Wine in Our Jewish Culture, Especially During Passover

 Jerusalem Post     

By ADAM MONTEFIORE   

FEBRUARY 1, 2012 08:26

Nadene Goldfoot

                                                 

Ancient wine press, Ein Yael

(photo credit: www.go-israel.com )

The winepress, (gat in Hebrew), is the area where the grapes were pressed. This was normally a limestone basin cut into the rock. Usually they were square but sometimes round. There was often a wooden structure surrounding and covering the press to offer shade.

I have never used a   whole newspaper article but this one from February 2012 answers all my questions I've had and more about wine that our ancient ancestors made.  My first thought was that they had no cane sugar to use as a sweetener to ferment grapes.  Of course, they must have used honey.  However did they make enough?  

"Passover commemorates the Biblical story of Exodus — where God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The celebration of Passover is prescribed in the book of Exodus in the Old Testament (in Judaism, the first five books of Moses are called the Torah)." Therefore, it was Moses who first told us to celebrate Passover, and he died just before reaching Canaan at the age of 120 years.  This was our most traumatic and important event to remember. In this remembrance of the Exodus, we drink 4 cups of wine.  

                                                                  

Exodus 12:14  This day; shall become a remembrance for you and shall celebrate it as a festival for Hashem;  for your generations, as an eternal decree shall you celebrate it.  For a seven-day period shall you eat matzos, but on the previous day you shall nullify the leaven from your homes;  for anyone who eats leavened food--that soul shall be cut off from Israel, from the first day to the seventh day.  ....."  Moses gave more directions about Passover, but didn't comment about 4 cups of wine.  That developed probably a little later when a complete service was established in the form of a Haggadah, like a textbook of the service.  What started in the Temple was continued with the Haggadah fixing the rituals of the Seder.  

The service, done at the dinner table, begins with Kiddush (the blessing on wine).  There is ceremony around the 4 cups of wine.  The 4 cups are one of the most ancient features of the Haggadah.  The religious affirmation with each cup of wine is also, in effect, a toast--"To Life!"  "To Freedom!"  "To Peace!"  "To Jerusalem!"  The Seder, which means ORDER,  takes clear shape arranged this way:  2 cups before, 2 cups after, and in between----the banquet.  

"Winemaking began in the triangle of the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea and Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee). It was somewhere in eastern Turkey, Georgia and Armenia that wine was first made. The vine then traveled south toward Egypt – which was the first great wine culture – where wine’s importance was first documented. On the way, it passed through Canaan and ancient Israel, which was therefore one of the earliest of all wine-producing countries. The Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans finished the job, spreading the wine message to the West and bringing the vine to North Africa and Europe.  (My father's line of the male line of DNA  (Yhaplotype is QBZ67-origins of parts of Turkey, Siberia, Mongolia) and  great grandfather Movsha ben Josel Goldfus was a distiller.  Very interesting)

Wine features very prominently throughout the Bible. Noah was the first recorded vine grower. He planted his vineyard where the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat. Nomads did not plant vineyards. It was a sign of civilization when people became farmers instead of hunters.

                                                        

When the spies returned to Moses after scouting out the Promised Land, they carried a large bunch of grapes on a pole between two people, which they used to illustrate that it was a land flowing with milk and honey. This enduring image is the logo of the Israel Tourist Board and Carmel Winery.

The wine industry blossomed. Wine was the mainstay of the economy and the country’s major export. King David had two wine officials. One managed his vineyards and the other his cellars. Maybe these were Israel’s first viticulturist and sommelier!

People drank copious amounts of wine because it was safer than the water. Wine was also used as a disinfectant for wounds, as a dyeing agent, as an aid for digestion and for religious ritual.

The reminder of this golden period of Israeli wine may be found in the many winepresses that exist in Israel. When you next come across an 

ancient winepress, read Isaiah’s “Song to a Vineyard,” use a little

 imagination and it will bring the biblical harvest scene to life."  

 

By 2017, Several aides to President Trump gathered in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to commemorate the annual Jewish holiday, which former president Barack Obama celebrated every year while in office. But Trump, a Republican,  did not attend the ceremony, and neither did his daughter Ivanka or son-in-law Jared Kushner, who are observant Jews.

  They held their own in their home, most likely Jared leading  it.      

                                        

      During a visit to Israel in 2013, Obama, a Democrat,  stated that he brought the Passover Seder to the White House to acquaint his daughters with the story of the Exodus, whose themes resonated with his personal beliefs. 

