Joe Pollack has spent more than a half-century as a professional writer, dealing with a wide range of subjects. He moved to the Post-Dispatch in 1972 as drama and movie critic, and soon added restaurant writing and wine columns to his beat. After 23 years there, he considers himself partially retired, but continues writing about food, wine and travel and other things on a freelance basis. Sacramental wine, for whatever sacrament, always has been more about the religious ceremony and less about the wine. Happily, things are changing.
Wine is better, and so are attitudes.
Today, with the first Seder to be celebrated April 7, much of the Kosher wine does not have to be prayed over in hopes it will be satisfactory. Winemakers in California, France, Italy, Chile, Australia and Israel, for example, all produce it, under strict rules and supervision, and it's made from a variety of grapes, both red and white, sometimes aged in oak and blended for quality. It is sometimes sweet, but often dry, as good table wines are supposed to be, and the old, lingering taste of Concord grapes is only available if you look for it and buy it. The classic wine grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Chardonnay, to name only a few, are of genus Vitis Vinifera. A recent addition to the higher element of Kosher wines comes from Abarbanel, an East Coast importer which boasts of French-made wine, named for an old Jewish family whose roots go back to Spain before Queen Isabella signed the expulsion order of 1492.