Junior Spaceman:
Not true. The only religious prohibitions against drunkedness are to not pray or perform other religious services while drunk.
Only if the wine is not “mevushal”, but most commercially-available kosher wines are.
Baron Herzog and Kedem have some well-regarded wineries in California, my brother-in-law works at one of the Kedem ones.
Incidentally, the progenitor series of Frasier had a vaguely related joke. On Cheers, Cliff made a derisive comment about a minor recurring character whose schtick was repeated failed attempts to pass the bar exam:
“Carla, you’re talking to a man who thinks affidavit is a Jewish wine.”
Thank you for the correction, cmkeller. I remember now the context I heard this in (and misremembered) was a lecture at a very religious school, where the Sabbath (as a day) and religious services were inseparable, which is what sparked someone to ask the question about drinking wine for Kiddush, and later praying. My general point still stands, though.
Having just married into a Jewish family, I’ve only begun attending seders for the past few years, and have had the pleasure of being introduced to Manischewitz. It’s there on the table, but nobody drinks it, opting for good stuff.
My wife told me (I had the feeling it was a running gag) … if you don’t like it as wine, it’s perfectly good as pancake syrup.
Interesting. I should probably know this…
Is this why I have a fancy special wine glass? Or is that really just ceremonial?
Kosher wine has changed drastically in the past decade. There are kosher wines that are fantastic believe it or not. Some kosher wine can be purchased for hundreds of dollars should one so chose and served in a proper wine glass.
I’m surprised no one has answered my questions, since I’d think any Jews over 40 would have some idea what their families drank when they were growing up. My father is Jewish, but he’s completely non-practicing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bottle of Manischevitz or Mogen David outside of a store.
Hello Allan, yes kosher wine can’t be had with a nice meal or with friends, it doesn’t need to be Shabbos. But it must be Mevushal if had with non Jews. The mevushal issue gets complicated.
Well obviously that should say can be had not can’t, sorry didn’t see the typo until now
I was focused on spelling mevushal.
“Mevushal”, incidentally, is just Hebrew for “cooked”. And yes, cooked wine tastes pretty much like you’d expect.
So are there Jewish wineries in Israel or elsewhere (California?) that produce more mainstream Kosher wine? I can’t imagine the Mogen David/Manischewitz style is popular among the entire Jewish community worldwide.
Not a winery, but here in TO there is a gem of a place, Grafstein wines. Great selection of kosher wine.
No need to be surprised.
Let me tell ya, dude: Jewish families just don’t drink much. 
You don’t have wine “with dinner”. You have wine before Sabbath dinner…when you recite a ceremonial blessing before you drink a small amount of wine.
Seriously–there are millions of Jewish families from , say, 1910 through the 1990’s who just never had any wine in the house except ceremonial wine.
During the past 30 years or so, it has become common to have an additional bottle on the table–of any of the many kinds of “normal” wines, red or white. Some people still use the sickly sweet stuff for the ceremonial blessing, and then pour the normal wine for drinking.
Others have moved completely away from the sweet stuff, and use the normal wine for both the ritual, and for accompanying the dinner food.
See post #10 with the link to Carmel Winery:
In Israel, of course, they use the Old World grape species Vitis vinifera, which makes classic, proper-tasting wine. I’d be astonished if any V. labrusca vines had been planted in any vineyards outside North America.
Hey, wine flavored rock candy! Sounds like a winner to me.