When people ask me what is so interesting about kosher wine that I am inspired to write about it virtually every month, I I answer that I enjoy learning about every aspect of the wine experience. From the beginning of the grape growing season to winemaking and barreling to the end product, not to mention the religious aspect and the kosher supervision required, there is almost always a multidimensional story in the making of wine that transports me to another place and time. Every bottle represents a huge amount of work by many people, while it often takes work to find the poetry under that cork, I find it very satisfying. While I’m saving some recommendations for the upcoming Yom Tov season, here are a fantastic hodgepodge of wines I have tasted lately that are exceptionally worthy of mention, some of which blithely break my usual attempt to ensure my recommended bottles’ affordability.
My favorite white wine of the summer, by far, was the Red Garden-imported
Domaine Guillerault Fargette Sancerre 2022. This impeccably balanced white wine from the storied Sancerre region in France’s Upper Loire Valley, was peachy, granny smith-apple scented and packed with flavor and body and blessed with lush acidity—like biting into a ripe, tart peach—with a long finish that stayed with me. At $44, it’s quite a bit more expensive than my usual white wine choices, but for this bottle and this experience, I felt I found a star. While I tend to stay away from French wines because I love new world whites from California and New Zealand so much, this wine created a major moment for me. While they’re certainly no less expensive, if the other kosher wines available from Sancerre are half as good as this, I am ready to dive in. Vive la France!
As promised in my last article, I had more rosė wines to try so I have one more great rosė to write about before the summer ends. This one is the Allied Imports’ Borgo Bella Rosato 2022 from Puglia, Italy. It is refreshing, with sweet floral scents and aromas of strawberry and raspberry. The wine is perfectly fresh and zesty, with fantastic acidity and a long and exceedingly pleasant finish. An affordable last-licks-of-summer tipple at $17.99.
Another wine I really loved this summer is the Winemaker Edition by Adir Winery Marselan 2020, also imported by Red Garden. I am becoming a bit of a fan of Israeli marselan wines as they tend to burst with earthy fruit notes in an elegant way, making them easy to drink without needing much time for airing or decanting. (The more affordable marselan from Jerusalem Wineries that I tasted in Israel this past January has yet to make it to our shores, but I live in hope!) Marselans also seem to benefit from being a less obvious snap purchase than merlots and cabernets, so they tend to be a bit more affordable, though I can’t say it’s true in the case of Adir as this bottle is $49.99. This Upper Galilee wine is dark and inky in the glass, redolent with black and red fruits, with tremendous depth and earthy character. I found this wine intensely drinkable, effortlessly pairable with burgers and pizza, but it also is a great Friday night or yom tov choice as a pairing for roast beef or brisket.
Finally, I was honored to taste two very interesting wines from Hayotzer Winery’s barrel series, which retail from $80 to $84 a bottle. The brand Hayotzer, imported by Allied, is a shared endeavor between Israel’s Shor family, the oldest wine making family in Israel, and Phillippe Lichtenstein, their French-born winemaker. They are known for making wines at many price points and for experimenting successfully with French winemaking styles in Israel’s terroir. The bottles in the barrel series are special lots of 100% cabernet sauvignon aged for 49 months in new French oak. I tried the Hayotzer Barrel Series 018 and 009, and these were considered superior among many different barrels. There were only 300 bottles made of each and they were very lush, well made wines which really feel to me like special occasion bottles. Grab a bottle or two of these for yom tov!
