There has been a trend in recent years of boutique wineries becoming kosher. Now two more wineries, have decided to make kosher wines from the 2010 harvest.

The first is Flam Winery which was the largest Israeli winery producing non kosher wines in recent harvests. Flam Winery is owned by the Flam family. Situated in the Judean Foothills near Beit Shemesh, the winery produces well over 100,000 bottles a year. The winery is run by the Flam brothers, Golan & Gilad, with the backing of their famous father, Israel Flam, for many years the chief winemaker of Carmel Mizrahi.

The second winery is Saslove, which is another family winery. The winery’s crush facility is situated at Tsuriel in the Upper Galilee and the barrel aging room & visitors center is at Kibbutz Eyal, near Kfar Saba. The winery is owned by Barry Saslove, who gained a name as one of Israel’s most innovative wine educators in the 1990’s and he now shares winemaking duties with his daughter Roni Saslove. They have in the past made a kosher wine called ‘K by Saslove’ at a kosher winery, but have now decided to go the whole way.

Continuing the trend, there are rumors that Tulip Winery will also be going kosher! If Tulip joins Flam and Saslove in producing kosher wines, the most prominent, remaining, ‘non kosher’ wineries in Israel will be Margalit, Clos de Gat, Chateau Golan and Pelter.

Wineries like Castel, Golan Heights & Yatir have proved that making kosher wine is no bar to quality. They are arguably Israel’s best wineries and each produces only kosher wines. Certainly the move to kosher is a sound move economically and the ‘new’ kosher wines will be eagerly awaited by kashrut observing Jews everywhere.

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