By Jules Polonetsky
A lot has moved in the wine world over the past few months. Here is what the kosher consumer should know.
The World Loses Michel Rolland
Michel Rolland, the Bordeaux oenologist often called the original flying winemaker, died on March 20 at age 78 after a heart attack. He was, at his peak, the most sought-after consulting winemaker on the planet, with clients on five continents and a hand in some of the most acclaimed bottlings of the last 50 years. His first Bordeaux clients included the top wineries, including eventually many of those that produce kosher runs, including the famed Angélus. He went on to consult in California for cult names and helped transform Argentine Malbec into an international category through his work in the Uco Valley.
His influence in Israel was substantial as well. Rolland was brought in to consult for Amphorae Winery in 2008, and advised other wineries as well, but his influence was broad and shaped the strategies of numerous Israel wineries who adopted his Bordeaux innovations that enabled the release of intense wines that were immediately drinkable without years of aging. If you like high alcohol, super fruity intense wines from Israel or California, Rolland shares some of the credit, along with critic Robert Parker. Rolland’s personal family estate Château Fontenil in Fronsac produces a kosher run, so kosher consumers do have a Rolland wine made by Rolland himself on the shelves. For those who watched grand cru estates open the door to kosher productions over the last decade, his fingerprints are everywhere.
Angélus Kosher First Wine Reportedly Coming
Speaking of estates Rolland helped build, the kosher wine world is buzzing about Château Angélus. Carillon d’Angélus, the second wine of the Saint-Émilion Premier Grand Cru Classé A estate, has been available in a kosher single-run version since the 2022 vintage. Now the rumor making the rounds is that the “wine doctor,” Ralph Madeb, a leading negociant and importer, will soon announce a kosher version of the Angelus Grand Vin itself. The price will be likely be record setting for kosher wine, given the stratospheric price of $359.99 for the second level wine (at kosherwine.com). The Tempo d’Angelus is a cheaper entry-level wine produced by the estate.
It is worth pausing on why this is happening. A kosher run is not a small undertaking for a top estate. It requires Sabbath-observant cellar workers, dedicated equipment, separate fermentations, and a rabbinic supervisor on premises. Part of the answer is that the kosher consumer is one of the few growing segments in a wine market that is otherwise contracting hard. For an estate looking at softening demand among its traditional customers, a kosher single-run is a small production with a guaranteed buyer in Royal Wine or one of the European negociants, sold into a segment that is not flinching at the prices.
The Negev Appellation Is Official
After many years of work led by the Merage Foundation Israel and leading Israeli wine experts, the Negev has been formally recognized as an Israeli appellation of origin. The region stretches from Kiryat Gat to Eilat, includes more than 60 wineries, and produces over a million bottles a year, with rules requiring at least 85% of grapes grown and the wine produced in the region. Negev wines tend to be fresh, mineral and distinctive in a way that surprises tasters who expect desert heat to mean jam: cool nights, elevation in places like Ramat Negev and the Yatir Forest, and salty mineral soils give the wines a fingerprint of their own. Yatir is the established flagship; Pinto, Nana, Ramat Negev and Midbar are the other Negev wineries currently exporting to the U.S. The Negev becomes Israel’s second formal appellation, after Judea was recognized in 2020.
Herzog Lake County, Mevushal and Non-Mevushal
Herzog’s Special Reserve Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the workhorses of the American kosher market, drawn from volcanic red soils north of Napa at elevation, with a dry climate that pushes ripeness without baking the fruit. The 2022 vintage is on shelves now in both mevushal and non-mevushal bottlings. If you have ever wanted to conduct a tasting test to see if you can tell the difference between identical wines, one mevushal (flash pasteurized so it can be served without kosher concerns at restaurants and catering halls) and one not, this is a great opportunity.
KFWE Miami: The Only Public KFWE on the East Coast
KFWE Miami has been set for Dec. 16. Hosted by WIZO as a fundraiser and pouring exclusively from the Royal Wine portfolio, KFWE Miami is now the only Kosher Food and Wine Experience on the East Coast that is open to the general public. The New York and New Jersey event in February returned to a trade and media only format for the third consecutive year. If you want to taste broadly across the kosher wine market in one room, Miami is now where you go.
The Bigger Picture
All of this is happening against a backdrop the trade press has been chewing on for weeks. Americans are drinking significantly less wine than they were a decade ago. Baby boomers are aging out, younger consumers are choosing spirits and ready-to-drink cocktails when they drink at all, and California wineries are laying off workers and pulling vines. The kosher wine market, however, is holding.
Royal Wine’s Jay Buchsbaum told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last month that the company saw sluggishness, but not the kind the broader industry is experiencing. Jeff Morgan of Covenant put it more bluntly: Americans, he argued, never built a real wine culture, and are following fads, while Jewish life has been structured around wine for thousands of years as a ritual obligation.
Put it together and the Angélus rumor stops being surprising. When a Premier Grand Cru Classé A estate considers the trouble of a kosher production, it is looking at the same numbers everyone else in the trade is looking at and reaching a reasonable conclusion. Selling at a premium price to the kosher market, even if the volume is small, now makes economic sense. So, one interesting upside of the weakness in the wine market may be an increasing number of elite wines for kosher consumers from the broader market.
Jules Polonetsky is a Wine and Spirits Education Trust Level 3 certified wine expert who edits a wine education website at kosher-wine.org. He is a former consumers affairs commissioner for New York City.
