Here’s to Passover: new wines with soul

AT a recent “warmup” Seder held at Herzog Wine Cellars in Oxnard, the leader Jay Buchsbaum invoked several Talmudic passages that emphasized the relationship between the faithful and wine. “Wine gladdens the heart of man,” he began, and none of us needed a scholar to tell us that.

“When the wine goes in,” he continued, “the truth comes out,” interpreting truth here to mean a person’s essence, revealed as inhibitions ease. This too seemed beyond dispute. Finally, he said, “There is no joy without wine,” and we could all agree, except for one very thorny sticking point: The kosher wines drunk at most American tables are unlikely to bring any serious wine lover much joy.

In America, kosher wines have traditionally meant sweet, pungent, unbalanced, rot-gut clunkers, not so much drunk at celebrations as choked down. Where is the joy in that?

But in recent years some winemakers have been working to change the dominant paradigm. During the meal that followed this Seder, prepared at the restaurant adjoining the winery, Tierra Sur, a group of varietal wines from Herzog were poured that, along with wines from a handful of other kosher brands, are bucking the trend.

Perhaps no religious holiday on Earth has wine more central to the celebration than the Passover Seder. It is used in toasts and oaths, ceremoniously spilled to symbolize atonement. Even the intoxication is sanctioned in its way; each participant, after all, is supposed to drink four cups of wine with the meal.

Some Jewish texts have used wine to symbolize a creation from God brought into fruition by human hands, a natural wonder made more wonderful by human intercession.

For nearly 200 years the Herzog family has been making wine, first in the former Czechoslovakia, and later in America, where the family immigrated, penniless, in 1948. Within a decade of its arrival, the family held majority stock in Royal Wine Co., and built Royal and the family’s eponymous label into reigning kosher brands.(Buchsbaum is vice president of marketing at Royal.) Some of their wines were made from Vitis labrusca, a species of grape indigenous to the eastern U.S. that includes Concord. Others were made from more palatable vinifera varieties, but still made sweet to accommodate what had become a “kosher” palate.

In the mid-1980s, the family started a West Coast operation, making kosher wines from California fruit. The wines’ success led the family, in the late ‘90s, to explore the possibility of a high-end, California reserve program, and in 1998, Herzog hired Joe Hurliman to make these wines.

Hurliman learned his craft as an assistant winemaker to John Alban, an Arroyo Grande winemaker devoted to Rhone varieties. Hurliman isn’t Jewish, which mitigates his role as winemaker in interesting ways. A kosher wine must be made and handled by Sabbath-observing Jews to ensure its purity. This means that Hurliman can’t even touch the wine he’s making; he must instead convey his wishes to his Jewish crew.

Despite the restrictions, Hurliman, who studied philosophy at university, was intrigued by the challenge, not only logistically, but also intellectually.

“When I started we had daily study sessions,” he says, “and we read the rabbinical commentary that exists to support it so I could understand what it meant to the faithful to be certified.”

Ultimately for Hurliman, these seemed no less mysterious or wondrous than what happened in the cellar.

“Winemaking involves faith,” he says, referring to the transformations in tank and barrel. “As a winemaker you have to move beyond the things that have no substance.”

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New location

THE most significant hurdle for any domestic kosher wine operation is manpower: Few wine regions in this country can boast a competent work force of Sabbath-observant Jews. This is why the Herzog family recently moved its West Coast operations to Oxnard, which puts it near Central Coast wine country and not far from L.A.’s sizable Jewish population.

The result is a tier of wines that has sensual and spiritual appeal. These are varietal wines from many of California’s finer appellations, including a spicy Syrah from the cool Edna Valley, a spot-on Russian River Chardonnay and an approachable, well-built blend of Cabernet, Zinfandel and Syrah that show a depth of character that Mogen David can only dream of.

Napa cookbook author, wine writer and winemaker Jeff Morgan makes a kosher Cabernet called Covenant and he makes it as a calculated response to what he and his partner, Leslie Rudd, were raised on. Morgan, who was raised in a Reform Jewish household, used to work as a wine buyer for Leslie Rudd at Dean & Deluca.

Rudd parlayed some of his success at Dean & Deluca into the purchase of Larkmead Vineyards in Oakville, Napa Valley, and a winery bearing his name soon followed. Some years later Rudd and Morgan got into a conversation about kosher wine, says Morgan, and Rudd asked him, “So why do you think kosher wine is so terrible?”

At the time, Morgan says, he couldn’t really say, but he added, as a dare, “You know, if you gave me some of your Oakville grapes, I bet I could make a pretty good kosher wine.” That was the birth of Covenant Wines. Rudd and Morgan became partners; Rudd parted with a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon from his vineyard, and Morgan arranged to make the wine kosher.

In Napa, of course, Rudd and Morgan faced the same issue of manpower. That’s when Morgan contacted the Herzogs and asked if he could make his wine at their facility, and they agreed. He harvests his grapes in the early hours of the morning, and transports them in small bins by refrigerated truck seven hours from Napa to Oxnard. Morgan feels that this cool temperature “settling” improves the flavors at crush.

The 2004 Covenant Cab is a Napa Cabernet first, and a kosher wine second. It’s a broad, lush, big-shouldered wine with deep cassis and plum fruit flavors and a rich, almost plush texture. At $85, it’s probably the most expensive of this new breed. But as kosher wines go, it’s positively luxurious.

For many observant Jews, the most fail-safe method of ensuring that a wine is kosher is through the method called mevushal (Hebrew for “boiled,” although vintners shy away from this definition) in which a wine is heated before bottling to ensure purity.

