Overview: The High Holidays coincide with the northern hemisphere harvest season, offering a natural alignment between winemaking cycles and the themes of renewal. A curated selection of mead, apple-infused wine, hard cider, and aged reds provides options ranging from sweet apéritifs to bold pairings for brisket.
The Full Story
Rosh Hashanah coincides each year with the season when winemakers across the northern hemisphere begin the harvest. It is fitting that wine holds a place in the High Holiday season, where life’s cycles and the earth’s relationship to the divine are explored. One of the foods most associated with Rosh Hashanah is honey, serving as a symbol of sweetness in the new year. An ancient form of alcohol production is the making of mead — a beverage created from fermented honey — so if you want to put a unique spin on honey’s place at your table, mead could be a fun choice.
Laufer Honey Mead ($12.69, Mevushal), produced by Mendel Laufer in California, is an available kosher option. Recommendations suggest avoiding consumption of mead alongside food, as the sweetness will be somewhat overpowering, but it serves as a tasty apéritif that puts a creative spin on a Rosh Hashanah tradition. Another reimagining of a traditional Rosh Hashanah food is apple-infused wine. Carmel Buzz Apple Moscato ($12.69, Mevushal) is a sweet wine infused with green apple that can make a refreshing pre-dinner sip or function as a dessert wine.
You could also consider serving a kosher hard cider from a brand with kosher certification, like J.K. Scrumpy’s or Angry Orchard. A list of which popular hard ciders are kosher is available from star-k.org. Now that the funkier picks have been considered, attention turns to dinner. For brisket or another heavy meat dish, consideration should be given to tempranillo, a versatile red grape that goes through dramatic changes with age.
Malbec can also be a good dinner wine for Rosh Hashanah. Originally from Cahors, France, this grape is now hugely popular in Argentina and is also grown in Israel. The Yaffo Reserve Malbec ($36.99, not Mevushal) comes from the Judean Hills and promises both plum notes and a hint of smokiness from French oak aging. The Chateau Alvignes Cahor 2016 ($24.99, not Mevushal) shows a less fruit-forward expression of Malbec with a smooth finish and a note of spice.
If red wine is not preferred but a wine with structure and power is desired, Sancerre might fit the bill. What is great about Sancerre — sauvignon blanc from the Loire Valley — is that it is enjoyable for both the person who knows nothing about wine and the person who knows everything. It is both refined and straightforward, which French winemakers prioritize without making their products overly complex.
Production & Profile
Technical specifications vary significantly across the selection. The Spanish style of tempranillo is allowed to sit in oak to develop flavors of clove, smoke and vanilla. The four aging categories are Joven, Crianza, Reserva, and Gran Reserva, often ascending both in price and in flavor complexity. For a red wine, the minimum ages are as follows: Joven is young and has minimal or no time in oak; Crianza has 24 months of age with six or 12 in oak depending on the region; Reserva has 36 months of age with 12 in oak; and Gran Reserva has 60 months of age with 18 in oak.
The Elvi Herenza Rioja Crianza ($27.99, not Mevushal) is a wine that has both earth and fruit flavors that will complement the richness of brisket. From the same producer, the Gran Reserva 2019 ($119.99, not Mevushal) will show a grace and subtlety that a younger wine might lack. The Yaffo Reserve Malbec features French oak aging, while the Chateau Alvignes Cahor 2016 offers a smooth finish with spice notes.
Brand & Industry History
Rosh Hashanah coincides each year with the season when winemakers across the northern hemisphere begin the harvest. It is easy to forget that a bottle seen on a store shelf or behind a bar was once a bunch of grapes swelled to ripening by the sun, and cooled by night air, but every drop of wine comes from the earth. An ancient form of alcohol production is the making of mead — a beverage created from fermented honey — so if you want to put a unique spin on honey’s place at your table, mead could be a fun choice.
What This Means
There is a pageantry and festive atmosphere to Rosh Hashanah that feels like a primer for the solemnity of Yom Kippur. The High Holidays are a reminder that through both good times and bad, there is community to laugh, cry, and share wine with. Just as winemakers sort through the fruits of the harvest and see what will survive through fermentation and what won’t, the High Holidays invite us to reap the benefits of what was good and face the consequences of what wasn’t.
Consumer Takeaway
This selection offers a range of options for the drinker based on stated specs. Sweet choices like Laufer Honey Mead ($12.69) and Carmel Buzz Apple Moscato ($12.69) are available as Mevushal kosher options suitable for apéritif or dessert. For dinner pairings, Elvi Herenza Rioja Crianza ($27.99) complements brisket, while the Gran Reserva 2019 ($119.99) offers grace and subtlety. Malbec enthusiasts can choose between Yaffo Reserve ($36.99) for plum notes or Chateau Alvignes Cahor 2016 ($24.99) for a smooth, spicy finish. Sancerre provides structure and power suitable for both novice and expert drinkers.
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