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It is my understanding that Kosher Wine has to be made by Jews. Fair enough, but what steps/stages must specifically be performed by Jews?

  1. Is the vineyard required to be owned by one of the faith? The day to day labor around the grapes taken care of by jews?

  2. Picking time also all jewish? Creation of the grape juice, barreling/fermenting?

3)Bottling afterwards? Do the warehouse workers all have to be Jewish?

4)Retailing? If kosher wine is sold by non-Jews at a supermarket or liquor store, is it no longer kosher?

  1. Can any Jew make wine and have it be kosher, or are there special conditions that must be met?
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  • Vote to reopen. While the top title is vague, this is actually asking a very clear, focused, answer-able question: at what precise point in the process do we require Jews to do the handling. The other question was much broader. If I'm not mistaken the answer is "as of when the grapes are pressed"; everyone buys "non-Jewish" grapes at their local grocery store. Kosher grape jelly is interesting -- if I recall from the OU, if the company starts with grape juice, it would have to be kosher grape juice. If it's just grapes going into the machine, you don't need special Jewish handling.
    – Shalom
    Aug 25, 2022 at 11:20

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The issue is that if uncooked wine is touched by a non-Jew (or non-observant Jew) it becomes non-kosher. So the workers have to be Jewish from the time the grapes start to be pressed until the wine is bottled or pasteurized.

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  • Additional requirements include not storing the wine in barrels previously used for non-kosher products.
    – Phil Freedenberg
    Aug 25, 2022 at 14:55
  • That doesn't really relate to the body of OP's question.
    – N.T.
    Aug 25, 2022 at 15:35
  • As the question was rephrased, now we are good. This is the correct answer. Sealed bottles can be handled/sold by anyone. And no, the vineyard does not to be Jewish-owned -- the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch discussed Jews doing a kosher run at some non-Jew's winery -- it needs VERY careful supervision. Yes, the barrels need to be kosher, and the refining agent needs to be vegetarian. There is no ritual or blessing for kosher winemaking (though if grown in Israel it has to be tithed), but one more critical point -- when we say "Jews handled it", it has to be Sabbath-observant Jews.
    – Shalom
    Sep 1, 2022 at 10:27
  • If the wine was pasteurized at a high temperature, then after that point it can be handled by anyone. Such wine bottles are marked with the word "Mevushal" -- Hebrew for "cooked." If not, non-Jews handling an open bottle would make it non-kosher. Thus if you have non-Jewish waiters serving wine at a kosher restaurant/event, the wine had better be "Mevushal" or else it's not kosher.
    – Shalom
    Sep 1, 2022 at 10:32

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