Include “al hagefen” if just had a sip of grape juice when anyways saying me'ein shalosh

Question

Sorry I don't have all the sources in front of me. The basic rule of blessings is that wine/grape juice, fruits from the seven species, and the five grain products get a special after blessing known as "Me'ein Shalosh". If one had a combination of these three categories, they wouldn't make three separate blessings, rather they would combine them all into one.

A common scenario is at a Kiddush, someone will have a sip of wine/grape juice. They will then have the requisite amount of grain (mezonos), so that they'll fulfill the requirement to eat where they heard Kiddush. They will then have to make a Me'ein Shalosh, saying Al HaMichya for grain. However, they didn't have the requisite amount of wine/grape juice to make Me'ein Shalosh for wine/grape juice. Could they, or should they, still include the phrase Al HaGefen for having drunk wine/grape juice? Or would they include that only if they had the requisite amount.

I seem to recall this is a dispute among the Poskim, but I don't remember where I read this. I'm curious for the relevant sources, and what the common practice is. My imagination is most people include it anyways.

Answer 1

If the 'sip' you drank at the kiddush was a shot glass (as I've often seen done in such a setting) where the contents of the cup may be a kezayis at least according to some authorities, in which case the Shulchan Aruch (210:1) says there is a doubt if one is obligated in an after blessing, then the Chayei Adam (50:21) mentions this case:

שתה יין בכזית ואם כן הוא ספק אם יברך ב"א כיון שהוא פחות מרביעית. וכן שתה יין ונסתפק אם בירך ב"א ואין לו יין מותר לו לאכול כזית מדברים שמברכין עליו על המחיה ויכלול בתוכה ג"כ על הגפן אע"ג דלכתחילה היה אסור לשתות דבר שהוא מסופק אם הוא יין וכיוצא בו כדי לכלול בעל המחיה וכיוצא בו מ"מ כיון שכבר אכל או שתה והוא מסופק ואין לו מאותו המין לתקן יכול לכלול מספק - One who drink a kezayis of wine and is thereby uncertain if he can make a bracha achrona since he drank less than a reviis, also one who drinks wine and isn't sure if he made a bracha achrona and has no more wine to drink, then it is permitted to eat a kezayis of other foods requiring an al hamichya to include the wine drunk into the bracha achrona with al hamichya v'al pri hagafen. Even though lechatchila it is forbidden to drink a questionable amount of wine and the like in order to include al hagafen in the al hamichya, still it was already done then you can repair the issue by including al hagafen in al hamichya.

The Mishna Berura (208:82) seems to echo the same 'don't do this lechatchila' in a related case.

However, if your 'sip' is truly less than a kezayis then it would be a different answer. There is no bracha achrona for wine/grape juice when less than a kezayis is drunk, and we cannot add additional insertions to the obligatory al hamichya without a halachically legitimate reason - like to potentially remove ourselves from a questionable bracha achrona. (The Biur Halacha (202:11) writes regarding a case of a questionable bracha achrona אע"ג דהב"י ולבוש כתבו כאן דאין זה תקנה דאין לו להוסיף בנוסח הברכה על הספק ע"ש כ"ז ביש לו תקנה אחרת דפרי ומים הנזכר בשו"ע אבל באין לו תקנה זו יכול לסמוך על הט"ז ס"ס ר"ח שכתב דבשעת הדחק יכול להוסיף בברכה וכן הסכים שם במאמר מרדכי, bringing the Beis Yosef who says you cannot add an additional insertion to the bracha achrona for a safek as well as the Taz who is lenient in a pressing situation.

If there is no question of the bracha achrona if you drank less than even a kezayis of wine/grape juice, then it would seem the Taz, Chayei Adam, etc. wouldn't allow adding an unnecessary insertion.