Month: March 2019

It was Shabbat morning. Most people were taking the opportunity to lie in bed an extra hour. I saw Assaf Kedem, wine grower and tourism pioneer, sitting silently, on his haunches, with a cherished, well-earned cigarette held between thumb and forefinger, like an inscrutable, zen figure, contemplating the future. He is never one to sit on his laurels. Assaf is worker, not a man of words. He does not have dreams, but a vision. He does not reach outside of the family circle for help, he has achieved everything with his own hands.

Making kosher wine in California is not new. Occasionally wineries started up, but they did not last or pass any test of quality. The first was Anaheim Winery, owned by a German immigrant Bernard Dreyfus, in the 1860’s. Later on, in the 20th century, Rabbis looking to supplant their meagre income would visit California to make a wine there, for them to sell to the Jewish community back home on the East Coast. It was more common for winemakers from the New York region to make a pilgrimage there to buy grape juice concentrate, for use as a natural sweetener for the wines instead of adding sugar.

Don’t shout it from the rooftops, but the majority of people are not that interested in wine. Most people don’t go to tastings, don’t check wine scores or read wine articles. They don’t know the difference between Merlot and Cabernet, or even Merlot or Pinot Noir. They just don’t care. However, some of them buy wine and enjoy drinking it. Their criteria for choosing is refreshingly simple. To choose what is tasty and drink what they like.
Those of us in the wine business have a passion that extends beyond the drink itself. We like to talk about wine and read about wine, almost as much as drinking it. Yet, all of us in the wine trade are guilty of building an ivory tower, which is only accessible to those who speak the language. We are rightly accused of only speaking about wine in terms of baskets of fruits or critic scores. We rave about winemakers like famous chefs, and discuss different vintages, terroir, soils and elevation, which are part of the fascination that makes wine so much more than just a drink. I admit the talk is pretentious, elitist and I suppose it is a self-perpetuating club. The disease is fairly widespread amongst winos.