The annual Kosher Food & Wine Experience (KFWE) took place a week ago, featuring nearly 1,000 kosher-certified wines, a plethora of spirits – including whiskies, bourbons, vodkas, tequilas, rum, and gin – and cordials. This year’s event was the 19th such annual KFWE, which is operated by Royal Wine Corporation, the largest producer of kosher-certified wines and spirits. Described in a recent article by Kenny Friedman, KFWE is “one of the highlights of the kosher wine world’s calendar year”, KFWE NY 2025 featured an exclusive preview of new wines and sprits for Passover 2025, the season when 40% of all kosher wines are sold.
As Friedman continues to explain, “KFWE is a chance to taste many of the new wine hitting the market, meet with winemakers and wine tradespeople, as well as many of the other personalities in the business.” KFWE NY 2025 featured nearly 1,000 kosher-certified wines, and a plethora of spirits, including whiskies, bourbons, vodkas, tequilas, rum, gin, and cordials for sampling and tasting. While this author would very much have liked to have tried even 10% of them, it was too daunting of a task, but still was able to taste a not insignificant number of these beverages. According to Friedman in another article, there were about 900 people in attendance.
As with last year’s KFWE, KFWE NY 2025 hosted industry buyers, caterers, retailers, restauranteurs, hospitality, chefs and distributors who cater to the kosher-certified food and wine consumer, although, for the second year in a row, it was not be open to general consumers. While it would have been nice to be open to the general paying public, it was nice to have not only a more intimate experience without the crowds, but also a greater ability to network and connect with other people in the world of kosher beverages (& drinking(!)). A new change this year was reducing the hours of KFWE from 6 hours to only 4 hours, which provided a feel that there was only so much time and I certainly felt it.
Food
This year’s food was certainly interesting as it was the first year I had seen no sushi, which was quite the surprise for me (and many others with whom I spoke). While those looking to get their fish fix could enjoyably consume slices of fish on delectable crackers, the food available was spread out. There were also some gribenes as last year had also featured, in addition to some kugel and chulent.
However what clearly struck me as the culinary highlight of the event were their pizzas. With no cheese on them, these pizzas featured meat on them, along with a variety of vegetables. A quite impressive aspect of these pizzas were how incredibly fresh and soft the dough was. This was quite the treat! I particularly enjoyed the pulled beef pizza, as well as another pizza that had meat and jalapenos on them.
Layout
The layout of the event was similar to last year’s layout with one room featuring exclusively wines from Israel and the other room for all other products, whether wines from the diaspora, spirits, liqueurs, as well as the food (there was also a felafel, pita, and hummus stand, though, in the Israeli wine room). There was a noticeable improvement this year over last year of the layout of the non-israel wine room, as it left a lot of room unused, but there was a better spread out array this year. Also, the food was part of the spread out throughout that room, including the aforementioned delicious pizzas taking up a fair amount of space, which I think actually worked well.
Timing
In addition to the reduced hours of the show from 6 hours to only 4 hours, my flight had been delayed a couple of hours, so I missed the first 45 minutes of the show, making it seem to be even shorter still. Even speaking with others who did not have delayed flights, it seemed that the shorter length of KFWE provided a more rushed experience. Considering this reduced amount of time to experience the show, I realized I had to focus my tasting experience. As such, while I enjoyed a handful of wines, my tasting experience focused on spirits.
Vermouths
I got to enjoy two new vermouth products, both by Lovatelli, the first of which was their Blanco vermouth, which I found to be rounded, oily, citrusy at the back of the palate and into the finish. I really enjoyed this product. Next up was their Rosso vermouth, which was less oily and it had prominent dark cherry notes involved. Both of these were good and drinkable, moreover, they are not only new kosher-certified products available in the US, but they are also kosher-for-Passover. For more on these products, you can check out this brief video I shot at KFWE with their winemaker.
Spirits
I started off my spirits-tasting my visiting two-time guest of The Jewish Drinking Show, Rabbi Chaim Litvin, to taste his two products featured under his Bourbon Rabbi label: one a cask-strength bourbon and the other a 100-proof bourbon finished in honey barrels. The cask-strength bourbon was quite hot for my taste, although the 100-proof bourbon finished in honey barrels was a lot more approachable for my palate.
Next up were a couple of also hot American-style corn whiskies, made by Legends Distillery. While they were certainly potent, I am definitely interested to try them again the next time I visit Israel.
Speaking of Israel, the next set of spirits I tasted were a trio of gins by Thinkers Distillery. While I had had two of them when I visited the distillery in summer 2023 to shoot an episode of The Jewish Drinking Show with its founder, Bennett Kaplan. Having tasted the Jerusalem dry gin back in summer 2023, it is a solid gin, I also got to taste their newest product, which was released just last month, their Desert Bloom gin, into which they distilled the root of the purple iris, the desert bloom superstar, with botanicals including orris, cinnamon, juniper, coriander, angelica, lime peel, lemon peel, orange peel, and pink grapefruit peel. This was, indeed, tasty, and had a little more pizzazz than their Jerusalem dry gin. However, I still significantly love their Israeli Sunset Gin, which is distilled with rose petals and red fruits – this is such a neat and delectable product.
Next up on my Israel spirits journey was a trio of products from Pelter Distillery, beginning with their gin (43% ABV) – as it is made from pink lady apples, they were able to make it kosher-for-Passover. While I did not enjoy it as much as the Thinkers Distillery gins, it did have a noticeable black pepper spice to it (plus, it’s kosher-for-Passover, which is great). Next up, I had their arak (47.0% ABV), which was made from grapes and also kosher-for-Passover, which I found to be wonderfully sharp and delicious. Finally, I tasted their first whisky, which was decent and new to the market.
The final spirit of the night from Israel for me was Psâgot’s kosher-for-Passover brandy, which tasted as it had at last year’s KFWE, a bit hot, but a nice quaff for Passover.
Moving away from Israel, I tasted five whiskies by Tomintoul: the first of which was Tlàth, which I found to have a delectable honey spice; the second of which was their Caribbean cask finish, which I found to be sweeter than the Tlàth – easier to drink, yet still peppery. I then moved on to their 16-year old, 18-year old, and 21-year old, all of which were spicy, yet easy to drink. And, yes, the 21-year old was quite lovely.
Finally, I tasted several of the Boondocks products, beginning with their American whiskey (47.5% ABV), which was spicy, a little hot, but yummy. Next up, I enjoyed their 5-year old Bourbon, finished in port barrels (45% ABV), which was delicious. I moved on to their Bourbon in Herzog Chalk Hill Cabernet Sauvignon barrels (45% ABV), which I found to be lovely and richer than the port barrel finish. Finally, I had their 18-year old straight bourbon (53.8% ABV), which was hot, but good.
Concluding Thoughts
As this was my fourth KFWE, I always enjoy them, more than just the food and drink – although they are clearly the stars – but also reconnecting with people in the kosher beverage industry, as well as connecting with new folks, which is really fascinating to be able to connect to learn about new products, companies, trends, and more. To some degree, it turns out it is not only a helpful marketing and networking event, but also professional development. While I am concerned about the move to reduce KFWE from a 6-hour event down to a 4-hour event, which felt tighter than previous years, it was nevertheless manageable. While KFWE 2024 was framed as a one-off media and industry event, it was nice to see it be limited once again. We shall see if this trend continues for next year, although, if so, it provides not only an opportunity for those in the media and industry to more easily connect, but also opens up space for other local kosher wine events to take place, as has happened both last year and this year. Once again, KFWE 2025 was wonderful – l’chaim!
