As I have stated many times in the past, this list started from folks asking me to come up with a cumulative list. This year, there have been many such events. I went to three of them, and the number of great wines is growing along with the overall number of Kosher Wines.

First, here are a few caveats: This is MY list! This is not a list that will make many happy. These wines are the wines that make me happy. No wines here would be considered overripe, over-sweet, or all over the place. The wines here are listed in the order of cost. That said, the top-line wines – what I call Top-Flight wines, are not defined by cost at all. On that list, you can find 2018 Elvi Wines Herenza Rioja, Reserva. At the same time, the list includes some of the best high-end kosher wines I have ever tasted. Ultimately, price does not define your place on the Top-Flight Wines list, nor does QPR (Quality to Price Ratio); only pure quality gets you on this list. The list of Top-Flight wines are wines I would buy without hesitation, no matter the cost (if I can afford it of course).

Passover is a time of year when Jews buy the most wine, along with Rosh Hashanah, and the US New Year. That is why all the kosher wine events, usually, happen a month or two before the Passover festival. It allows the wineries and distributors to showcase all their wines, each appealing to different market segments. So, no there are no sweet or semi-sweet baseline wines here. There are many very good 25 or lower-dollar bottles of wine, that can be bought at Skyview Wines, Gotham Wines, Suhag Wine, Liquid Kosher, onlinekosherwine.com, kosherwine.com, and now Elk is live with his website, for those of you who live in the Miami area or are going there for Passover, or any other time of the year! Of course, those and others exist, support your local merchants! I have no real options, so I use the ones to the right of this blog, when viewed on the web (as always I NEVER make money from them and I never know or care what people buy, the list is whom I purchase wines from and so I feel comfortable recommending them to others).

Also, the amount of money you spend does not define the value or quality of the wine. Take, for example, the 16-dollar 2020/2021 Elvi Herenza Rioja, the 2023 ESSA Altira, and others. These are lovely wines; the fantastic price is only an added benefit. However, many low-priced wines are not on this list, as they lack the required quality, IMHO.

Seeing the list and checking it twice (could not help myself), I am sure there will be a question – what defines a wine as a Top-Flight wine, and why are there wines that are not on it? The Top-Flight wines are wines that impressed me when tasting them. That does not mean that the 2022 Chateau Moulin Riche, as lovely as it may or may not be, can compare to another wine on the Top-Flight Wine list. It does mean that when I tasted one of these Top-Flight wines, I was wowed, and I said this is a wine that everyone should get – no matter the price. In the end, the Top-Flight Wines is my way to whittle down the list of wines I enjoyed from thousands of kosher wines available here in America. In hindsight, I am sure I will have missed some wines. If you do not see a wine you love and it scored a 91 or higher on this blog somewhere, then I can assure you that it was probably an oversight on my part.

The sheer number of wines that I scored a 91 this year is crazy! The prices have significantly risen, but so has the selection. I have 200+ wines this year that got a 91 or higher. That is the highest number ever. Yes, some of that has to do with the sheer number of wines I tasted. However, that also has to do with the 2022 vintage from Europe and the 2021 vintage from Israel. Still, it is impressive.

Also, this is a PSA – please do not buy 2022 or 2023 rose wines! PLEASE! They are muted and a waste of your hard-earned money. Thankfully, there will be 2024 Roses out there soon!

Arba Kosot (The Four cups of Passover)

Finally, it is the Jewish custom to drink four cups of wine on Passover. The “requirement” is to gulp down these wines. This is far too hard for me (the concept here is to drink the base quantity of wine to fulfill your requirement – which is a Revi’it, within a certain period). In the past, I was drinking red, Israeli wines that were simple to drink, not complex or impressive, with my regular kiddush cup. However, with time, I found a better option, drinking the Revi’it from a small cup that fulfills the legal quantity of wine. I have further shifted my approach by drinking Yarden Rose Brut Sparkling wine. It is Israeli, not Mevushal, “red”, a lovely wine that is easy to gulp down and an acid BOMB!

For the main course, I am happy to open a Top-Flight wine and enjoy it at a calm and enjoyable pace. Another option is to get some of these great glasses from Stolzle. According to most Rabbis, this fulfills the official four-cup requirements regarding volume and respect. The glasses hold 3.5 fluid ounces of wine, which according to almost every source fulfills the concept of Revi’it.

It does not fulfill Chazon Ish’s requirements of 5.1 ounces, but if you wish to meet that requirement, use these glasses by Libby’s. Also, remember that you should drink the entirety of the cups, which is why I recommend the smaller cups. If you cannot, some allow drinking the majority of the cup, but that is not the best approach. Finally, the LAST CUP, should be drunk in totality, as that is the ONLY cup upon which you say an “After Bracha (Blessing)”, and as such you must have drunk at least 3.3 ounces to say the last blessing.

NOTE: Again, I make nothing from these Amazon links. They do not have sponsor links or whatever. I do not have that and never will. These are just suggestions—buy what you want. They are only there for ideas.

