Comments on: Attention: Major Media Outlets

By: Rebecca Freedman-Beraldi

Rebecca Freedman-Beraldi — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 18:08:20 +0000

Hi,
I own a wine shop in Beacon Hill - and I’m guilty as charged. I do a weekly newsletter via email - and I don’t usually focus on the kosher wines much more before Passover. I’m sorry!! We have some kosher wines in stock regularly - but because we’re a specialty type wine shop - we’re able to special order most things and get them within a day. So keep that in mind as you find new kosher wines that you like - we can most likely get them for you if it’s not something already in the store.

Cheers!

By: Craig Winchell

Craig Winchell — Mon, 09 May 2005 22:53:27 +0000

BS”D

My peeve is that the articles sometimes come out with recommendations, but they rarely are run more than a week before Pesach. Assuming truly interesting wine suggestions by the publication, one would like to have the opportunity to purchase a bottle or 2. It would be nice, therefore, for such informative articles to be published at lest 2 weeks, and preferably 4 weeks ahead of Pesach. That minimizes last-minute scrambling to find interesting wines, which may not be availble in the immediate vicinity, or may be in short supply.

Craig

By: CT Kosher Ben Noach

CT Kosher Ben Noach — Wed, 04 May 2005 23:10:45 +0000

Based upon casual observations of a wide variety of local Jews purchasing wine, both for Pesach and otherwise, I’m not so sure everyone “knows” about the wide variety of kosher wines available. One would have to not only “know” about this fact, but would also have to “know” about the concept of a wide variety of wines in general. One would also need access to a good store that actually stocks a variety of good quality kosher wines that sell often enough to prevent the stock from aging poorly.

Having said that, it was a pleasure to direct a few fellow shoppers at an excellent local store toward some of nice kosher table wines available at reasonable prices. Besides, ever since I discovered that the concentrated sulfites in heavy sweet wines (and grape juices) cause - well, really bad things to happen to me - it’s been a requirement to migrate toward the slightly sweet and dry wines for our table. The Dalton Canaan white blend was very nice indeed!

Good kosher wines - can a visit from Eliahu haNavi be far behind?
I almost feel guilty having a few bottles of really nice west coast “yayin stam” in the rack. Almost.

By: Steve M.

Steve M. — Tue, 03 May 2005 16:29:48 +0000

One searches in vain for a well-written article about kosher wine that doesn’t act SHOCKED that there are indeed excellent kosher wines. HELLO?!! Where have the reviewers been for the last decades?! Let’s hope we can lose the hackneyed annual putdown of kosher wine.

By: SLS

SLS — Tue, 03 May 2005 13:44:50 +0000

I’d just as soon they think we’re still drinking the grape soda with a kick. That way, they’ll ignore our wines and leave more on the shelf for me. :)

By: nonmevushalmarc

nonmevushalmarc — Tue, 03 May 2005 11:47:26 +0000

No reason for embarrassment, SLS. We also used the sweet Almog (Carmel, I believe) for the four cups because of the gulping and (egads!) spilling. The issue that we’re discussing here, though, is that the rest of the world would do well to stop thinking of the pancake-syrup version of kosher wine as the baseline - that stuff is increasingly becoming a novelty, or at least relegated to the suitable-only-for-kiddush category.

By: SLS

SLS — Tue, 03 May 2005 09:05:53 +0000

Should I be embarassed that I did, indeed, use Manishewitz for the four cups? I really enjoy a good glass of wine, but with the seder requiring almost a gulping of wine, I hated to waste the better wines in a way they could not be enjoyed. I saved the good bottles for the last days of Pesach, when I & my guests could properly enjoy a decent wine.

By: nonmevushalmarc

nonmevushalmarc — Tue, 03 May 2005 01:05:05 +0000

Well said! Given the ubiquity (and, actually, dominance) of high quality/high end kosher restaurants, products for home use, and yes - wines, it is unfortunate that the media (and Jewish media outlets are included in this) insist on hearkening back to the days of yuch. In fact, it is almost harder to find a casual, mid-priced restaurant in NYC than it is to find a fancy one (something that could perhaps be discussed elsewhere). Needless to say (or perhaps as has already been said much more eloquently by Jabbett), the kashrut ship has landed and brought with it some wonderful bounty for us foodie Jews - the media are officially excused from having to remind us of this - but keep the reviews coming, they make us feel appreciated.