Vintage Wine – Culinary Judaism

Wine Sellers

A wine seller needs to be specific with his sales pitch. If he lies, then he must return the buyers money. The Gemara says, if one says, I am selling you old wine, he must give him from last year. If he said I am selling you very old wine he must supply him with wine from three years ago. (Baba Batra 98a)

ID-100138500

Meniscus

In addition to looking on the label to see a wine’s age, you can also look at its meniscus. You see this by looking at the ring of wine at the top when you tilt the wine glass. Older red wines lean towards brown, orange and yellow. New wines have a purple meniscus darker than the wine.

Wine in the Bet Hamikdash  – Holy Temple

When the Holy Temple was standing, eating the meat sacrifices brought great pleasure. Our Rabbis have said that since the Holy Temple was destroyed,  we cannot eat the meat of sacrifices, instead we should drink wine on the Holidays when we are commanded to be happy, as it is written: Rav Huna says that one now celebrates the holiday with clean clothing and vintage wine. This is learned form the pasuk in Tehilim (104) Wine makes a person’s heart happy. (Pesachim 71a)

Wine on Shabat and Holidays
Wine on Shabat and Holidays