That used to mean a process that seriously damaged the wine, stripping it of flavor while rendering its color unstable and unappetizingly pale. Modern methods, however, which Hurliman calls “high-temp short time,” akin to flash pasteurization, have most experts struggling to tell the difference between mevushal and non-mevushal. Hurliman, who submits a few of his reds and all of his whites to the process, thinks it enhances the aromatics of his white wines, his Chenin Blanc in particular.

Ernie Weir owns Hagafen Cellars, the only kosher winery in the Napa Valley. He recently showed me his mevushal apparatus, a device that pushes wine through a labyrinth of coils and tanks at 15 gallons a minute.

“The whole thing takes seconds to go through the cycle,” he explains. Weir spent several years tasting for differences in quality before he adopted the process. “I was skeptical originally,” he says, “but I put one wine, then another wine through the process, and nothing [negative] seemed to be happening.”

It’s hard to be certain. I found some of the Hagafen reds to have a disjointed quality on the palate, a sag in the middle. Of course I tasted them looking for evidence of heat treatment, so it’s impossible to say whether that was the product of mevushal processing, some other winemaking procedure, or simply a self-fulfilling prophesy. On the other hand, the whites were uniformly fine, in particular the 2004 Riesling from an old vineyard in Napa, which recently took a best of show at the New World International Wine Competition in San Bernardino.

All of these winemakers would like to put behind them the less than stellar reputation kosher wines have earned until recently. “It’s not fair to relegate us in a way that diminishes the effort,” says Weir, whose tasting room in Napa doesn’t really employ the “k” word unless asked. There is a Torah scroll at the entrance, though, which often gets the conversation started.

Meanwhile, for Jeff Morgan, making kosher wines has meant interacting with the faithful in a way he never has before, obliging him to see his religion in a powerful new light. “I have rabbis that come to Napa and make a special trip to my house,” he says. “They teach me about my roots, I teach them about 20th century winemaking.” And he’s quick to add, “I think I’m learning more than they are.”

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Delicious possibilities for Passover

This small list below represents a healthy cross-section of the new breed of kosher wines from vintners who are trying to put the old breed of kosher (coarse, sweet concoctions poured from a jug) behind them. All are domestic, from California, made with Vitis vinifera varieties, and are listed here in order of preference.

2004 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley. From Leslie Rudd’s estate vineyard in Oakville, a full-on Napa Cab with black fig and cassis scents. It’s broad-shouldered with an almost pillowy texture and fruit as rich as plum pudding flavored with cinnamon. Its ripe tannins have a dusty grip that give the wine a long, powerful finish. It’s drinking well now but will benefit from some cellar time. At Duke of Bourbon in Canoga Park, (818) 341-1234; Mission Wines in South Pasadena, (626) 403-9463; Wally’s Wine & Spirits in Los Angeles, (310) 475-0606. About $85.

2002 Herzog Special Reserve Red Blend. Blended from Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and a small amount of Syrah, from largely Central Coast and Napa sources, it gets its smoky black herb aromas from Cabernet and its briary red fruit scents from Zinfandel. On the palate it’s meaty and satisfying, with earthy black cherry and plum flavors, as well as sweet firm tannins. It’s a robust wine. Available at Robert Burns in Beverly Hills, (310) 274-0033; Vendome Liquors in Beverly Hills, (310) 276-9463 and Studio City, (818) 766-5272. About $34.

2005 Hagafen Estate Riesling, Napa Valley. Fresh, light and peachy with pretty, forward aromatics of apricots and peach blossoms. The tense and nervy fruit flavors exhibit touches of peach and citrus, with refreshing, mouthwatering acidity. At Duke of Bourbon; Hi-Time Wine Cellars in Costa Mesa, (949) 650-8463; and Woodland Hills Wine Co. in Woodland Hills, (818) 222-1111. About $21.

2002 Kiddush Hashem Syrah, Great Oaks Ranch Vineyard, Santa Barbara County. This wine is a one-man show from certified kosher winemaker Samuel Perez. From a vineyard in the Santa Ynez Valley, it’s a stalwart Syrah with vibrant color and aromas of black raspberry and cassis lined by a wild herb spice. Powerful and full-bodied on the palate with flavors of black raspberry and black cherry and lots of grip; decant first to smooth the tannins. A good match for lamb or braised beef. At Larchmont Village Wines & Spirits in Los Angeles, (323) 856-8699; and the Kosher Club in Los Angeles, (323) 933-8283. About $30.

2003 Herzog Special Reserve Syrah, Edna Ranch Vineyard, Edna Valley. Pure expression of cool climate Syrah with deep, rich scents of blackberry and black plum and a spicy top note as if dusted with white pepper. Its flavors are clean and well delineated, dark fruits supporting a core of spice and firm tannins for a long finish. Should be good with lamb. At Duke of Bourbon. About $30.

2004 Hagafen Pinot Noir, Napa Valley. Scents of wild strawberry and fruit tree blossoms, with clean red fruit flavors and a nice snap to the acids in the finish. A lighter-bodied Pinot for lighter dishes. At Duke of Bourbon; and John & Pete’s Fine Wines & Spirits in West Hollywood, (310) 657-3080. About $32.

2004 Herzog Special Reserve Chardonnay, Russian River Valley. Combining freshness and a lactic richness, this Russian River Chardonnay has aromas of lemon curd and butterfat, with hints of vanillin. The roasted apple flavors are rich and round, generously proportioned, with a buttery finish. At Herzog Wine Cellars, Oxnard, (805) 983-1560. About $30.

-- Patrick Comiskey