[Sca-cooks] Tonight on the Food Network - Biblical Foods

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Huette von Ahrens:

>Mogen David wines are also from New York and they
>also produce the same four kinds of wine,
>although I think their regular Concord is less
>sweet than Manishevitz.
>
>Now you may be asking why a shiksah like me knows
>about kosher wines. Well, they also make the best
>wines to use for communion.

Eeew. Presumably for the preservative properties of sugar, as Aellen suggested.

>   The sweet Concord
>are universally liked and its flavor lasts a long
>time after opening a bottle, unlike regular
>drinking wines.

See above...

>  >
>>  I always assumed this was a stylistic choice.
>>  Are Kosher wines in
>>  Europe and elsewhere generally dry? I thought
>>  vintners like
>>  Manischewitz are imitating European wines like
>>  Malaga and Muscatel.
>>  Is it just that these styles are best suited to
>>  the Concorde grape?
>>  If so, have Kosher wines made in California any
>>  different?
>
>You know, I know of no Californian wine
>specifically made as a kosher wine.  Manishevitz
>and Mogen David are from New York.  I have seen
>another, which I believe calls itself Kaddish and
>is from Israel.  But I don't believe Concord
>grapes grow as well here in California, which may
>  be why.

That's pretty much what I was asking, though. What, if any, 
connection exists between Concordes as a variety of grape and the 
Kosherness of the wine? Is it a convenient grape to use for the kind 
of sweet wines preferred for Kosher use, or is the sweetness of the 
wine merely a side effect of using Concorde grapes, which are for 
some other reason often used for Kosher wines?

Aellen's suggestion that the stuff can be opened and kept for a 
considerable period of time makes a fair amount of sense. Of course, 
then a Kosher sherry or Madeira would be the way to go, IMO. If there 
is such a thing.

>  I am speculating here.

I thought Laurels weren't supposed to do that... _I_ never do... ;-)

>   I know that
>there are Jewish winemakers here in California,
>but they don't seem to be competing for the
>kosher wine trade.

I think perhaps there are more such now than there used to be.

Adamantius