One of the days that about 5,000 to 6,000 kosher oenophiles will miss this February is making a special effort to get to New York, Los Angeles or Miami for the Kosher Food and Wine Experience (KFWE), Royal Wine’s signature annual event that launches new kosher wines to trade professionals, the press and the general kosher-keeping public. Royal Wine, which owns Kedem, Manischewitz and Herzog Wine Cellars, also distributes more than 80% of the world’s kosher wines.
In recent years, the event extended to Paris, Tel Aviv and London, where Royal’s winemakers and sales reps mixed and mingled with wine tasters, bringing excitement and appreciation to an increasingly educated and high-end wine-seeking population. Royal Wine’s portfolio of domestic and international wines range from the traditional wine-producing regions of France, Italy and Spain, as well as Israel, New Zealand and Argentina.
As with every 2020 and 2021 event involving travel or a group experience, COVID-19 has demanded a rejiggering of KFWE as well. Gabriel Geller, director of public relations and wine education for Royal Wines, explained that a free, live-streamed virtual event is planned. The event will feature a curated wine tasting with Food & Wine’s Sommelier of the Year for 2019, Erik Segelbaum, an expert in the wines of Israel. Food pairings will be presented by celebrity chef and James Beard award winner Michael Solemanov, as well as Tierra Sur’s executive chef, Gabe Garcia. Viewers will be able to watch cooking demonstrations and cook along in real-time. Detailed recipe cards with shopping lists and prep instructions will be available ahead of time.
The approximately two-hour virtual event itself is completely free, and will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 21. However, the companion tasting kit of 25 wines is being offered to North American attendees for $250; the curated tasting kit will be composed of small 110 ml bottles, enough for two to three sample pours of extremely high-quality wines, and will be shipped to buyers the week of February 8.
“It is logistically impossible to represent in the tasting kit all the wines we have in our portfolio, so we had to make a strategic selection,” Geller told The Jewish Link, explaining that Royal chose some of the most prominent wines to create an impressive, high-value sampling opportunity. “Two of the wines come from Herzog, and others are new, exciting or higher-end wines. A lot of people come to KFWE to try high-end wines because they don’t want to splurge on trying new releases without knowing what they are tasting. It gives them the opportunity to taste without the commitment,” said Geller.
“Here it’s the same idea but we are limited to far fewer wineries. Not every winery is represented,” Geller said, noting that the cost of participating and, particularly, rebottling the wines to create sample bottles, is not inconsiderable. He explained that Herzog has a rebottling machine in its California winery that operates under intense professional hygienic and hashgachic supervision, to maintain both wine quality and kashrut. “It’s a controlled environment with nitrogen used during the process to prevent oxidation. Everything is done by hand,” he explained, adding that Herzog has been using the technology often to send out samples of the winery’s new releases, with great success in maintaining the wines’ quality.
Geller said that some pieces of the virtual event will be pre-recorded, and some will be live with Geller himself or his associate, Royal VP Jay Buchsbaum, speaking or tasting with Segelbaum, with winemakers interspersed with segments or short video clips on the wineries and the regions, with the program geared equally toward entertainment and education.
All in all, Geller said, the KFWE virtual event is part of the kosher wine industry’s general need to reinvent repeatedly this year. “I would say we had to reinvent ourselves on several accounts this year. The focus has to be shifted for our customers, from restaurants and caterers towards resale, because of restaurants not being open, or outside only, or indoors and then not. Weddings and other large events were of course off the table,” he explained.
However there were some bright spots. “We turned toward online sales. There were more wine sales online in 2020 than ever before. Consumption is actually up. People have been drinking more wine—but spending less on bottles than usual—generally spending $15 and $30 per bottle,” he said.
This year, he said, it has been “all about” top QPR (quality price ratio), meaning, loosely, affordable-yet-high-quality wines. “This was always a very important and strong category for us, but it’s never been the focus of KFWE,” which really focuses on high-end, aspirational wines.
Therefore, the wines being tasted as part of the virtual tasting kit are not QPR focused. Virtually all the wines included in tasting kit retail for $50 or more. Included in the tasting are the well-rated Psagot Peak 2017, as well as the eagerly awaited Herzog Generation IX Stags Leap District Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2018, Chateau Leoville Poyferre Saint-Julien 2017, Chateau de Santenay Les Bois de l’Alier Mercurey 2019, Château Guiraud 1er Cru Sauternes 2019, Chateau Giscours Margaux 2017, Chateau Montviel Pomerol 2018, and Capcanes Flor de Primavera Peraj Ha’abib Montsant 2017.
To learn more, to purchase a tasting kit or to log on, visit https://thekfwe.com/.
By Elizabeth Kratz
