For the fifth year in a row, an insightful and educational publication has come out that helps consumers better understand the world of kosher wine. The Jewish Link has released its fifth annual edition of its wine guide. The Jewish Link Wine Guide, continuing from its fourth edition last year, continues to showcase articles on wineries, wines, and winemakers, it also features their lists of top wines. Co-published by Moshe Kinderlehrer and Mendy Schwartz, with editing by Elizabeth Kratz, this year’s Wine Guide features a bunch of articles, which are very helpful for getting a sense of where the kosher wine market is at these days.
Articles
While the major story last year throughout the issue concerned Israeli wineries amidst the recent war, it was less so in this year’s edition. Nevertheless, it did not totally disappear, as the first cover story concerned the ongoing war, as Michal Rosenberg, the managing and production editor of the publication, writes about this year’s edition, “we again take a closer look at Israeli wineries a year and a half into this long war. We find them bruised, but surviving and working to overcome the challenges of evacuated vineyards and skeletal staffing” (p. 4). Here is a listing of the articles included within this issue, along with their authors and pagination:
• “Resilience in the Vineyards: Israel’s Wine Industry Emerges Scathed but Strong” by Joshua E. London (pp. 8-15)
• “Approaching Kosher Burgundy” by Yossie Horwitz (pp. 16-22)
• “A History of Georgian Wine” by Dr. Kenneth Friedman (pp. 23-27)
• “Yzaguirre Rojo Vermouth: Cocktail Ingredient or Apéritif” by Gamliel Kronemer (p. 28)
• “Still Crushing It in Napa: Ernie Weir’s Five Decades in Wine” by Joshua E. London (pp. 29-34)
• “Ya’acov Oryah: Reshaping Israeli Winemaking” by Gregory Aubrey (p. 63)
• “The Creativity and Consistency of Dalton Winery” by Yossie Horwitz (pp. 64-69)
• “The ‘Little Dragon’ Returns: South Africa’s Klein Draken Winery” by Elizabeth Kratz (pp. 70-74)
• “Four Interesting Seder Selections” by Dr. Kenneth Friedman (pp. 75-76)
• “Bring a Taste of Israel to Your Seder” by Channa Fischer (pp. 77-78)
Categories of Ranked Wines
In addition to the articles, every year one of the incredibly fascinating aspects is the categorization and ranking of dozens of kosher wines, which the panel of tasting judges of Yossie Horwitz, Jeff Katz, Greg Raykher, Daphna Roth, and Yeruchum Rosenberg have gone through and ranked. This year’s expanded selection of categories are the following:
• Top 25 Reds $50 and Above (pp. 39-40)
• Top 25 Reds $25-50 (pp. 41-42)
• Top 25 Reds Under $25 (pp. 43-44)
• Top 25 White $35 and Above (pp. 45-46)
• Top 25 White Under $30 (pp. 47-48)
• Top 10 Rosé (p. 49)
• Top 10 Dry Sparkling $25 and Above (p. 50)
• Top 10 Dry Sparkling Under $25 (p. 50)
• Top 10 Late Harvest/Sweet (p. 51)
• Top 10 Sparkling (p. 52)
• Top 5 Riesling (p. 52)
• Top 15 Cabernet Over $50 (p. 53)
• Top 15 Cabernet Under $50 (p. 54)
• Top 10 Merlot (p. 55)
• Top 10 Red Israeli Blend (p. 55)
• Top 10 Chardonnay (p. 56)
• Top 10 Sauvignon Blanc (p. 56)
• Top 15 Unique Varietal Highlights (p. 57)
• Top 10 Red Blends Over $30 (p. 58)
• Top 10 Red Blends Under $30 (p. 58)
• Top 20 California Reds (pp. 60-61)
• Top 10 Bottles Under $20 (p. 62)
• Top 10 California Whites (p. 62)
Conclusion
As with each issue of The Jewish Link Wine Guide, this year’s publication was insightful for both kosher wine enthusiasts, as well as regular kosher wine-drinkers. As always, it is certainly worth checking out to enlighten one’s knowledge of what’s out there in the kosher wine world!
