal (cooked or boiled), which means idolaters can touch it without it becoming unfit for consumption.
Kosher wines have been steadily improving in quality and reputation over recent years, not least because of the increasing interest shown in this market by well known, traditionally non kosher producers. Leading estates and producers in France such as Yon-Figeac, La Gaffeliere, Giscours, Smith-Haut-Lafitte, Leoville Poyferre and even the top end garagiste Valandraud all make kosher variations of their wines in Bordeaux, as do producers from Batard Montrachet and Clos de Vougeot in Burgundy. Even the famous fizz is in on the act, with Laurent Perrier and De Nauroy both producing kosher Champagnes.
The traditional kosher producers have also significantly upped their game in recent years, largely because of quality drives by producers of the likes of Golan Heights in Israel and the rest. Kosher wine is now produced throughout the globe, most obviously in Israel (where not all the wineries are kosher) and USA, but also in Canada, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, Italy and New Zealand.
The leap in quality, particularly since the early 1980's has moved ambitious kosher wine producers to look beyond their traditional Jewish market. These producers are pushing to have their wines stocked by countries, regions or grape varieties in supermarkets and wine merchants, rather than in designated kosher sections. Kosher wines now have every chance of entering the mainstream wine market. Who would have thought it in the 1970's?
