Over the last few months, a number of friends have been talking to me about something that they describe as hopefully the beginning of a revolution here in Israel. Quality wine available at the supermarket – much like it is in every country in the world. The two wines that have been causing this commotion are brought in by a company called Egoz Muscat – which is subsidiary of the Shaked company, a major importer of wine and spirits here in Israel. Egoz-Muscat is their kosher arm and deals only with the import of kosher wine from around the world.

When hearing about these wines, I tended to dismiss them. First, I recognized Egoz-Muscat primarily as the importer behind Blue Nun wines, which hit the market here about two years ago. This is a mass market German brand, not really a serious wine at all. In the UK, the non-kosher sells for about five pounds a bottle – which is roughly 22 shekels. Here, for whatever reason, these wines sell for more than double that – and – because the Israeli market really knows no better – the wine sells even at this ridiculously inflated price. In fact they started out with a single bottle in the line and have expanded it to include all of their sparkling wines as well (all crap – marketed specifically to appeal to the under 25 party set – one of the bottles even has gold flakes in it – just ridiculous). From a price perspective, there is absolutely no possible excuse for the cost here. It is mass produced. It is no more expensive to put a hechsher on Blue Nun than it was to put on Welch’s grape juice in the US – and probably less. It’s just thievery. And the wine sucks – really, truly sucks. To the point that I hesitate to call it wine. Whatever you think about the Bartenura Moscato – this is worse.