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I just posted a Steve Reich Point Blank remix on a different thread and the brutalism of that gif joins all my BB contributions together tonight.
Thank you!
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It was less a matter of speed and more a matter of affordability and rabbinic trustworthiness. The concord grape (a distinctly American grape) was the cheapest variety available in bulk on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the early 20th century, and the hordes of poor Jews living there preferred locally produced wine where they knew which rabbis were supervising its production (wine is subject to particularly stringent kosher requirements). Since concord grapes don’t make very tasty wine, the winemakers added sugar to make it taste good.
The Forward did a well-researched (if oddly-written) piece on the history of NY kosher wine a couple years ago, in which Henry David Thoreau and John Zorn make cameo appearances.
No way. Most kosher wine is still terrible. There are tons of kosher wines made in more mainstream styles with more mainstream grapes (not just the sickly sweet concord stuff). But most of them aren’t much better than Two Buck Chuck, even if they cost 5-10x as much. There ARE, however, a handful of kosher wineries (Hagafen, Covenant, Yarden, etc.) that produce some truly good (snob-worthy) wines, although like with non-kosher wineries, quality still varies a lot even within a single winery’s product line.
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I stand corrected (or at least expanded).
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There are some amazingly good Israeli, French & American kosher wines.
Wait - is he drinking that on the rocks?!?
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Why not? It’s almond flavored Manischewitz. It may be slightly more palatable on the rocks…
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Wow. I didn’t see that coming.
And I thought I knew everything.
Made the mistake of trying Manischewitz blackberry wine a while back. It was truly, truly awful. In all ways. Couldn’t even have cooked with it. I swear, even the insinkerator complained when I poured it down. Bring on the matzos and even the bitter herbs, but keep the dang Manischewitz to yourself, thank you very much.
Loganberry.
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??? Not seeing a loganberry option on the Manischewitz website. Is it from another manufacturer?
You can still get good old Mad Dog 2020 though!
ETA not sure if MD2020 is kosher though even though it is from Mogen David.
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I went thru a phase of not drinking at all, or maybe a bit, when I was in my 20s and 30s. But I did like a glass, OK a thimble of Amaretto after dinner (maybe I had a beer or two w dinner, mb not). But wow did that oily nutty liquor taste good after a modest repast. It is like good port, you don’t need much.
My first experience ordering wine was comical to say the least. Dating a girl in NYC, she is living with a couple gay guys in hell’s kitchen, let’s invite you over for dinner, OK, bring some wine. So I go to a corner bodega and there is a wall of wines… OK that one looks interesting. I buy and bring. i get there and they take the bottle out and break out laughing. I bought a wine called Stone Tower, in a decorative bottle of shall we say obvious cheese-e-ness. It was terrible plonk, but we drank it and a couple more and had a nice evening.
Why is kosher wine different than normal wine other than the blessing? sorry, i suppose i should google it but… so… tired… after… post… i always thought the Manischewitz wines were made from Concord grapes (too much sugar not enuf skin/taste) thus their lack of character (go for really old vines every time, real wine making varietals)
Mark Evanier explained on his blog that a somewhat common scam practice was to have instrumental-only themes for movies or TV shows - like MASH, f’rinstance, and then let someone write normally unperformed lyrics so that person could receive residuals for the reruns.
He explains it better than I can:
http://www.newsfromme.com/2009/09/28/todays-video-link-244-2/
http://www.newsfromme.com/2009/12/07/todays-video-link-305-2/
http://www.newsfromme.com/2009/12/08/todays-video-link-306-2/
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Is this something to drink with that new movie?
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It’s a real thing, and judging by the body shape and label design, Manischevitz would have sold it as a cordial (along these three beauties)
. So, maybe dial back some of your prejudices just a tad-- it may be awful wine but it’s not completely out of left field.
The blessing isnt what makes it kosher, its the harvest to bottling supervision that makes it kosher. Or at least thats the TL;DR version.
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And Amaretto itself is absolutely delicious. It works especially well in cocktails where it rounds off the flavor of otherwise sweet cocktails beautifully. Disaronno is the one I personally favor. I also add a spoonful of it to Turkish coffee spiced with cardamom to great effect.
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I don’t know why, but that absolutely cracked me up. Thank you. 
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