BAYONNE As the forklifts rolled through his sprawling corporate headquarters last month, Nathan Herzog sat at the head of a conference table and broached his favorite subject: wine.
Passover was just weeks away, and the president of Royal Wine Corp., the leading importer, producer and distributor of kosher wines and spirits, was excited.
Herzog, the eighth generation of a Jewish winemaking family that dates back to 19th-century Europe, raved about the dizzying array of kosher wines now available, a revolution for a product long stereotyped as cheap and sweet .
He was also gearing up for the company’s most lucrative and grueling season yet. Royal Wine, which also makes Kedem grape juice, does 40% of its business during the Easter holiday, which starts at sundown on Monday this year. The company makes wine in 17 countries and distributes in 31 countries and the United States
“Easter is like our Super Bowl,” said Jay Buchsbaum, Royal’s vice president of marketing, as he raced through the company’s cavernous warehouse and bottling operation during a recent tour. He pointed to crates of fine wine, stacked floor to ceiling in a bustling 200,000-square-foot plant.
Kosher wine for Passover is just the beginning
Passover used to be an increasingly large part of sales, but “it got diluted because so much of our business is now from non-kosher, non-Jewish customers,” he said. Royal, a privately held company, has seen annual sales growth of 5 percent to 10 percent over the past decade, Buchsbaum said.
“And every year, more of our wines win industry awards,” he said.
The week-long Passover holiday commemorates the Jews’ escape from slavery in Egypt around 1,200 BC, as detailed in the Book of Exodus. At its center is the Seder, a ritual feast where wine plays a leading role. The meal includes symbolic food and prayers and four glasses of hard stuff for each adult participant.
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With an explosion of kosher wine options in recent years, Royal sells 800 varieties from 39 countries, Herzog said it’s not just connoisseurs who can look to elevate their choices for the Passover table.
“Why quench your thirst with the same red wine for all four glasses?” he shrugged. “Put a dozen bottles on the table and make it a fun experience.”
Herzog suggests starting the Seder with a lower-alcohol rosé or sparkling wine, such as the company’s Lineage Rose (made in California), before moving on to Carmel Black Cabernet Sauvignon (from Israel) and then Asti Soliter’s Pescaja Barbera ( an Italian wine). ). The night could end with another California varietal, Herzog Special Reserve Napa Valley.
What makes wine kosher?
Kosher wine is made using the same fermentation process as traditional wine, but only uses kosher certified ingredients. Their creation “from the crushing of the grapes to the sealing of the bottle” must be overseen and directed by Sabbath-observant Jews, Buchsbaum said.
Otherwise, kosher and non-kosher alcohol taste the same, he added. Long associated with sugary reds, kosher wine now comes in numerous varieties, shades and flavors, catering to a clientele that has become more discerning over the past 20 years.
“They don’t want the sacramental sweet wine anymore,” Buchsbaum said as he stood amid thousands of boxes and pallets. “Now they want the good stuff.”
Royal’s “good stuff” can trace its vines back to Rabbi Menachem Herzog, who founded a distillery in Vrbove, Slovakia, in the early 1800s. The wine would eventually find its way onto the menu at the royal court of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Vienna Menachem’s grandson Phillip Herzog was made a baron by Emperor Franz Joseph.
The company flourished for decades, but was captured by the Nazis during World War II. Phillip’s grandson, Eugene Herzog, survived the Holocaust, but his parents were killed in Auschwitz. He fled to America, arriving in 1948 with no money and no means to support his wife and six children.
“He needed to support his family, so he went into winemaking, which was our family tradition,” said Nathan Herzog, 64, Eugene’s grandson.
Eugene found work doing sales and delivery for Royal Wines, then a small winery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. His bosses could afford to pay him only in company stock, which turned out to be a windfall for the family: in 1958, Eugene bought out his partners and became the sole owner of the business , says the company’s official story.
The Herzogs later opened Kedem Winery in the Hudson Valley village of Marlboro, New York, producing a line of five wines. “They were all of the extra-heavy syrup variety,” Nathan recalled. He pointed to an oversized glass wine bottle dating from the late 1950s that sat on the conference table.
Royal Wine Corp. kosher evolution
The company’s evolution began with the impetus of Eugene’s youngest son, David, who found work on Wall Street rather than in the family business. He envied the high-end, non-kosher French wines his colleagues could enjoy in fine restaurants. Why, he asked his frustrated father, couldn’t those wines be kosher?
This began a decades-long effort to expand the business by producing and importing kosher wines from around the world.
Royal Wine now ships bottles from almost every wine-producing region in the world: merlots from Argentina, pinot noirs from France, a vodka from the Ukraine. The company also makes private label wines for celebrities such as Mariah Carey, Vera Wang and Amar’e Stoudemire. Kedem, meanwhile, is the second largest grape juice company in the United States, after Welch’s.
The demand for kosher drinks has grown in recent years, and this has encouraged several wineries to create new varieties under kosher supervision.
Royal’s best seller is Italy’s Bartenura moscato, known for its iconic blue bottle. Nearly 9 million of them leave the shelves annually, 70% to non-kosher drinkers, the company estimates. “It’s the most popular moscato in the country,” Buchsbaum said.
The drink took off after stars like Lil’ Kim and Drake rapped about its sweet, bubbly taste in 2005. Buchsbaum saw potential at the time. “We spent money marketing the product to hip-hop fans,” he said.
It was a runaway success.
Deena Yellin covers religion for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to his work covering how the spiritual intersects with our everyday lives,please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
E-mail:yellin@northjersey.com
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