Keep The Cups Flowing

A few tips and pointers for successfully serving wine at your next catered event.

According to our wine critic, the wine list should be discussed at one of the first meeting with your caterer.

by Gamliel Kronemer
Special To The Jewish Week

A friend in Boston recently asked me to advise him on selecting wines to serve at his upcoming wedding. After inquiring about the food being served, and his per-bottle price range, I suggested a handful of reds, whites, and sparkling wines he may want to consider serving. He then asked me how much wine he should buy, and when I told him, based on his number of guests, 15 cases, he was flabbergasted. He then reminded me that this was a Jewish wedding and quoted me the old truism that “Jews don’t drink, they eat.” But these days that old truism is just no longer true.
In the last few decades, the American-Jewish population, observant and non-observant, has joined with the general American population in

a new appreciation of wine, and spurred an incredible growth in the multi-million dollar kosher wine industry. It’s not only that Jews are drinking more; it’s that they are drinking differently and more boldly. Concord grape wines, which were once de rigueur at almost all Jewish celebrations, have lost much of their popularity. And while those sweet, syrupy wines are still available at almost every corner shop that sells wine, increasingly Jews are turning to dryer, more sophisticated wines for both ceremonial and recreational purposes.
Surprisingly however, there are still a number of kosher caterers who seem to be under the impression that a few bottles of cream-Concord and a bottle of blended Scotch is all that’s required for most catered events. If having good wine at your catered event is important to you, then make sure your caterer knows that you consider wine to be an important element of the meal, and that you don’t wanted it to be treated as an afterthought.
Wine should be discussed at one of the first meetings with your caterer. Likely the caterer will have a small list of wines that he regularly serves, and wines on this list may very well fit your needs. But you should also inquire about the possibility of supplying your own wine. In fact, with discounts from retailers on bulk purchasing, and the possibility, depending on local laws, of buying wine directly from a wholesaler, it is often more economical to supply your own wine.
Whether or not you are supplying your own wine, it is important that you taste, and like, all of the wines that will be served. Buy a bottle of each wine you are considering serving, and taste it with family and friends. (If tasting more than a handful of wines in a sitting, you should sip and spit the wines. Otherwise after the first few wines, your taste buds will be numbed from the alcohol, and all of the wines will start to taste more or less the same.) Don’t ever let any caterer, wine shop owner, or wine critic, convince you to buy multiple cases of a wine that you have never tried and don’t know that you will like.
If you are supplying your own wine, do keep in mind that almost all kosher caterers in the U.S. will require you to serve mevushal wine (i.e., wines that have been heated during the winemaking process, so that according to Jewish law they may be handled by non-Jews). However, with modern flash-pasteurization technology, mevushal wines need no longer be inferior to non-mevushal wines.
For the most part, the best mevushal wines come from California, and with the weak dollar causing the prices of imported wines to constantly rise, kosher Californian wines are often among the most economical choices. For value-priced mevushal wines, consider the wines of Baron Herzog, Weinstock, and Don Ernesto. If money is not an object consider the wines of Hagafen, Prix Vineyards, and Herzog’s Special Reserve line DASH not only some of the best mevushal wines on the market, but some of them are among the very best kosher wines made anywhere in the world.
When it comes to mevushal sparkling wines, the best moderately priced choices tend to come from Italy: Bellenda Prosecco, Bartenura Presecco, and Rashi Pinot Brut would all be good choices for most occasions. However, nothing beats the luxurious taste and feel of true Champagne, and if your budget will allow for the exorbitant cost, consider the excellent mevushal Grand Cru Champagne from the house of Louis de Sacy.
As a general rule of thumb, a bottle of wine will serve about five glasses, and one should assume that each adult guest will drink on average a glass and a half during a meal or reception. If you are planning a wedding it’s a good idea to assume that each guest will have a glass and a half both at the pre-ceremony reception, and at the meal itself. That works out to five cases of wine per 100 wedding guests.
During a served meal, nothing can replace the elegance of wine being poured. But at a stand-up reception, wine served by the glass can also be quite elegant, but there are a few options that are less pricy.
One option is to have a “Champagne bar.” Classic sparkling wine-based mixed drinks such as the Mimosa (sparkling wine with orange juice), the Bellini (sparkling wine with peach puree), the Kir Royal (sparkling wine with crème de cassis), and the Champagne Cocktail (sparkling wine with an Angostura Bitters soaked sugar cube), are fun yet elegant beverages that will allow one to squeeze seven or eight drinks out of a single bottle of wine.
Another option, particular during warm weather months, is to serve a good wine-based punch. Few culinary treats are more visually appealing, or more difficult to resist, than a nicely garnished punch bowl; and punch is often as little as half the cost of wine served by the glass. There are dozens, if not hundreds of good punch recipes out there, however I have provided two of my favorite wine-based punch recipes below.
One final note of advice: Don’t allow yourself to be overcome by stress while planning the drinks or food for your catered celebration. Your guests are there for the celebration, not the food and wine, and it is the celebration they will remember.
Punch Recipes:
The following recipes will produce approximately three liters of punch, and should serve eight. Multiply amounts as necessary.

