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Here are some recommendations for wines for Rosh Hashanah — New Year.

Unlike Passover, there's no tradition for wine on Rosh Hashanah. There is, however, a basic theme for food on Rosh Hashanah: sweet foods. Apples or challah dipped in honey, sweet cakes, and the like all express the desire for a sweet new year. Another tradition is serving fish, along with the head of the fish, as a physical expression of the phrase "let us be like the heads and not like the tail" when it comes to our blessings for the upcoming year.

In recognition of the theme of sweetness, here's a few recommendations for sweet wines and festive wines for the Rosh Hashanah.

Dry Sparkling Wines

There's no Jewish tradition of wild celebration on Rosh Hashanah; the day begins with prayer services, continues with a mid-day family meal, and ends with more services. Still, the day offers the opportunity for some nice sparkling wines to differentiate it from ordinary Sabbath meals. (For a nice treat, put a good strawberry into the champagne glass along with the wine.) First, some dry sparkling wines:

Prosecco, a nice value for the money. Dry.
Pommery, a very nice champagne; dry.
Laurent-Perrier champagne, a dry champagne. This is the one that seems to work best with sweet foods.
Nicolas Feuillatte, also dry. (No formal review available at this time.) Laurent-Perrier is better with sweet foods, but the Nicolas Feuillatte is generally excellent.

Sweet Sparkling Wines

For sparkling wines that are sweeter, try:

Spumante Malvasia
Malvasia Di Castelnuovo Don Bosco. Make certain that the bottle isn't more than a year or two old; it doesn't last in the bottle very long.

Sweet Wines

Conditon. This wine has fig honey in it to make it heavier and sweeter — and when the Torah (Bible) mentions honey, as in "the land of milk and honey," it refers to date or fig honey, not bee's honey. This makes the wine very appropriate for the New Year.
Black Muscat, Gan Eden. This wine is still available, and is very good; the winery changed hands recently and will probably not remain in kosher production. If not available, try any other black muscat.
Moscato D'AstiThis is a good Moscato. I do not recommend the Bartenura Moscato D'Asti.
A bit less sweet, and still good, are the Gewurztraminers, and the White (or Johannesburg) Rieslings. (I don't have reviews of any of the current vintages.)
The Weinstock White Riesling, which is actually pink (well, blush), and is quite a bargin.
Napa Valley Johannesburg Riesling, a favorite for 25 years. Sparkle, citrus, and just on the dry side of semi-dry.

Lighter Red Wines

Beaujolais-Villages from Etienne Bailly. The Beaujolais-Villages from Abarbanel, is also good, but the Etienne Bailly is a bit better.
Mendoza Malbec, by Valero, is a very soft red wine, not "full bodied" as it says on the label, and is a good wine for people who otherwise don't drink dry red wines.

White Wines for Your Fish

If you have the tradition of serving fish, here are some white wines for you:

Special Reserve Russian River Valley Chardonnay. A very nice white.
Teal Lake's Chardonnay
Adulam Sauvignon Blanc 2002. A very nice balance of flavors, and perhaps a real bargain.

Red Wines

Finally, a few nice robust dry red wines:

Segal's Cabernet Sauvignon, an all-round excellent wine.

Galil Moutain Winery's Yiron

Best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year from the Yudkowsky Family to all the readers of The Kosher Wine Review!

Last update: 2005