OK, a strange title considering where I am going with this brief post. I attended a wedding last night. The bride is a girl I have known virtually my whole life as our mothers have been close since their high school days. The bride was beautiful, the guests were all jolly, enjoying the holiday weekend & the fabulous weather we’ve suddenly been hit with here in the NY Metro area. The Long Island country club that hosted the event was marvelous, with lush greenery & abundant flowers in bloom.

But I am writing about the one part of the wedding that was lacking. And this problem is not exclusive to this wedding. It was a kosher wedding, and as such required not just kosher wine, but kosher “MEVUSHAL” wine. “Mevushal” refers to a process whereby the wine goes through a flash pasteurization. While most critics advise against trying to age a mevushal wine, there are a select few wines that go through this flash pasteurization and are actually not bad. Sadly these wines were not available at last night’s wedding, or just about any kosher catered wedding I have attended. It seems there is a universal agreement between kosher caterers to carry the nastiest wine possible at these affairs.

My problem with this runs deep. But for the sake of brevity, lets simply say that going all out to serve nicely presented, well prepared & flavorful food (as was the case last night) with sub-par wine (I’m being generous)…well, that is like having a P, B & J sandwich without the J (or with an awful jam). Like fries without ketchup (or with watery “catsup”). Like a hot dog with no (or bad) mustard.

A good meal deserves good wine. And these thin, weak, generic, cooked wines being served at kosher affairs are an embarrassment. ESPECIALLY when there are so many very fine kosher wines on the market these days. However, most of the best wines are not put through the flash pasteurization process and as such are not suitable for these kosher events. I am far from a rabbinic authority, and I am not sure how to get around the need for Mevushal wine, but I suggest the kosher supervision companies come up with some sort of solution to this problem to prevent further deterioration of “kosher” in the eyes of non-kosher consumers – something which should be especially important given the recent proliferation of kosher products in mainstream markets…

Happy GOOD kosher wine tasting!

WTG