What makes wine kosher, and what are the best bottles out there to grace your seder table this year? Read on...

Like any product marked with an "O" or "U" or "K", kosher wine production is a carefully monitored process, with much attention to cleanliness and a Rabbi’s watchful eye from grape picking to corking. The barrels, for example, must be cleaned three times before use. Spot a "P" nearby and the wine is also kosher for Passover, meaning that the yeasts and refining agents are kosher for Passover too.

The Jewish people have always sanctified the Sabbath and holidays with wine. At the Passover seder we express four types of freedom with wine. At the Tu B’shvat seder we represent four worlds of spirituality with wine. The sheva brachot at a wedding are recited over wine. It is particularly because wine is so important to Jewish observance and celebration that there are strict Rabbinical regulations on wine. Both the Jews and the ancient pagans used wine in their rituals. During the period of the Second Temple (second and third centuries, BCE) Jewish and Greek society began to mix, causing intermarriage and assimilation which threatened the future of the Jewish people. The Rabbis thus decided they needed a mechanism to keep the Jewish people separate from the Greek society. To do so, they prohibited the eating of grape and grape products if they were grown by an unsupervised non-Jew. Strict codification of koshering wine began with Maimonides, otherwise known as Rambam, who specified production requirements to guard the purity and sanctity of wine.

Thus the basics of kosher wine:

1. Equipment used to make the wine are used exclusively for the production of Kosher products.
2. Only certified kosher products (yeast, filtering agents, etc.) can be used.
3. The grapes and wine can be handled only by Sabbath observant Jews from grape crushing to consumption.

Over two thousand years ago, the Rabbis decided that a non-Jew couldn’t produce or pour wine for a Jew. But they also wanted to prevent Jewish wine from being used for pagan rituals. Boiled wines were considered unfit for pagan worship, and thus mevushal (pasteurization) was developed as a means of preventing wine produced for Jewish ceremonies to be used in pagan rituals. Mevushal wines, then, could be poured by non-Jews since there was no threat of them taking part in the drinking of this wine. Today this means that non-Jewish caterers can pour kosher mevushal wine at parties, in hotels and at restaurants.

Wine undergoes chemical changes when it is boiled, and thus for many years kosher wine was not highly rated amongst wine connoisseurs. However a recent study at the University of California at Davis, has proven that it is not possible to consistently taste the difference between non- mevushal and mevushal wine. Why is this? Technology, of course! Since the mid-1980’s there have been many advances enabling a sophisticated technical process - flash pasteurization (similar to how juices are pasteurized) - during which the wine is held for a three seconds at an elevated temperature of 168 degrees, then quickly cooled. Some wine experts say this process even enhances aromatic qualities of the wine, and stabilizes the tannin and color of the wine. Here are some choice picks for this year’s Passover table:

Baron Herzog, Chenin Blanc 2000 $8
A great value from Clarksburg, California. Chenin blanc is a grape variety known for its juicy melon notes and floral aromas, and this off-dry version highlights those qualities in a soft, easy drinking style.

Barkan Reserve Chardonnay 1998 $14
A dry and pleasing Chardonnay from Galilee with delicious pear, apple and grapefruit flavors.