Four Cup Options

Like much of what I do on this blog, I was recently asked to develop some 4 cup options for people. I am not big on pounding good wines for the 4 cups. My Rabbi mixes wine and grape juice and pounds that. No rabbi says you must use the best wines for the 4 cups. I know that sounds horrible, but honestly, the point of the 4 cups is to drink wine in their Halachic format, not to drink great wines slowly, in their non-Halachic format. The priority is drinking red wine quickly and according to the proper shiur (assigned minimum liquid intake). Still, while I will be doing my 4 cups on the Yarden Rose Brut, I have a list of other options here. ALL OF THESE wines are available here in the USA and are at/below 13.8% ABV (VERY HARD By the way!!!). The 2022 Vintage in Bordeaux and the USA has made keeping the ABV low – a pipedream. So, many great wines are not on these lists below because they come in at 15% ABV!:

All White wines (non-Top-Flight Wines) – Sauvignon Blanc:

1. 2022 O’Dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc
2. 2024 Covenant Sauvignon Blanc, Red C
3. 2023 Domaine J. de Villebois Pouilly-Fume
4. 2023 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc

All White Wines (non-Top-Flight Wines) – Various:

1. 2023 ESSA Riesling
2. 2023 Hajdu Proprietary White Wine
3. 2023 J De Villebois Sancerre Silex
4. 2023 ESSA Altira

All White Wines (Top-Flight Wines):

1. 2022/2023 Covenant Solomon Blanc
2. 2021 Domaine de Chevalier L’Esprit de Chevalier
3. 2021/2022 Le Nardian
4. 2021 Chateau Olivier Blanc OR
   • 2021 Domaine Vacheron Sancerre, Grand Champs

All Sparkling Wines:

1. N.V. Drappier Carte d’Or
2. 2017 Golan Heights Winery Yarden Rose, Brut
3. 2018 Golan Heights Winery Blanc de Blanc, Yarden
4. NV Raziel Brut

All Red wines (non-Top-Flight wines):

1. 2020 Chateau Teyssier
2. 2022 Philippe Le Hardi Mercurey 1er Cru
3. 2023 Covenant Pinot Noir, Landsman
4. 2022 Chateau Larcis Jaumat (14%)

All TOP Red Bordeaux’s:

1. 2020 Château Pontet Labrie
2. 2022 Chateau Moulin Riche (14%)
3. 2022 Chateau Malartic Lagraviere Grand Cru Classe de Graves (14%)
4. 2018 Domaine Roses Camille (14%)

All TOP Red (Top-Flight Wines not from Bordeaux) – I gave up! 14% or under

1. 2022 Domaine Aegerter Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru, Fonteny
2. 2022 Philippe Le Hardi Clos De Vougeot, Grand Cru
3. 2023 Jean-Philippe Marchand Gevrey-Chambertin
4. 2022 Philippe Le Hardi Aloxe Corton

All Top California Wines:

1. 2021 Hagafen Cabernet Sauvignon
2. 2022 Hagafen Pinot Noir
3. 2021 Shirah Pinot Meunier
4. 2022 Four Gates Pinot Noir

All sweet wines:

1. 2008 Ya’acov Oryah “Old Musketeer” Dessert Wine
2. 2018 Chateau de Rayne Vigneau 1er Grand Cru Classe
3. 2021 Tokaj-Hetszolo Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos
4. 2022 Chateau Piada

Inflation has wrecked my price lists

Wine prices have gone up anywhere from 15 to 25% and as such the wine price lists, at the lower prices, are getting thin. Wines that cost 24 dollars are now 31 dollars. Israeli wines, which already were not worth what they charged, before they raised prices, are now even less interesting. The few that do exist are not QPR anymore, as the overall market, which QPR compares against, has NOT risen as much as Israeli wines have. The French market is higher as well, but that only shows at the higher end. Therefore, fewer wines will be QPR going forward, I think, but hey, it is all in the math!

Finally, quality at lower prices is almost non-existent. Looking for quality reds under 20 dollars should not get me two options. We have a lot of quality white wines at lower prices – but sadly the reds have fallen in quality and have driven up their prices.

France-Only Options

I have to be honest, the France-only section has grown by leaps and bounds and it was the hardest part of this whole post! I had to keep jumping back and forth. Overall, the number of wines in France is incredible as is the number of horrible ones! I am very happy to see the list keeps growing and adding incredible deals!

In Closing

I have a few more comments here. I hope I have included all the wines I have tasted here, but I almost posted this a few times, and then only at the end did I remember I forgot a few. This is the first time, in many a year, that I have several Israeli wines, and the 2021 vintage has helped.

In the end, these are my picks. Again, the criteria for making the list are:

1. I like the wine (A score of 91 or higher wines at the minimum)
2. They are readably available. Other than the Four Gates wine on the list above (in case you got lucky)
3. I added a French/European list as there are French-only options
4. Price is not a matter on this list (for the top-flight wines) – all that matters is that they are really good!

So there you have it – enjoy good kosher wine for a reasonable price and enjoy the Passover holiday safely and in health! Happy Passover to you all. Post what wine you will be enjoying, I would love to hear from you guys about what you will be drinking throughout the holiday!

Wines below 20 dollars:

2020/2021 Elvi Wines Herenza Rioja (Semi)2022/2023 Essa Altira2021/2023 Elvi Herenza White (AKA InVita)2022 O’Dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc (sadly I have not yet tasted the 2023)2019 Cantina del Redi Pleos Toscana Sangiovese2021 Domaine Bousquet Alavida Malbec – NOT 2022 (2022 is not good)2023 Palais de L’Ombriere2022 Godin Vihno Tinto, Red2023 Godin Branco, White2015 Chateau Lavagnac Bordeaux Superieur

—– France ONLY options—–2021 Chateau Le Lescot2020 Chateau Pouyanne Blanc2018 Ribeauville Riesling, Rosacker2021 Château La Baronne Les Lanes2019 Cave de Ribeauville Pinot Noir, Vendanges Manuelles2019 Elvi Wines Adar (also Israel)