The Art of Kosher Winemaking at Viña Memorias
- Viña Memorias |
- Apr 8
- 8 min read
Every September, when the first light breaks over the highlands of Utiel-Requena, our harvest begins. The mornings are cool at 800 meters of elevation a dry, bright cold that sharpens the senses and concentrates the fruit still hanging on vines that have been here for over a hundred years.
But at Viña Memorias, the harvest is not only a winemaker's event. Before a single grape is crushed, our mashgiach the kosher supervisor is already in the vineyard. When the first bins arrive at the winery, he is there. When the press begins to turn, he is there. And he will remain there, overseeing every pump, every valve, every seal, until the last label is applied to the last bottle, months later.
This is what kosher winemaking looks like at the highest level. Not a stamp on a label. A way of making wine.
What Makes Wine Kosher?
Many people believe that kosher wine is simply wine that has been blessed by a rabbi. It is one of the most common misconceptions in the wine world - and one of the easiest to clear up.
Kosher wine is defined not by a blessing, but by a process. From the moment grapes are crushed until the wine is sealed in its bottle, every step must be handled by Sabbath-observant Jewish workers. Every additive - every yeast, every fining agent - must be independently verified as kosher. All equipment must be dedicated to kosher production or ritually cleansed (kashered) before use. And a trained supervisor, the mashgiach, must be present throughout.
Wine occupies a unique place in Jewish law. Unlike almost any other food, it is subject to the ancient prohibitions of yayin nesech (wine used in idolatrous service) and stam yeinam (wine handled without proper supervision). These laws codified by the Rambam in his Mishneh Torah over eight hundred years ago have governed Jewish wine production for centuries and remain binding today.
At Viña Memorias, we embrace these standards fully. Not because we have to. Because we believe that wine made with this level of care simply tastes like it was made with care.
In the Footsteps of the Rambam
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon - the Rambam, known to the wider world as Maimonides - was born in Córdoba, Spain, in 1138. He was a physician, a philosopher, and one of the greatest codifiers of Jewish law in history. He spent his formative years on the Iberian Peninsula before the Almohad persecutions forced his family into exile across North Africa and eventually to Egypt.
The Rambam wrote extensively about wine. As a legal authority, he built the halachic framework that still governs kosher winemaking today. As a doctor, he recommended wine in moderation - consumed with meals, diluted with water, never in excess. And as a connoisseur (wine writer Adam Montefiore, in The Jerusalem Post, called him "the first Jewish wine connoisseur"), he preferred quality wine for religious ritual: not boiled, not sweetened - a principle that speaks directly to the modern craft of artisanal, non-mevushal kosher wine.
Our inaugural wine line - Memorias del Rambam - is named in his honor. It is a tribute to the Sephardic heritage of Spanish Jewry, to the tradition of wisdom and medicine that Maimonides embodied, and to a simple idea: wine made with intention is not merely permitted. It is elevated.
Producing kosher wine in Spain, in the land where the Rambam himself once lived, is not a coincidence for us. It is a return.
Our Certifications: OU, MKL, and Beyond
Viña Memorias holds dual kosher certification - a standard very few wineries anywhere in the world maintain.
Orthodox Union (OU) - The world's most recognized kosher symbol, present on products in over 105 countries. When you see the OU on our bottles, you know: from New York to Tel Aviv, these wines meet the highest international kosher standards.
MKL - Kedassia (Rabbi Padwa / London Beth Din) - Deeply trusted among observant communities across the United Kingdom and Europe. The MKL certification adds additional layers of supervision, reflecting the meticulous standards of the Padwa tradition.
Together, these certifications mean our wines are accepted across virtually every kosher-observant community in the world - Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrachi alike. All of our wines are Kosher for Passover.
Going Further: ללא ראייה עכו"ם
Beyond the standard requirements of kosher certification, Viña Memorias upholds an additional measure of stringency known as ללא ראייה עכו"ם: throughout the entire production process, our wine is neither touched nor seen by non-Jewish workers. While halacha requires that non-Jews do not handle the wine, we go further - adopting a centuries-old practice, upheld by leading rabbinical authorities, that extends protection to sight itself. This requires careful coordination of our cellar operations and reflects our philosophy that when it comes to kosher integrity, we choose the highest standard available, not the most convenient one.
From Crush to Label: How Our Mashgiach Works
Our kosher supervision is led by Rav Shalom Ber Binshtock, Rabbi Chabad of Valencia, working in close coordination with both the OU and MKL agencies. His presence - and the presence of his team - is woven into every phase of our winemaking.
During harvest, every bin of grapes is received under supervision. The moment juice separates from the grape skin - a threshold known in halacha as hamshachah - only approved kosher workers may touch the must. This is the point of no return: from here forward, the wine belongs to the process.
During fermentation, observant workers initiate and operate every step. Pressing. Pumping. Sampling. Transferring. No exceptions, no delegation.
During aging, our barrels, tanks, and tinajas (the traditional clay amphorae we use for some of our most distinctive wines) are sealed with double seals - chosam b'toch chosam - applied by the mashgiach himself. These seals are inspected regularly, and only the mashgiach may break and reapply them.
