Wine Blogging Wednesday #56: The Round-up

First of all, thanks needs to go out to all the participants.  I realize that this theme was a little tougher for people outside of metropolitan areas to participate in, and it pushed most of us out of our comfort zone. But, that's what is exciting about Wine Blogging Wednesday; it offers a chance to really explore the sections in the wine books we would normally skip over, or give us an opportunity to seek out something special. Here are results from our exploration of many Fine Kosher Wines from around the globe.

Debbie at Hudson Valley  Wine Goddess tried to visit her local Kosher winery, Kedem (part of the Royal Wine Corp.) in Marlboro, N.Y., but they were closed for Passover on Monday.  She picked up a 2002 Bordeaux (Entre Deux Mers) brought in by the Herzog Family.

Randy from The Wine Whore tried the Fortant Merlot 2005, imported by Skalli Family Wines, a Mevushal wine that got high bang-for-buck points.

Erika from StrumErika.com already had a favorite Kosher wine, Domaine du Castel 2005, but found another to try from the same area near Jersalem in the Judean Hills, Katlav, Wadi Katlav 2005. Worth the splurge? Read her blog and find out!

Ezekiel at A Flowery Song Ezekiel compared the normal supermarket fare, Manischewitz Concord Grape to something a bit finer, The Tishbi Cabernet-Petite Sirah 2007.

Sonadora at Wanna Be Wino would easily recommend the 2005 Galil Mountain Yiron from Galilee.

Michelle & Kevin at My Wine Education  had some samples on hand from Yarden and they opened the 2006 Galil Mountain Barbera from Gallilee.

Rob at Wine Post had the 2006 Galil Mountain Barbera from Gallilee too but had a different take on it.

Lowell from the PSychos' Path, a Petite Sirah focused blog, found one  that fit the bill, the 2005 Carmel Winery Appellation Petite Sirah from the Judean Hills.

Joe from I Wine Dude went the extra mile and tried two very different Kosher wines and has an awesome photo on the site!

Allison at A Glass After Work really took the Kosher theme and ran with it finding four wines, including a Chateauneuf du-Pape and a Prosecco.

Kori at Wine Peeps found a couple she wasn't crazy about, but found the event interesting none-the-less.

Kevin from Under The Grape Tree found some Kosher Pinotage from South Africa - check it out on his blog.

Liza at BrixChicks got a good pick, the 2007 Sion Creek White from Galilee.

John at Anything Wine found another Fortant pick, this time a Cabernet Sauvignon and his blog shows some of the required kosher marks to look for on your next bottle of Kosher wine.

Frank at Drink What You Like is in Australia and had a tough time finding something kosher until he landed on the Teal Lake 2007 Shiraz. Check out his notes.

Tom at Ithacork also took the plunge and tried some of the supermarket standards and some Herzog to compare and contrast. He even gives a little science lesson and de-mystifies the Jancis term, "Foxy".

Rémy from The Wine Case found a Spanish Kosher wine with some unusual grapes. Check it out.

Our humble founder, Lenn of Lenndevours, always the over-achiever, tasted six Kosher wines. His favorite was the 2006 Tzora Vineyards Givat Hachalukim Cabernet Sauvignon.

David from McDuff's Food & Wine Trail got to explore a lot of Kosher wines at a modern Israeli restaurant in Philadelphia, Zahav which has a large selection of Israeli wines, most of them Kosher. Check out his in-depth report.

Both Alder from Vinography and myself from the Corkdork got the royal treatment from Jeff Morgan, who makes very expressive and maybe the most expensive Kosher wines in Napa called The Covenant.

In analyzing all these blogs, what I'm left with is that with some exceptions, most Kosher wineries have some growing to do. While almost everyone that participated had some level of surprise in how sophisticated some of these wines could be, ultimately there were almost equal amounts of mediocre wines and wines with good marks. On the positive note, there were only five that were considered really sub-par. I was pleased that there was such a variety of countries represented: France, Australia, Spain, South Africa, Israel, Italy, and the U.S., with a surprising amount of Israeli wines --the distribution of Israeli wines is far wider than I imagined. 

Comments

[art predator]

I went to Herzog the week before WBW--only to find it already closed for Passover!

I went last night and just wrote a review of 6 of their wines--please check it out!

http://winepredator.wordpress.com

[Sonadora]

Great round up!

[Jonathan Kagan]

Thanks for all your hard work in pulling together this nice look at kosher wines. From your blog, I first learned of Covenant (Napa) and tried both their wines at my seder. I found them, the "Covenant" and "Red C" both very much better than any kosher wine I'd had previously (and I've had many). But even more, I particularly appreciate your last paragraph (above) because most of what people seem to be writing these days, when it comes to kosher wines, seems to me to suffer from the difficulty in unhooking from the past dearth of any kosher wines to taste and, as a result, exults these newer kosher entrants with praise that is totally out of proportion. I suspect some of your contributors only drink kosher wine and so, for them, this whole expansion is 'all good'. For those who don't restict ourselves, there is a vastly larger world of comparison in which only a very few of these kosher wines really rise much above the 'acceptable' level, and when price is factored in, they often fail badly. If we want to see continual improvement in this niche market, kosher wine consumers will need to judge these products on their actual merits, and we need to 'get over' the giddiness that we finally have some choice (justifiable delight, notwithstanding).