Best-Ever Passover Selection : Wide Variety of Reasonably Priced Vintage Kosher Wines Now Available

Passover wines, no longer limited to Concord grape types, are better than ever. There now is a worldwide selection likely to please even the most discriminating wine lovers.

To prove the point, three kosher-for-Passover California Chardonnays offer the same quality as the non-kosher variety.

A fine buy at $6.50 is Weinstock Cellars’ Chardonnay, 1985. Not for aging, it shows some complexity from its barrel-fermented, buttery style. Rabbi Jacob Traub of the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of San Francisco certifies the wine to be kosher for daily and Passover use.

Carrying the same certification is Hagefen (meaning the vine) Chardonnay, 1984, from the noted Winery Lake Vineyard. This has bigger structure in an assertive style but with little crispness. A bit hot in the finish from 13% alcohol, the wine should age nicely. It is an attractive bottle, but expensive at $13.50.

Assertive, Round Style

A new kosher wine is Sonoma County’s Domaine de Baron Jaquab de Herzog, 1985. Produced in Asti by consultant wine maker Peter Stern, formerly of Mirassou Vineyards, it offers good tropical fruit flavors in an assertive style which can age, but drinks nicely now. A bit of finish heat at 13.5% alcohol, it is priced at $9.89 and carries the certification of the Orthodox U, a respected kashrut (kosher) approval seal in America.

While so-called kosher wines have improved, controversy over the certification process continues. In Hebrew, the word kosher means fit, or fit for use. Rabbi Yale Butler, a leading Orthodox kosher consumer advocate, contends it is often a question of degree of personal acceptability. He said, “The Orthodox U enjoys a strong national reputation for uncompromising adherence to religious doctrine because rabbinical wine observers have special expertise and knowledge of religious codes that deal with wine and wine making. Many other Orthodox rabbis are totally unfamiliar with the techniques of proper kosher wine making. Therefore, the most stringently prepared wines are generally the most accepted.”

Controversy centers on whether kosher wine should be boiled or pasteurized, or as it is called in Hebrew, yayin mehvooshall , so that micro-organisms are destroyed, thereby rendering it stable. Several wine authorities conclude that complex development is thus impaired, although some kosher producers use flash pasteurization, the French method claimed to offer no aging impediment.

All rabbinical authorities agree on certain wine-making restrictions, including the prohibition of so-called foreign ingredients such as animal or fish substances, the use of clarifying agents such as gelatin or albumen, fermentation aids such as yeast, and several anti-foaming and de-foaming agents.

A new debut kosher wine line is Sonoma’s Gan Eden made by Craig Winchell, an Orthodox Jew. His wines carry the U certification and are not yayin mehvooshall , a requirement not always necessary to secure the seal.

Best of the three initial releases is Chenin Blanc, North Coast 1985. It is sweet and round with good fruit, texture and concentration. Priced at $6.50, sweet wine lovers will enjoy its 4% residual sugar from 72% Mendocino County grapes. At $5.75 a drier version, Chenin Blanc, 1985 from Alexander Valley, is fruity but relects an off-dry, somewhat sweetish taste in a round, non-crisp style at $4.29. Gewurztraminer, 1985, from the Alexander Valley at $7.50 is nicely spiced and aromatic in the nose, a bit sweet, heavy and ponderous.

Well balanced and priced at $5.50 is Weinstock Cellars Sauvignon Blanc, 1985. Although slightly sweet, its fresh clean nose and good varietal character make the wine attractive for today’s drinking. Don’t keep it more than a couple of years.

Among Good Buys

For white Zinfandel-style wine lovers, Weinstock’s 1985 at $4.50 makes good sense. Pinkish in color, it offers good fruit. Hagefen’s Pinot Noir Blanc, 1985, at $5.75 is also a good buy. It is marked by a pleasant strawberry soda-pop nose, common in blush wines, with Pinot Noir fruit that comes across as lightly but attractively sweet. Another in the blush mode is Herzog’s at $5.49. It is soft, low in alcohol at 8.5%, with a clean lively nose and off-dry taste.

Two other Herzog wines are reasonably priced. Chenin Blanc, North Coast, 1985, at 11% alcohol is clean and restrained, although off-dry. Better is an outstanding New York state 1985 Johannisberg Riesling. A good buy at $5.50.

Hagefen’s Johannisberg Riesling, 1984, at $8.75, is not as good as last year’s version. It is lighter-bodied and lacks its usual finesse. Better and perhaps one of the best kosher reds offered is Cabernet Sauvignon, Hagefen 1983, with a strong herbaceous Cabernet nose in a softer, mellower style than last year’s. It displays a bit of wood at a price of $12.

Kedem’s kosher imported wines are good choices, especially good-vintage reds from Bordeaux, such as Chateau Lepin, 1978, $9.49, and 1982, $7.29. The non-vintage, priced at $6.99, is drinkable but lacks fruit and class.

Other solid Kedem imports worthy of drinking are Bordeaux (dry white) Cante Loudette and its sweeter semi-dry version, both at $6.99. Also try Soave, Barbero, DOC 1984, with only a slight spritz and decent character at $4.99; Gewurztraminer AC, Vin de’Alsace, 1984, at $7.99. A Domaine de LaSalle Beaujolais Villages, 1984, at $6.99 is adequate, but has lost considerable freshness.

From the cooler climes of Israel’s Golan Heights, Kedem provides three decent wines under the Gamla label. Cabernet, 1983, long on Cabernet flavors, is drinkable, but a bit hot at $6.99. A semi-dry white, $5.99, with good clean flavors is pleasant.

Also from Israel are the wines of Carmel, a large cooperative established in the 19th Century. A good buy at around $13 is the nicely maturing Cabernet Sauvignon, Special Reserve, 1976, which has been aged in 75-gallon French oak. It displays a supple, soft, fat style that suggests drinking now. Also a good buy is Cabernet Sauvignon, Galil, 1981, with good structure but in a leaner style at the same price.

An Explosive Nose

Best of Carmel’s whites are Emerald Riesling, Samson, 1985, with an explosive fruity nose and taste at $4 and Chenin Blanc, Samson, 1985, a sweetish off-dry attractive wine at the same cost. Interestingly, one of Carmel’s best bottles is a Cabernet Blanc, Samson, 1985, in a lightly off-dry mode, with good jammy nose and considerable depth of flavor at $4.

Both Carmel and Kedem offer ample choices of the old Concord-style wines as well as several sparkling wines such as Carmel Sambatyon, Brut, 1979, Special Reserve, made in the methode champenoise style of a Champagne, and Kedem’s sweet Muscat sparkler, Asti Spumante, Barbero, DOC. The Brut would make a fine Seder beginning while the Spumante would make a deliciously sweet end. At long last this ancient ritual dinner is not only benefiting from a wider international kosher selection, but equally important, the wines are fit to drink.