Month: September 2025

It is not just Rosh Hashanah this week, but also International Negroni Week. Two important occurrences coincide! Negroni Week lasts from September 22-28th. This is the most famous Campari cocktail, which most probably was adapted from an Americano, a cocktail of Campari with sweet vermouth and soda water. The unsubstantiated folklore says a Count Camillo Negroni from Florence, was unsatisfied with alcoholic punch of his Americano. Therefore, he ordered his own version, asking for gin in place of the soda water. That was estimated to be 1919, and the Negroni cocktail was born.

Many families still use Kiddush wines for Shabbat because of tradition. These are the sweet red sacramental wines that really gave kosher wines a bad name. Those in wine education have always tried to upgrade these, reminding people that there is nothing written that a wine for Kiddush has to be sweet and poor quality. In fact, I remember a Haredi wine lover who taught me a lesson. He would buy 52 bottles of Yarden Cabernet Sauvignon each year and make Kiddush using a Riedel glass just to honor Shabbat.