Kosher wine (Hebrew: יין כשר, yayin kashèr) results only when wine is produced according to Judaism's religious law, specifically, the Jewish dietary laws of (kashrut, Hebrew: כשרות), and then is known as "kosher wine".
In general, kashrut deals with avoiding specific forbidden foods, none of which are normally used in winemaking, so it might seem that all wines are automatically "kosher". However, because of wine's special role in many non-Jewish religions, the kashrut laws specify that wine cannot be considered kosher if it might have been used for "idolatry".
Some of these concepts include:
Yayin Nesekh (Wine that has been poured to an idol, or with idolatry in mind.)
- Stam Yainom (Wine that may have been touched by someone who might believe in idolatry, but wouldn't have had it in mind at the time of contact.)
- When kosher wine is mevushal ("cooked" or "boiled"), it thereby becomes unfit for idolatrous use and will keep the status of kosher wine even if subsequently touched by an idolator. See section below for more details.
Intermingling - There are prohibitions on several foods, including wine, in order to prevent intermingling amongst non-Jews in order to reduce the chances of intermarriage. - In recent times, there has been an increased demand for kosher wines and a number of wine producing countries now produce a wide variety of sophisticated kosher wines under strict rabbinical supervision, particularly in Israel, the United States, France, Italy, South Africa, and Australia. Two of the world's largest producers and importers of kosher wines, Kedem and Manischewitz, are both based in the Northeastern United States.
When sold commercially
When kosher wine is produced, marketed and sold commercially to Orthodox Jews, it must have the hechsher ("seal of approval") of a supervising agency or organization (such as the "OU" sign of the Orthodox Union), or of an authoritative rabbi who is preferably also a posek ("decisor" of Jewish law) or be supervised by a beth din ("Jewish religious court of law") according to Orthodox Judaism.
