Month: May 2025

Shavuot is also known as the Feast of Weeks and Pentecost. It is the second harvest festival commemorating the wheat harvest. It commemorates the giving of the Torah, and many will stay up all night studying. We traditionally eat only dairy produce and white wines go best with the foods offered, especially if cheese is on the menu. Many wine folk will therefore be organizing cheese and wine parties and for this I recommend a variety of white and rose wines at different price points

The essence of Kashrut in wine may be found in the phrases Yayin Nesech and Stam Yeinam. Both are prohibited to wine drinkers who follow the Jewish Dietary Laws. Yayin Nesech is a wine poured in a libation by idol worshippers. Stam Yeinam is a wine owned, touched or moved by non-Jews. Quite often I am asked if a small winery I have written about is Kosher or not. Often I answer that though it is not, the wine is made by a Jew who is not an idol worshipper. It is meant to be tongue in cheek, but if we are talking tachles, then this sort of winery is not covered by the prohibitions of either Yayin Nesech or Stam Yeinam. In fact Kashrut in wine has been a moveable feast, changing over the years.