By Jules Polonetsky

The serious evaluation of any wine starts the same way regardless of what’s on the label: soil composition, canopy management, harvest decisions, cellar technique. Wine either delivers a convincing sense of where it comes from, or it doesn’t. That standard applies equally to every bottle Andrew Breskin carries through his San Diego-based boutique import house and curated club and retail website, Liquid Kosher.

Breskin came up through a world that had nothing to do with kosher wine. Starting in 2002, he worked retail floors, ran long-distance deliveries, and apprenticed under elite collectors and dealers who taught him the mechanics of international auction markets. By 2006, he had passed the Court of Master Sommeliers’ Certified Sommelier exam, and was tasting roughly 250 bottles a month across the full range of serious wine: Rhône rarities, classified Bordeaux, pristine German Rieslings, tightly allocated California producers. His palate was calibrated against the best the secular market had to offer.

Then he went to law school, committed to an observant Jewish lifestyle, and made a decision that most wine professionals would find professionally reckless: he liquidated the entire collection. Niche Rhône wines. German Rieslings. The California allocations that take years to get on. Gone. He has drunk exclusively kosher wine ever since.

That act of deliberate restriction is the foundation of everything Liquid Kosher does. The secular sensory memory becomes a permanent benchmark. Every bottle he considers is measured against what he knows the world’s best wines can do. After more than 15 years operating this way, his palate functions as both a filter and a guarantee. If it makes the portfolio, it passes that test.

Breskin explained that to really appreciate a wine region, you need to taste wines from multiple vineyards and winemakers. One of Breskin’s goals is to be able to offer multiple unique wines that allow deeper exploration of appellations where few options are today available.

The portfolio spans elite producers from around the world and Liquid Kosher members gain access to highly allocated bottles that rarely appear on the open market. Breskin does the sourcing, vets the producers, and members get access to bottles they could not otherwise find under kosher supervision.

Domaine Roses Camille: A Pomerol Estate in Full

No relationship in the Liquid Kosher portfolio better illustrates Breskin’s approach than his long-standing partnership with Christophe Bardeau of Domaine Roses Camille in Pomerol. Bardeau is widely regarded as one of the most serious winemakers working on the Right Bank. His wines are tightly wound, deeply structured, built for decades rather than seasons, and they have earned attention from critics and collectors. The fact that his entire estate production is now made under kosher supervision is, in the world of fine wine, a remarkable development. Domaine Roses Camille’s full range is kosher, and that has opened access to a level of Pomerol that observant collectors previously could not touch. Kosher wine insiders refer to the winery as the “kosher DRC,” alluding to the famed Burgundy estate Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

Breskin carries several cuvées from the estate, ranging from the flagship Pomerol to more accessible entry points. The newest addition to the lineup is the one drawing the most attention. Although Bardeau’s top wines can cost more than $200, he has made more affordable wines that are well regarded. Until now, he had never made a mevushal wine, nor one under $50.

2021 Audace du Petit Moulin Bordeaux Mevushal | $42.99

Bardeau’s inaugural mevushal project treats the flash-pasteurization not as a constraint to work around but as a variable to engineer for. The fruit, from sandy-gravel soils, was fermented in concrete to maximize clarity and varietal expression, then finished in neutral oak for texture without wood interference. Bright red cherry and crushed violets on the nose, with quiet earthy depth. The entry is soft, the mid-palate structured — crisp integrated acidity, fine-grained tannins, a graphite minerality that focuses the finish rather than letting it wander. The wine is additionally certified by the CRC certification relied on in communities like Williamsburg and Lakewood.

2020 Clos Lavaud Lalande-de-Pomerol | $79.99

The Barbanne stream separates Lalande-de-Pomerol from Pomerol proper, and the price gap between the two appellations remains disproportionate to the quality gap. The soils share the same gravel, clay and iron-rich characteristics, and the talent of winemaker Bardeau shines through. The 2020 Clos Lavaud is a textbook argument for looking across the stream. Dark plum and red currant lead the nose, with cedar notes adding structure. The palate is plush without being heavy — silken texture, supple tannins, alcohol well-integrated into the frame. It is expressive now and structured for the medium term.

2024 Gehring ‘Roter Hang’ Riesling | $39.99

The Liquid Kosher portfolio extends far beyond Christophe Bardeau. Kosher German Riesling under serious supervision has been nearly impossible to find. This bottle from Weingut Gehring in Nierstein, certified Kosher for Passover Lemehadrin under the Beit Din of Amsterdam, represents the kind of find that defines the Liquid Kosher model. The Roter Hang is one of the Rhine’s most storied terroirs, with a steep cliff face, iron-rich clay and sandstone. The river acts as a thermal mirror to achieve full phenolic ripeness while preserving Riesling’s natural acidity.

The 2024 is bone-dry and laser-focused. Honeysuckle, white peach and fresh lime blossom on the nose with a wet-slate minerality on the palate that provides structural tension against the orchard fruit. The acidity is high and persistent without aggression, the kind of Riesling architecture equally compelling alongside poached salmon or roast chicken as it is on its own. At $39.99, this is exceptional value from one of Germany’s most important sites.

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.