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Well, another KFWE NYC just finished on Monday night, and while it went off without a hitch, there were some aspects I hope they can improve for next year. Still, to me they made many attempts to move the “Must See” kosher wine event of the year, in NYC anyway, in the correct direction. I will break them down below, but for now, the takeaway about Monday night’s affair, was that it was an improvement over last year – overall.

The VIP session was back, a nod to the epic VIP session of LA’s 2015 event, but so far none have topped that event, even the VIP session at LA last year, at the beautiful Petersen Automobile Museum.

The doors opened for trade yesterday at Noon and closed at 4PM. While last year trade was a zoo quickly, that was not the case this year. Still, after two hours the trade became so crowded, it eclipsed last year’s zoo. It felt like two busloads of humans were deposited in front of Pier 60 with two hours to kill. Still, if most of those folks were really trade, I would be happy. In the end, I find the trade group, to be about 60% hardcore buyers, journalists, and trade folk. The rest is folks who know folks, but they are all ambassadors of wine in NYC and around, so in that vein, they are all of value to Royal.

To me the trade part of the show, is about getting the press talking about kosher wine and not using the M word ever again in a kosher wine article! Seriously, I was interviewed for an upcoming article in a press piece and I said, I would be unwilling to answer questions until she promised to me that she would NOT use the M word/company ANYWHERE in the piece. That word is 1990, come on, it is 2017 already! Kosher wine has eclipsed my dreams in many ways, let alone that crap wine. If you still have no idea what I mean, then LMGTFY.

As always, I have spoken how Royal Wines is the 900 pound gorilla – and it has the ability to crowd the market and push out its competitors as it flexes its muscles. Still, we need exactly what happened on Monday. The place was filled with reporters, wine buyers, and critics tasting wines and being educated about the current state of affairs of the kosher wine world. In that sense – it was a large success!

Wines at KFWE NYC

So, on to the wines. First of all, thankfully my friend Moises Cohen and Elvi Wines was here in person this year, sadly without his lovely family, so I was happy to hang with him when I was not busy tasting wines. That said, this year is what we call the shmita transition year, and it is painful for Royal, and the kosher wine industry as a whole. You see this is the year after shmita in Israel. The 2015 vintage from Israel, was shmita, so many US religious Jews will not drink them. What that means is that there is an entire year of no wine. Though, as I have spoken of a few times, 2015 was a bad year for whites, while reds are starting to emerge as the stars of 2015, if they used fruit that was pulled early in the vintage.