During bottling and labeling, supervision continues through the final step. It does not end when the wine enters the bottle. It continues until the last label is placed and the product is fully secured.
Throughout all of this, our enologist, Daniel Expósito, retains full creative control. He decides when to harvest, how to ferment, when to rack, how long to age. The mashgiach ensures every one of those decisions is carried out within the bounds of halacha. The winemaker's art and the supervisor's discipline work side by side - and together, they make the wine better.
What Goes Into Kosher Wine
It is not only about who handles the wine. Everything that touches it matters.
Yeasts - We use only kosher-certified yeasts. When we choose natural fermentation - letting the wild yeasts living on our grape skins do the work — the question resolves itself beautifully.
Fining agents - Where many wineries reach for gelatin, isinglass, or casein to clarify their wines, we use only kosher-approved alternatives like bentonite clay. Many of our wines are left unfined altogether - a choice that reflects both our kosher commitment and our belief in minimal intervention.
Equipment - Every tank, hose, press, barrel, and tinaja that touches our wine is either dedicated exclusively to kosher production or thoroughly kashered under mashgiach supervision before use.
Nothing enters the wine without verification. Nothing is left to chance.
Mevushal and Non-Mevushal
Our wines include both mevushal and non-mevushal expressions, and we are proud of both.
Non-mevushal wines are never heat-treated. They preserve the full spectrum of aroma, tannin, and texture that our vineyards and cellar work create. These wines must be handled by Sabbath-observant Jews from production through serving - a requirement that reflects their elevated status in Jewish tradition. The Rambam himself preferred wine for ritual that had not been boiled or sweetened. When you open a non-mevushal bottle from Viña Memorias, you are holding a wine that honors that ancient standard.
Mevushal wines have traditionally carried a reputation for compromise - a trade-off between kosher practicality and wine quality. At Viña Memorias, we set out to change that story.
Our mevushal wines are produced using Thermoflash technology from Bordeaux - the most advanced system available in modern winemaking. Unlike conventional flash pasteurization, Thermoflash applies a rapid, precisely controlled heat treatment that ruptures grape cell walls under vacuum, extracting maximum color, polyphenols, and tannin structure, then instantly cools the wine. The result is not a lesser version of our non-mevushal wines. It is a different expression entirely: deeply colored, structurally complex, and built with real aging capacity.
We believe mevushal wine should not be a concession. It should be an achievement.
Both categories carry the full OU and MKL certification and are Kosher for Passover.
Kosher and Organic: A Rare Combination
Viña Memorias is one of very few wineries in the world that holds both kosher and EU organic certification at the same time.
Our organic certification is issued by the CAECV (Comité de Agricultura Ecológica de la Comunitat Valenciana), an official certifying body recognized by the European Union under EU Regulation 2018/848. This is not a private label or a marketing claim - it is the same legal standard applied across all 27 EU member states.
No synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides in our vineyards
No artificial fertilizers
Strict limits on sulfite additions
Full traceability of every agricultural input
Running both certifications simultaneously is a genuine challenge. Each imposes its own audit schedule, its own documentation, its own production rules - and both must be satisfied at the same time, without conflict. Very few producers take this on.
We do it because we believe that if you are going to make wine with intention - honoring tradition, respecting the land - you should do it fully. Not halfway.
And our vineyards make it a little easier. Sitting at 700–900 meters in the highlands of DOP Utiel-Requena, with poor limestone soils, dry farming, and a continental climate that keeps disease pressure low, the land naturally cooperates with our philosophy.
Old Vines, Deep Roots
Hidden in our vineyards are ungrafted Bobal vines that have been growing on their own roots for over a hundred years. They survived the phylloxera epidemic that destroyed most of European viticulture in the late 19th century. They are still here - gnarled, low-yielding, and producing fruit of extraordinary concentration.
Old vines like these are rare anywhere in the world. Old vines that are also organically farmed, kosher-supervised, and bottled under dual OU and MKL certification may be unique.
When a mashgiach watches over grapes from a vine planted before the First World War, something rare happens: the ancient and the sacred converge in the same bottle.
Why We Do It This Way
Sometimes people ask us: is all of this really necessary? The double certification. The organic farming. The Thermoflash investment. The ללא ראייה עכו"ם stringency. The mashgiach team present from September to spring.
The honest answer is: the minimum would be easier.
But kosher winemaking, at its best, is not about the minimum. It is about intentionality. Every decision in our cellar - which yeast, which fining agent, who touches the barrel, when the seal is broken - is made deliberately. There are no shortcuts. No autopilot.
At some of the finest estates in France, winemakers have discovered that their kosher cuvée sometimes surpasses the non-kosher one. Not despite the discipline - because of it. We have found the same to be true in our own cellars.
At Viña Memorias, we have never seen kosher certification as a ceiling. It is a foundation. Everything we build — the organic farming, the old vines, the Thermoflash technology, the dual certification - stands on top of it.
Taste the Difference
Our wines are available across Europe through our online shop. Every bottle carries the OU and MKL seals - your assurance that from vineyard to glass, nothing was left to chance.
Comments