Wine Review: Wine is central to Passover

The Hebrew holiday of Passover, which begins at sunset on April 1 and ends at nightfall on April 9, is probably the most festive of all the Hebrew holidays. The holiday celebrates the “passing over” the homes of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt by the Angel of Death while enforcing the 10th and final plague to be visited upon the ancient Egyptians.

As one can well imagine, it is a very festive holiday, which involves a large meal in which it is necessary for the adult guests to consume three cups of wine. The most famous Passover celebration was illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci in his painting of the Last Supper.

In the past, the wine of choice for the Passover dinner was a sweet red concord grape wine, which took some time to get used to. Today, the wine choice is almost infinite, but there is a caveat.

Tradition calls for a complete change in the implements for dinner with those that have been specially reserved and used only for the Passover; however, it does not stop there. The house, most specifically the kitchen, must be cleansed so thoroughly so that no hint of the pre-Passover foods remains in the house. So as not to just indiscriminately discard the non-Passover food, it is customary to give it to charities. To put it simply, the house has to be scrupulously cleansed and the dinnerware replaced in what is a labor of love. The foods that had to be removed are replaced by foods that have been certified as having been made specifically for the Passover celebration.

Since everything must be confirmed as having been made specifically for the current Passover, the wines that are an integral part of the Passover service, called a Seder, must also be made to be served at the current Passover. This means that the wines must have had to be made long before they are served. I will not go through the process of making a wine for Passover, but it is truly a Herculean task. The entire winemaking process, from the cleaning of the grapes to the bottling of the wine, has been done under the supervision of a rabbi familiar with the making of wine.

Herzog Special Clarksburg Reserve Pinot Noir
To produce wines of this quality, the grapes must be fully ripened and of intense flavor. It is a gamble for any vineyardist to allow the grapes to remain on the vine for a longer length of time to achieve this level of ripeness. Rain or a sudden frost could wipe out the entire crop. The Herzog grape growers took the chance and let the fruit remain on the vine until the last possible minute, and it definitely paid off. This very complex wine displays aromas of huge ripe cherries and black currants with a background of chocolate, coffee and summer flowers, which follow through to the flavor.

Herzog 2024 Clarksberg Chenin Blanc
This sauvignon blanc is a dry white wine that plays down the grassy character usually associated with the variety and replaces it with a very noticeable aroma of honeydew melon. This wine will fit in well with all of the foods served at a Passover Seder.

Barkan Gold Edition 2024 Chardonnay
The Barkan chardonnay is heavy with the aroma of apple, apricot, banana, pineapple and mango, along with notes of spice in the background. These fruit aromas carry over to the taste and then on to the finish. It ends in that special mouth feel that is the trademark of a better chardonnay. The wine was made without any oak aging, allowing the full flavor of good fruit to shine through. This is a wine whose quality belies its affordable price. Please do not write this off as “just another chardonnay,” because it most definitely is not.

Wine columnist and Nixa resident Bennet Bodenstein can be reached at frojhe1@att.net.