A Rabbi's Winemaking Journey - Chabad of the Tri

Getting Ready to Start...

Monday, October 15, 2012 - 12:16 PM

I'm slowly learning the wine lingo and beginning to gain an appreciation of the complexity and delicate intricacies involved in producing a fine wine. My knowledge is still extremely limited and so please excuse me in advance for any inaccuracies. This is a learning process for me.

It looks like Mitchell Katz Winery will be harvesting their Cabernet grapes some time next week. But for us, that means that the work begins this week. You see, once the grapes are picked, they go through a destemmer (a machine that removes the stems) and into plastic bins where they will (with the help of some yeast) begin to ferment.

Because the grapes will be sitting and fermenting in those bins for an extended period of time, the bins need to be koshered, ie: we need to expunge any other tastes or flavors that have been absorbed within the walls of the bins. I'm sure I'll spend another few blog posts discussing and explaining the hows and whys of koshering, but for our specific case, we need to wash and clean the bins with boiling hot water - over 190 degrees. Sounds simple? Maybe not.

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Dan Kozak in our first attmept at koshering the bins

By "chance" (I put that in quotation marks since everything is orchestrated from above and not merely by "chance") Dan Kozak - the one who spearheaded and is coordinating the entire project - just happens to own a carpet cleaning company. So, a few weeks ago, he brought a carpet cleaning truck to the winery for a test run. Well, unfortunately the water didn't remain hot enough for long enough to kosher the bins properly.

Waht to do now? Plan #2 calls for us getting a hold of a slightly different model carpet cleaning machine that can retain a temperature of at least 190 degrees heat for a long enough period of time to clean out the whole bin.

Will it work? I don't know. I'll keep you updated as the wine-koshering process continues ...

Our Wine on NBC

Tuesday, September 11, 2012 - 12:22 AM

This morning I received a call from Joe at NBC news. "Hey, I saw an article in the Oakland Tribune about your kosher wine. Everybody in the newsroom thought it was a fun story. Are you available for a short interview this afternoon?"

So at 12pm Dan Kozak and I met Joe and Robert (the videographer) at the Mitchell Katz Winery in Livermore. Together, we munched on some grapes right off the vines and had an enjoyable time schmoozing kosher wines. Here's the story that ran on NBC's 6 o'clock news. They hope to return in one year's time for a tasting - please G-d.

How is all started...

Sunday, September 9, 2012 - 10:19 PM

Where to begin? How to tell the story? I'm not really sure. So please allow me to dabble a bit at the keyboard and hopefully my new (and very first) blog will begin to take shape and peak your interest and curiosity.

I grew up in heart of NYC and, in my world, fruits and vegetables originated at the supermarket. Yes, I knew there had to be a farmer somewhere who grew and tended the crops, but in my reality of skyscrapers and yellow taxi cabs that was as real as were the starving children in Africa.

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My 3-year old son Yankele's first experience in a vineyard - yum!

Fast-forward some 20 years and my wife and I are excitedly preparing our cross-country journey to our new home and community in the middle of the 'rural wilderness' of the Tri Valley. I vividly recall our first night in Pleasanton. Neither of us could fall asleep. It was simply too quiet. We lacked the comfort and company of those sirens, honking horns, and loud chatter in the streets that created the perfect combination of background noise necessary for us New Yorkers to fall asleep.

Thank G-d, we've been blessed with seven absolutely wonderful years in our new found West Coast home. And we so much appreciate the beauty (and serenity) of the environment and people who are now so much a part of our lives. A drive through the expansive vineyards of Livermore opens my mind and soul and certainly strikes a different inner chord than my strolls through New York's Times Square.

So, for these past seven years that we've been serving and building the Jewish community I've been thinking, "We have to bridge and fuse the beauty of the Tri Valley and the Jewish community in a very special way. We have to take the soil, flavors, and grapes of the Tri Valley, bottle them, and put them on our Shabbat, Passover, or Rosh Hashana table to make a special toast - l'chaim! (to life).

It is this inspiration that has given birth to an exciting new partnership between Chabad of the Tri Valley and the Mitchell Katz Winery. Yes, after months of planning and preparation, we are proud to announce that, with G-d's help, this partnership will give birth to a premier 2012 Livermore Valley kosher cabernet.

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Daniel Kozak (on left) who coordinated and spearheaded the project and wine-maker Mitchell Katz (on right)

In this blog I hope to document the journey and experiences of a New York Rabbi with absolutely no background, knowledge or experience in winemaking. In a broader sense, you might call it the journey to fuse heaven and spirituality with earth, grapes, and soil in a most special creation - a kosher bottle of wine.

It is my sincere hope that this journey will engage the Jewish community, bringing more unity and harmony. I'd also like to use his blog as an opportunity to share a uniquely Jewish perspective on wine, its significance in Jewish life, as well as the intricacies of kosher production. Thus far the journey has been quite humorous, somewhat ironic, and very promising.

In the coming days, weeks, and months, I hope to document these vignettes on this blog. Please enjoy and I very much look forward to sharing a l'chaim with you over our new wine.

May we be blessed with a joyous, healthy, and sweet new year and may we be inscribed and sealed in the book of life for a good year.