Kosher Food and Drink

Wine is organic. It lives and breathes, and yes, it dies as well. Part of understanding wine is learning when a bottle will be at its best, but even with a good amount of knowledge, one never knows what might lie in store.

These three bottles each tell a different story and the grape and method of vinification sets the precedent for the bottle’s lifespan. The Covenant is a fresh, drink-now style, vibrant and young. The Hajdu needed a bit of age to calm its young fire. And the Yarden shines in its golden years.

Covenant, Red C, Lodi, Viognier, 2024

I really love this brand new release from Covenant. Last year’s ’23 vintage was such a winner for me, I made sure to be among the first people to order the 2024 Red C, Lodi, Viognier, and I am so happy I did. Covenant certainly is well regarded as a winery, producing top-shelf wines capable of cellar-worthiness, but not generally thought of as offering budget-friendly wines. This wine has been a standard-bearer for well made, affordable wine.

Available for about $30 (or less if a member of the Covenant club), the Red C Viognier is much of what I want in a wine. Viognier, a northern Rhône varietal, is known for its aromatic brilliance.

Covenant’s Viognier is sourced from a small parcel of the Mettler Vineyard and were among “the first to be harvested this year on August 22nd.” It is fermented and aged four months in neutral French oak barrels using native yeast. The oak gives the wine a more opulent body.

The nose is perfumed and floral: Ripe apricot was my first thought, with sweet apple, grapefruit zest, and some spice. Nice, but not blatant acidity. Very fruity and pleasant wine. A real crowd-pleaser. It was delicious at about 55 degrees and perhaps more so as it warmed in the glass.

Enjoy now until 2027. $30, 13.5% ABV, non-mevushal.

Golan Heights Winery, Yarden, Ramat HaGolan, Dessert, Muscat, 1998

You read that right. 1998

What’s crazier is that this bottle was opened in December 2022, 26 months ago. It has not lost a step.

Muscat is most often exemplified by its natural sweetness. But rarely does one consider its complexity.

Golan Heights Winery began production of this wine in 1998, also producing the bubbly, drink-now Moscato. The Golan’s volcanic basaltic soil is ideal for this variety. I believe production of the Muscat dessert wine ceased in 2015. A Heights Wine of frozen Gewürtztraminer is now made under the Yarden line. Delicious in its own right.

In the glass, deep amber. Aromatic, pronounced nose of marzipan, caramel, hazelnut, dried nectarine, dried mango, honey. Fully developed, luscious palate, low but still there acidity, tertiary flavor profile. Delightful aperitif or digestif.

A treat!

Hajdu, Clarksburg, Tannat, 2016

It was a night to celebrate myself and another wonderful go around the sun. Thank God for that. And thanks to my incredible family for enjoying with me.

I made some beautiful steaks from the rib side of a whole chuck eye, cut thick. Sous vide for 3 hours at 133F and seared over white hot charcoal on my @webergrills kettle, of course. Gotta do it right.

For such unctuous meat, you need a wine to hold its own. I pulled out this beautiful Hajdu Tannat. Tannat is an interesting grape. Most known from the southwest of France and Madiran AOC, it has become the national grape of Uruguay (time for a kosher Uruguayan Tannat), and is now found in Virginia and, of course, in California. Its thick skin helps avoid mildew and rot. In SW France it produces highly tannic, acidic wine, but in even warmer climates, produces rounder, darker fruit wines.

This 2016 Hajdu has really settled into a beautiful wine, still in its window, showing some tertiary notes of earth and wet leaves. The acid remains prevalent with tart blackberry and blackcurrant, and the tannins have integrated, leaving a seemingly Old World wine with great character. The 14.5 ABV is barely recognized in this lovely 9-year-old wine.

Well made and very enjoyable. 14.5% ABV, non-mevushal.

As a note, the label’s artwork is created by Jonathan’s wife, @elliehajdu – check out her original artwork on her IG page linked here.