Champagne Punch
This first recipe is adapted from a recipe found in the world’s first cocktail guide, Jerry Thomas’s 1862 book, “How to Mix Drinks or the Bon Vivant’s Companion.” Although it is called a “Champagne” punch, it can be made with any good, dry, sparkling white wine.

3 bottles of dry sparkling wine
3⁄4 cup of Kedem raspberry syrup
the juice of three lemons
1⁄2 to 3⁄4 cup of simple syrup*, to taste
1⁄2 of a pineapple, pealed, cored, and sliced
3 oranges, thinly sliced
a block of ice

Place the pineapple slices in the bottom of the punch bowl and smash them with your fingers, or a potato masher, to express some of the juice. Put in the block of ice and add the lemon juice, raspberry syrup, and 1⁄2 cup of simple syrup. Pour in the sparkling wine, stir and taste. Add the additional 1⁄4 cup of simple syrup if necessary, and float orange slices on top of the punch as a garnish.

Bengal Lancers Punch
This recipe is based on one found in Charles H. Baker’s culinary travelogue, “The Gentleman’s Companion, Volume 2” (1939). Baker wrote that a “Captain Ferguson, late of His Majesty’s Cavalry in upper India, gave us this one back in 1926, and it was a specialty of his Colonel on quite special occasions.”

1    bottle of dry sparkling wine
1    bottle of a light-bodied Cabernet
    or Merlot HYPHEN? based wine
1    12-ounce can of seltzer
6    tablespoons of lime juice
    (approximately 4 limes)
6    tablespoons of orange juice
    (approximately 11⁄2 oranges)
6    tablespoons of pineapple juice
    (juice from a can or a carton
    can be used in a pinch)
6    tablespoons of simple syrup*
41⁄2    tablespoons of dark rum
41⁄2    tablespoons of Leroux orange curaçao
1    lime, thinly sliced
    a block of ice

Place the block of ice in the punch bowl and add the ingredients in the following order: red wine, rum, juices, syrup, curaçao, sparkling wine and seltzer. Stir the punch, and float the lime slices on top as a garnish.
* To make simple syrup heat equal parts of superfine sugar and water over a low flame until the sugar is fully dissolved. You can also buy a prepared simple syrup, such as Monin’s Pure Cane Syrup.
Please note: When making a punch it is important to use only quality ingredients. Always use fresh juices that were juiced within a day of making the punch. As sugar dissolves slowly in cold liquids, it is best to use a simple sugar syrup in punches. When making punch one should always use a solid block of ice, at least three or four inches thick on each side, as ice cubes melt much too quickly and will dilute a punch. It is also important that all the ingredients, and the punch bowl itself, are well chilled before making the punch. Seltzer and/or sparkling wine should be added just before serving.
Gamliel Kronemer writes the monthly Fruit of the Vine wine column for The Jewish Week.

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization