🍷 Kosher wine

Kosher wine is wine made under Jewish dietary law, kashrut, with a supervisor called a mashgiach watching every stage from crushing to bottling. The grapes themselves are always kosher; what counts is who handles the wine, which equipment and ingredients touch it and how it is sealed. ¹³

Why wine is different. Wine accompanied Temple offerings, sanctifies every Sabbath and fills the four cups of the Passover Seder. ¹ The Torah forbids yayin nesech, wine poured in a pagan libation; the rabbis extended the ban to any wine handled by non-Jews, stam yaynam, as a safeguard against intermarriage. ¹⁴ So wine and grape juice must come only from a rabbinically approved source, and brandy and wine vinegar need a seal too. ⁴

From crush to bottle. The Star-K divides supervision into four stages: crushing, fermentation, ageing and bottling. From the moment the juice is separated from the grapes, only Sabbath-observant Jews may handle the wine; non-Jews may not run machinery, open valves or start pumps. ¹³ During fermentation the wine is watched constantly or double-sealed, tasting and topping up barrels happen only under supervision, and the mashgichim manage the double seals at bottling. ³

Kosher runs and kashering. Many kosher wines are made as special runs at well-known non-kosher wineries around the world. ¹ Their equipment must first be kashered: large tanks are filled with fresh water for 24 hours and emptied, three days in a row, or scalded with boiling water, so agencies often dedicate tanks to kosher wine. ³ A plant may need from two or three to twenty-six mashgichim. ¹

Ingredients and Passover. Grapes are always kosher, but kosher wine is almost always kosher for Passover too: the yeast may not be grown on grain, processing aids must be suitable, barrels must be new or approved because many are sealed with flour paste, and corks are checked as well. ³ In ordinary winemaking isinglass from sturgeon is a common fining agent and bull's blood has been used for colour, while casein is allowed only when synthetic or supervised. ⁴⁵

Mevushal and mifustar. Mevushal wine has been cooked, so non-Jews may handle and pour it; some wineries heat the juice to 190 °F, but finer wines are often not mevushal because heat affects the taste. ¹ Rav Moshe Feinstein required more than 175 °F (about 80 °C) and the Tzelemer Rav at least 190 °F (about 88 °C); the OU lets flash-pasteurised wine be labelled mevushal or mifustar. ² For mevushal wine a full Sabbath-observant team is needed only until pasteurisation. ³

Wine from Israel. Grapes from the Land of Israel bring extra laws. Fruit from vines in their first three years, orla, may not be used, so religious agronomists mark replanted vines, and the tithes, terumot and maasrot, must be separated at the right time. ³ Wine from the sabbatical year, shmitta, is a separate issue: the Star-K and other international agencies do not certify it. ³

Beyond the bottle. Opened non-mevushal wine at home should be sealed or kept out of reach of non-Jewish household help. ¹ The same care covers products made with wine: according to the London Beth Din, wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar and brandy are not kosher without rabbinical supervision, and some consumers avoid whisky finished in wine casks. ⁵

Why it matters to you. Look for the seal of a recognised kashrut agency, and choose mevushal wine if non-Jewish staff will serve it. ¹⁴ Kosher says nothing about style: the choice has grown from a few sweet wines to more than a thousand on sale in the United States alone, from Europe, Israel, South Africa and Australia. ³ The WHO stresses that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption. ⁶