(Mostly) Light, Sweet Red Wines

Here's a list of mostly light, sweet red wines.

• Best Overall: Ohra Kal. "Kal" means "light," and this is a light, sweet wine from around the hills of Jerusalem. This wine is my top recommendation for a light, sweet wine, with only 3.5% alcohol and a taste of actual wine.
• One new wine — if you can find it — is the semi-sweet Cabernet Sauvignon from Layla Vineyards. This is a very good wine, which should be served chilled as if it were a white wine, and is not overpoweringly sweet.
• Wine is preferable over grape juice for the seder, but if you can't drink wine or can't stand the flavor, it's perfectly acceptable to drink only grape juice instead (despite the misinformation that you must have a half-wine, half-juice mixture). I recommend Golan Heights Grape Juice if you can find it. Instead of something horrifying and purple, you might enjoy this grape juice from one of Israel's best wineries.
• Bartenura Malvasia (no review available). A light red wine, and acceptable.
• Zakon Muscatini. Muscats are generally sweet wines, but usually they're high in alcohol. This one is about half the alcohol of the others.
• Conditon is very high in alcohol and very heavy, and far too sweet for me — but my wife and guests enjoy it a great deal, and who am I to argue?
• If you can find it, try Zimra. It's a non-vintage red sweet wine from one of Israel's best wineries.
• One wine that is not sweet, but often finds favor with people who prefer sweet wines, is Beaujolais Villages. Abarbenel's Beaujolais Villages is widely available.

If none of these wines suit you, take a look at the list of non-traditional choices to find some sweet white wines. It's quite easy to find very good light, sweet white wines.

Dry Red Wines

An important question is not just what wines to drink, but what order to drink them in.

I have a simple rule: the first cup of wine should be a lighter-bodied wine. A full-bodied wine, especially one that's very high in alcohol, is not very easy to drink on an empty stomach.

Of course, having said that, I've also been known to violate that rule to have a very special bottle of wine for the first cup — Chateau Giscours (no review available), for example, which is full-bodied and very complex wine indeed.

Some of these wines are old favorites; others are on the list for the first time.

First One or Two Cups

• My top pick this year remains Gedeon Cabernet Sauvignon, a medium-bodied red wine from the hills near Jerusalem. It's imported by Abarbanel; while it seems to unavailable in Illinois it's still available elsewhere.
  Not only is this a good wine in it's own right, but I've found that many individuals who won't touch a dry wine seem to enjoy this one. The wine is mevushal, which is a consideration at my seder, and is moderately priced.
• Tishbi Cabernet Petit Syrah. With any luck the current vintage is as good as the 2002 — which I thought was excellent. A light red wine, and a very inexpensive one to boot, this wine can be quite a bargin.
• Another idea for a lighter-bodied wine is a good Shiraz, such as the Teal Lake Special Reserve 2004. If you can't find this one, try a different Shiraz or a Petit Syrah.

The Next Cups

• Segal's Galilee Heights Cabernet Sauvignon 2000. This wine is simply excellent for the second cup, just before food. Also from Israel, Gamla Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 is an outstanding, delicious, and well-balanced wine.
• Two Abarbanel wines that I recommend very highly are from the hills of Jerusalem. One is Issac's Ram, a Cabernet Sauvignon (no review available); this is my personal favorite but has become hard to find in Illinois. The other is Pardess 2001, a Merlot. Both are excellent and are suitable for just before food (the second cup) or just after food (the third and fourth cups).
• For the second cup or for after the meal (or, for that matter, for enjoying with the meal), I would certainly consider a Pinot Noir if you like very dry wines. In recent vintages I've found that I enjoy the inexpensive Pinot Noir wines more than the expensive ones. Barkan Pinot Noir 2004 and Layla Pinot Noir 2006 are both inexpensive wines; I keep bottles of Barkan in my cellar for ordinary ocassions as well.
• Galil Mountain Winery Yiron is another excellent choice from the north of Israel.
• One new wine — if you can find it — is the semi-sweet Cabernet Sauvignon from Layla Vineyards. Served chilled, the sweetness balances the grape flavor but is not overpowering; this might make an interesting final cup.

