Of all the various Havdala laws instituted by Khaza"l few are more overtly Havdala maintaining than the outlawing of
סתם יינם. If not for the foresight of Khaza"l in drying up the vintners lubricants of the gears of social interaction that culminate in
Jewish sons marrying gentile daughters there would be no such thing as non-kosher wine and no need for kosher wine (except, perhaps, kosher l'Pesakh wine).
I wonder which social scientist could have predicted that just as snobbish
kosher connoisseurs are developing a taste for flash-pasteurized cabs and Merlots , non-Jewish hip-hop artists have made sweetish Bartenura Moscato d'Asti (rated number 1 by
Moscato Mom) their beverage of choice.
As reported
today in an NYC tabloid "Bartenura, selling for about $15, is a kosher version in a deep blue
bottle. It’s expected to sell 400,000 cases this year, a record for any
kosher wine. According to Nathan Herzog of brand owner Royal Wine,
85 percent of Bartenura buyers don’t know or care that it’s kosher, or
that it’s named for a 15th-century Italian rabbi. They just know what they like."
I also wonder how khaza"l would react to edgy, at-risk Jewish teenagers concluding that they can now go clubbing and drink along with all the other club-kids since the wine is kosher anyway. I doubt that they'd be extending anyone a
Mazal Tuff, not even Nathan Herzog.
בא המבדיל והעמידן על אחת
"Those who cannot tolerate Havdala cannot appreciate Qedusha"
6 comments:
http://thepartialview.blogspot.com/2012/04/countering-imbalance-of-frum-blogs.html
Mighty fine beverage. Why pay double the price for Asti Spumante when you can have virtually the same taste with Bartenura?
We've sure come a long way since you could cut your Schapiro's wine with a knife!
I would imagine that the clubbers couldn't care less whether their wine is kosher or not.
Anony...
Not sure about the link. Do you hold that HaMavdil is a cause or a cure of the "imbalance".
While I am not "the best and the brightest" neither am I Modern Orthodox
I never really bought the stam yeinam explanation. You're much more likely to get plastered on beers or liquors, which have no kashrut issues and are more likely to be consumed in bars or at restaurants.
A lot of these things are historical vestiges that we never abandon because we're Orthodox. Stam yeinam from yayin nesech.
Or gevinat akum even for microbial rennet.
Shhh! It's a secret kiruv project! Keep this under wraps!
Of all the great kosher wines out there they picked that?!
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