Everyone knows wine is most often made from grapes, but it can actually be made from almost any fruit or vegetable. While it’s hard to say whether turnip or cabbage wine would be tasty, a winery is the Galilee has been making delicious Israeli fruits into wine with great success. At the foot of lsrael’s Carmel mountains, the Morad Winery in Yokneam transforms nature’s harvest into the world’s finest kosher and kosher-for-Pesach wines and liqueurs. Using fruits and herbs, the winery produces a large selection of flavorful and exotic offerings—wines made entirely from passion fruit, red grapefruit and pomegranate, as well as liqueurs made from coffee and chocolate, just to name a few of the most popular. The difference between a wine and liqueur is the alcohol content; wine tends to have 8 to 14 percent alcohol content, while liqueur can be 18 to 24 percent alcohol.

The Morad line of fruit wines was on display at the Congregation Ahavath Torah Sisterhood/Wine County evening of wine and whiskey, and each of the bottles is on sale at Wine Country for about $16.00. While these wines can’t be used for kiddush, the fruit wines are an interesting lower-alcohol alternative to a post-dinner liqueur, and are an excellent cooking flavoring for fruity desserts, especially on Pesach when everyone is looking to boost flavors. The passion fruit and pomegranate wines are both tart and sweet; served cold, they are fun and interesting. The coffee and double-chocolate liqueurs can be used like a pareve Kahlua or Irish cream flavor, in cake recipes, trifles or even to top off a late-evening coffee.

The Morad line of fruit wines is available at Wine Country Bergenfield, located at 89 New Bridge Road in Bergenfield. For more information call 201-385-0106.

By Elizabeth Kratz