To answer a question from one of my readers: These wines range in price from about $12 to about $30 (Pardess) per bottle. The Ohra Kal is only $5 or so per bottle.

Non-Traditional Choices

If we expand beyond red wines, we can look at a few non-traditional choices for a festive seder.

• Weinstock's Sonoma County Chardonnay 2003 is an excellent choice for a dry white wine that presents interesting flavors. Segal's Galilee Heights Chardonnay Special Reserve 2002 is another very nice choice.
• If you prefer something sweet, one very good white is Herzog Chenin Blanc. Another possiblity is the Golan Moscato 2007, which (unlike some other Moscatos) actually tastes like wine.
• If you want to clear your palate after the meal, Abarbanel makes a very dry sparkling wine that's light and very lively, Cremant d'Alsace Brut.
• Any good Gewurztraminer ought to be acceptable to someone who likes sweet wines. Another good white wine that might appeal to a sweet tooth (but without being very sweet itself) is Hagafen Napa Valley Johannisberg Riesling 2002, a favorite of mine for over twenty years.
• Both the Kraemer Blanc des Blancs and Bartenura Prosecco are inexpensive dry sparkling wines that work surprisingly well. I suggest that the Blanc des Blancs be taken in moderation.
• Laurent-Perrier Champagne is certainly not inexpensive, but is very much the best kosher champagne I've tasted. I must ask my local rabbi if I'm allowed to put a strawberry into the fourth cup! (Remember: champagnes are dry wines.)
• Weinstock White Zinfandel is recognized as an excellent wine by non-kosher experts — for example, by the Wall Street Journal. It's semi-dry and light red (orange?) in color, so it can be argued that it's really a traditional choice after all. Don't foist it off on your guests as a "sweet" wine, however; if your guests prefer sweet wines, pour them the Herzog Chenin Blanc (or ask them to try the Zinfandel sometime in advance).

Allergic to Grapes?

Some individuals are allergic to grapes and cannot drink wine or grape juice. To participate in the seder and the Four Cups, those individuals should drink non-grape drinks that are "drinks of the country," that is, beverages that are recognized by the general population as celebratory drinks. I suggest Pomegranate Dessert Wine from Rimon, made entirely without grapes, as an excellent choice for people with grape allergies.

Personal Picks

So, do I follow my own advice? I have to admit that I tend to stray from my advice simply because I enjoy certain wines. Here's a list of what I actually purchased for the seder. And let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy and Kosher Passover!

The most unusual question I've received to date is from Kehillat Beijing, the Jewish community of Beijing, China (with perhaps the best natural pun I've seen in a while: their web site is at "Sinogogue").

Given the difficulty of importing kosher wines, they can only choose one wine for Passover this year: The cost has to be reasonable; the wine must appeal to a wide range of palates; the prices must be reasonable; imports are available from only a handful of countries; and they can only choose one wine.

I'll reveal my selection here sometime soon. This is the closest I've ever come to the problem of "If you can only have one wine with you on a desert island..."

All of these ratings are my personal opinions, and while I've had some of these wines multiple times, at other times I've had just a single tasting. You may disagree with these ratings, or you may find that the bottle you purchase doesn't meet your expectations. This is the nature of wine, which remains an art rather than a science. And of course everyone's taste is different.

I rate the wine on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest). I have reserved a rating of 0 to wines that are unpalatable when I am unable to resolve to my satisfaction that the problem is a corked bottle rather than an error at the winery. A few wine have no rating at all; these are wines that I was unable to judge.

Ratings provide a guideline, not a guarantee; each vintage and each bottle is different. The other day I poured a bottle wine down the sink; this was a wine I usually like, and in fact I still recommend that wine, but this particular bottle was bad. A bottle will go bad, either because of a mistake by the winery, improper handling in shipment, or neglect by the wine merchant. In at least one case, I've seen a wine ruined by its success: one year the wine was excellent and the next year the winery overproduced the wine to meet demand.

Finally, I'd like to paraphrase the Wall Street Journal's wine reviewers, Gaiter and Brecher, who said something very important. If you find a wine that's inexpensive that you enjoy, this doesn't mean you have poor taste — this means you've found a bargain. It's your and your friends' enjoyment of the wine that's important, not what I or anyone else thinks of the wine.