And leaves with a 2004 Barbera d’Alba. Badum-bum.
I spent today exploring a part of LA’s hasidic Jewish neighborhood, otherwise known as N. Fairfax Ave. The street is lined with bakeries, the famed Canter’s deli and fading signs and storefronts of a once thriving strip of Orthodox outposts. I strolled into what I thought would be a wine shop named My Kosher Wine as it states on their website. But, in actuality, it is a single aisle in a seemingly nameless kosher grocery. But a long aisle. And it wasn’t stocked with only Manishewitz and Baron Herzog. There were Chateaux wines from Bordeaux, bottles from Chile, California, Spain, New York, Australia, South Africa, Israel (of course) and also…Italy. I first realized Kosher wine was being made in Italy, of all places, when I visited Andrea Pandolfo of Sant’Andrea, a winery an hour or so south of Rome. They make fantastic wine and in the past 10 years realized with just a few more steps in the process they could also add Kosher wine to their lineup. Good Italian Kosher wine. Gotta love it.
I picked up a bottle of 2004 “Rashi Select” Barbera d’Alba made and bottled by Batasiolo in La Morra (a stone’s throw from Barolo). But before I get to the bottle talk, let’s talk about Kosher wine- what’s the deal? Well, the vines are just like any vines and the grapes can be harvested by non-Jews, but once they arrive at the winery to be crushed the rest of the process must be under supervision of a rabbi. All equipment and barrels must be kosher (and washed 3 times) and only Sabbath-observing men can handle the wine. There are two types of Kosher wine, mevushal and non-mevushal. Take it away Wine.com:
A meshuval wine is one that has been pasteurized, meaning it has been brought to the boiling point and then cooled. While that sounds like it makes mevushal wines cooked, that is not quite the case. Newer technology and modern winemaking use flash pasteurization, where a wine is brought to the boiling point within seconds and cooled down just as quickly. In some tastings it is difficult to tell the difference between mevushal and non-mevushal. After a wine goes through the meshuval process, it remains kosher no matter what type of handling it receives. A non-kosher waiter or server can open the wine and it still remains kosher.
I wanted to try this mevushal business and see if, in fact, there was no difference in taste. I was delighted to see that the wine I wanted was indeed mevushal. How many times can I write mevushal in a blog post?
Verdict? Not altogether bad. It needed a bit of time in the glass to mellow out and I hate to say it but, it did have a slightly cooked grape juice vibe. But only very slight. Ultimately, it’s great to see that the options out there now for those keeping Kosher are far better than those of yesteryear. Realizing there is largely a big market still left untapped, winemakers are finally getting hip to the Kosher game. L’chaim!
