How is all started...

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.

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.

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.