Kosher Wine Guide

​Swirl. Sniff. Swish. Spit. -
Repeat 240 times over three days, at about four hours an afternoon.

When it comes to imbibing on Passover, wine is, of course, going to be the primary beverage. Not only do we drink four glasses of wine at each seder, but by the time the festival is over we’ll have six other yom tov meals, with Kiddush (and wine). That’s a lot of wine.

In the traditional Jewish liturgy, Passover is referred to as the “Festival of Matzah, the time of our freedom.” And during the seder, that ceremonial celebration of the Jewish people’s freedom, no single food is more symbolic of freedom than the four glasses of wine that are imbibed. While matzah is the “bread of affliction,” wine is the drink of free men.

One of the nicest perks to being a wine writer is having the chance to sit down with a winemaker and share a glass or two of his product. Since staring to write about wine for The Jewish Week, seven years ago, I’ve had the opportunity to taste wines with a few dozen kosher winemakers, all of whom had two things in common: a passion for wine, and a Y chromosome.