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The strangest release date for a wine podcast might be a fast day and that’s exactly the point. I start with the sound of wine meeting the bottom of a glass, then I ask you to leave the glass empty as the Seventeenth of Tammuz arrives. Not as a gimmick, but as a way to remember the day Jerusalem’s daily Temple offering broke, when the lambs could no longer come and the wine libation, the nesachim, went dry. When the wine stopped, the singing stopped too, and a steady heartbeat of worship went silent.

From that courtyard in ancient Jerusalem, we move to the way wine works in Jewish life now: kiddush, weddings, brit milah, Passover, havdalah. If wine is the clearest instrument of joy, then removing it during the Three Weeks and the Nine Days becomes a precise, physical way to grieve. We talk about the tenderness inside the customs, including what some families do with havdalah wine during the Nine Days, and why the empty glass says something a full one never can.

Then we step into a July vineyard in Israel and watch the surprise hiding in plain sight: veraison. Grapes begin to soften and blush, sugars start to rise, and the vine turns from growing bigger to making fruit worth giving. While the calendar sinks toward Tisha B’Av, the future is ripening anyway. That arc carries us to Tu B’Av, the vineyard’s day of dancing and beginnings, and even a technical planting deadline that starts the vine’s clock toward permitted fruit. We close with Orlah and what every grower knows: the years that look empty are often the years the roots go deep.

If this gave you a new way to think about mourning, hope, Israeli wine, or the Jewish calendar, subscribe, share the episode with someone who’d appreciate it, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.

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+972-58-731-1567
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Thursdays 6:30pm Eastern Time on the NSN Network and the NSN App

Send a Text Message to The Kosher Terroir

Old vines. High altitude. Native Spanish grapes. If those words grab you, pour a glass and come with us to Valencia, where winemaker Armando from Viña Memorias walks us through a kosher wine tasting that’s equal parts sensory and deeply practical. We’re chasing a specific style: kosher wines that stay light on their feet without losing structure, and wines that make sense in hot weather because they’re built for it.

We get into why Bobal from older vineyards tends toward larger clusters, greater ripeness, and a more elegant feel, plus how climate and large day-night temperature swings in Utiel-Requena can preserve acidity and help keep alcohol levels in check. On the white side, we explore Macabeo and its many identities across Spain, how blending choices change with the vintage, and why stainless steel “inox” is a deliberate move to protect fruit and freshness. We also talk about release timing and why letting wines rest in the bottle can be the difference between sharp and seamless.

Then we go deeper into technique and tradition: clay tinajas versus oak, micro-oxygenation without wood flavors, lees aging and batonnage for texture, and why some Spanish wine classifications like crianza and reserva often communicate aging time more than quality. We finish with traditional-method sparkling Macabeo and a surprisingly useful tasting ritual that starts with bubble quality before you even chase aromas.

If you care about Spanish kosher wine, terroir, old vines, and the real decisions behind “minimal intervention,” this one is for you. Subscribe, share it with a wine-loving friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Support the show

www.TheKosherTerroir.com
+972-58-731-1567
+1212-999-4444
TheKosherTerroir@gmail.com
Link to Join “The Kosher Terroir” WhatsApp Chat
https://chat.whatsapp.com/EHmgm2u5lQW9VMzhnoM7C9
Thursdays 6:30pm Eastern Time on the NSN Network and the NSN App

Send a Text Message to The Kosher Terroir

We boil wine on purpose and then argue about whether it’s ruined. That tension sits at the heart of mevushal, the “cooked” kosher wine category that some drinkers dismiss, some skeptics call a loophole, and every caterer quietly relies on to make a wedding run. From Jerusalem, I walk you through why Jewish law treats wine differently from almost every other food: a bottle can be perfectly kosher by ingredients and still change status based only on who touches it.

We put the law and the wine on the same table. I trace the Talmudic roots of the handling restriction, then unpack three competing explanations for why cooked wine is exempt. Those “whys” lead straight into the modern fight over what cooked even means, from boiling reduction to Rav Moshe Feinstein’s yad soledet bo threshold around 175°F, and the objections that demand a noticeable change in taste, aroma, or color. Once flash pasteurization enters the picture, one sealed machine can produce three very different halachic outcomes.

Then we go to the cellar and ask what heat actually does. Pasteurization can deliver microbial stability, protein stability, and consistency for shipping and events, which matters for kosher wine at scale. But there’s a bill: aromatic compounds like terpenes can drop, ester profiles can shift, and aging potential may narrow, especially for serious whites and cellar-worthy reds. A final curveball using brandy and distillation shows what cooking can protect going forward and what it can never “fix” after the fact.

If you’ve ever wondered whether mevushal is lesser or simply different, you’ll leave with a clearer framework for choosing the right bottle for the right job. Subscribe, share this with a friend who refuses to drink cooked wine, and leave a review so more people find Kosher Terroir.

Support the show

www.TheKosherTerroir.com
+972-58-731-1567
+1212-999-4444
TheKosherTerroir@gmail.com
Link to Join “The Kosher Terroir” WhatsApp Chat
https://chat.whatsapp.com/EHmgm2u5lQW9VMzhnoM7C9
Thursdays 6:30pm Eastern Time on the NSN Network and the NSN App