  

                        

"The people knew something about winemaking in those days. The winepress was usually close to the vineyard because there was less wastage and a greater opportunity to maintain control of the winemaking process. The whole family would be involved with the harvest. Grapes would be carried in baskets and laid on the floor of the winepress, and the men usually did the pressing. This was done by treading on the grapes with bare feet. There was enough pressure to extract the juice but not enough to crush the grape pips and release unpleasant bitterness. To avoid slipping, the treaders would hold on to ropes attached to the roof." 

(Most classical red wines do not need any form of sweetening but wines made from fruits, native grapes, or white grapes often need additional sugar to achieve balance. Without any form of sweetening, these high acid wines can come across as sour and difficult on the palate.)

"The juice, or must (tirosh), would then flow down a gulley or channel from

 the main pressing area into a deeper hole, known as the yekev (literally 

“winery”). Twigs or thorns would be placed strategically to act as a rudimentary filter.  

In the yekev, the wine would begin to ferment naturally. The natural yeasts on the skins of the grapes would find all the sugar in the grapes irresistible. The deepness of the hole and the stone surrounds would keep temperatures stable. 

Fermentation of the tirosh would take three to five days, and the result

 would be wine.

As soon as the production of carbon dioxide (a by-product of fermentation) 

finished and before the wine could begin to oxidize, the wine would be 

channeled into an even deeper pit, where Canaanite jars were filled. 

This was a pottery container with two large handles and a pointed bottom.

They became better known by their Greek name, amphorae. They were closed or sealed with pine resin. This imparted a unique flavor that may still be sampled in the retsina wines produced in Greece. The amphorae were stamped with seals giving the information of the vintage, vineyard, type of wine and color.

The Talmud describes 60 types of wines. Some wines were diluted with water. Others would invariably have flavors added to improve the taste and act as a preservative. Salt, seawater, herbs and spices such as cinnamon were added. Raisins or date honey were used as sweeteners. These flavored wines were forerunners of the punches or vermouths of today. Smoked wine was cooked wine. They were the forerunner of Mevushal wine, though it was done to concentrate the wine into a syrup rather than for kashrut reasons. Even in those days they knew about drying grapes on mats to concentrate the sweetness. This is similar to Vino Santo produced today in Italy or the similarly named Vinsanto produced in Greece.

So next time you come across on old wine press, remember that the success of today’s wine industry truly replicates the times of old. If France and Italy are referred to as the Old World of winemaking and Chile and Australia are the New World, then Israel belongs to the Ancient World, where wine culture was born."

Now, you may be thinking that Jews must have a high% of alcoholics.  Wrong.  Of those hospitalized for drinking problems, 25.6% were Irish, 7.8% were Scandinavian, 4.8% were Italian, 4.3% were English, 3.8% were German, and less than 1% were Jewish.(It also happens to be that Jews are a rarity in a community.  We make up only 0.02% of the world population;  2% of the USA population.)   So while Jews reported drinking just as regularly as their non-Jewish peers, only a fraction of Jews ended up hospitalized for it.  But we have had our alcoholics.  For all I know, they do not become so problematic while drinking.  

 Why the difference?  Actually it's DNA.                                          

Flash forward half a century, and science presents an answer: Genetics. It appears that many Jews — nearly 20% — have a DNA mutation linked to lower rates of alcoholism. The variance is known as ADH2*2, is “involved in the way the body breaks down alcohol in the bloodstream,” and is thought to produce more of a toxic chemical byproduct when persons with the gene drink heavily.  This is both good and bad news for Jews. Those with the gene had more unpleasant reactions to alcohol, and predictably drank less. “Almost all white Europeans,” on the other hand, lack the gene, and “thus drinking tends to be more pleasurable, increasing the risks of alcoholism.”

Resource:                                                     

                                         Kosher Carmel wine found in wine shops, check online.  


Adam Montefiore works for Carmel Winery and regularly writes about wine for Israeli and international publications.

Tanakh, the Stone Edition

Haggadah, translation by Chaim Raphael, Behrman House, Inc. Publishers, New York

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/04/10/the-white-house-will-host-a-passover-seder-president-trump-probably-wont-be-there/

https://www.smartwinemaking.com/post/2017/07/08/sweetening-homemade-wine

https://forward.com/scribe/359475/are-jews-less-likely-to-be-alcoholics/

I appreciate Adam's thoroughness in his history of wine making article. I've only added information about Passover and wine usage.  

adam@carmelwines.co.il