Toast with Wine for the Jewish New Year

With the Jewish “High Holy Days” of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur approaching, this is the perfect time to broaden your horizons and discover the kosher wine gems that Israel, California, Italy, and France have to offer. With the holidays starting September 25, it’s not too soon to start thinking about festive meals, gatherings with loved ones, and other traditions that go hand-in-hand with the fall Jewish holidays.

Fortunately, these notable wine producing regions have had another exceptional year for kosher wine production. That means there’s an excellent selection of exciting releases to choose from – and one less thing to worry about. They’re ready to serve now, so whether you’re planning to host a crowd or be a guest, you’re sure to find something deliciously suitable for the holiday table. 

Toast in the New Year Rosh with a refreshing glass of Herzog Lineage Momentus  or enjoy organic-certified-no-sulfites-added Herzog Variations Be-leaf Cabernet Sauvignon  – both pair well with beef and other traditional holiday meats.

 Terra di Seta from Tuscany, the first fully kosher winery in Europe (since 2008) which offers world-class and competitive Chianti Classico wines, is about to release for the first time a Super Tuscan called Guiduccio.

 This past year Terra di Seta won some of the highest accolades from the Wine Spectator, James Suckling, and Decanter, with multiple top ratings as high as 97 points.

 Connoisseurs of wines from Italy can look forward to Ovadia Estates’s Vermentino and the Lovatelli Barbera d’Asti. Villa Mangiacane, a renowned Italian producer, is also releasing its first kosher wine: Magnificus, a Super Tuscan.

 Barkan Winery, one of the largest producers in Israel, recently sent its star head winemaker Ido Lewinsohn MW to tour the US market ahead of the High Holidays.

Among the impressive wines he presented, the Barkan Classic Argaman has won industry-wide recognition and high ratings. Segal Winery, also overseen by Lewinsohn, released the Segal Native Marawi. Marawi is an ancient grape variety indigenous to the Holy Land, which was used for winemaking and the sacred services in the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem over 1,900 years ago.

 Carmel Winery, the veteran Israeli winery founded by Château Lafite’s Baron Edmond de Rothschild in 1882, released Buzz, a line of fruit flavored Moscato wines. These fun, low-alcohol, sweet, fruity wines target Generation Z, and are meant for casual drinking, parties. Three different flavors are available: peach, mango, and pineapple.

 On the French side, Royal is proud to introduce the J. de Villebois Sancerre Silex. Sancerre wines, from the Loire Valley, have been trending for a few years already, and the kosher market is no exception. This high-quality, complex Sauvignon Blanc features the terroir’s characteristics, with crunchy, juicy citrus flavors, earthy mineral and saline notes, and hints of flint. Château Les Riganes from Bordeaux, which already offers a red blend, a Sauvignon Blanc, and a rosé, just introduced two new varietal wines, a Malbec, and a Cabernet Franc.

 Royal is also looking forward to the release this fall of the first kosher Châteaueuf-du-Pape from the prestigious Domaine Raymond Usseglio & Fils in the Rhône Valley. 

In general, ‘Kosher’ is a term used to describe food that complies with the strict dietary standards of traditional Jewish law. It also applies to wine. Those amateur sommeliers among us will know that to make wine, yeast is necessary for fermentation. However, what separates kosher wine for non-kosher wine is that in accordance with Jewish law, Kosher wine is made with a mold grown of fruit or sugar — not bread. All wines and spirits from Royal Wine Corp are certified OU kosher.