Looking for a nice new Kosher wine to go with your Passover festivities? Then the Oxbow Cheese & Wine Merchant has exactly what you need. Come in and ask the staff about their new Kosher wine selection. You won’t be disappointed!
Long gone are the days when Kosher wines were either treacly sweet or pure drek! Jeff Morgan makes these two wines for his Covenant label, and if somebody didn’t tell you they were Kosher you would never know from tasting the wines themselves.
The 2014 Mensch California White, Lodi, $20 “Mensch” is Yiddish for someone who is a genuinely good soul, the kind of person you would turn to when you needed help or support, and they would be there for you. This wine is a blend of Roussanne and Semillon harvested in Lodi. It was barrel fermented with native yeast, but only shows a little bit of oak on the palate. The fruit character is mostly yellow apple with just a hint of melon. Medium-bodied, dry but not austere.
The 2014 The Tribe Red Blend, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma, $38.50 This fine red is a filed blend of Syrah, Petite Sirah, and Zinfandel, all from one Dry Creek Valley vineyard. The 3 varieties are picked together and co-fermented. It is a fairly rich red, with ripe plum and dark berry fruit, a bit of oak and soft tannins. It is reminiscent of a southern Rhone blend, although those usually have Grenache in a starring role and here there is none. Like the white Mensch, you would never know this was Kosher if you weren’t told. The name is, of course, a reference to the 12 Tribes of Israel and the Old Testament.