The Kosher Terroir

Solomon Simon Jacob

We are enjoying incredible global growth in Kosher wine. From here in Jerusalem, Israel, we will uncover the latest trends, speak to the industry's movers and shakers, and point out ways to quickly improve your wine-tasting experience. Please tune in for some serious fun while we explore and experience The Kosher Terroir...www.TheKosherTerroir.com+972-58-731-1567+1212-999-4444TheKosherTerroir@gmail.comLink to Join “The Kosher Terroir” WhatsApp Chat https://chat.whatsapp.com/EHmgm2u5lQW9VMzhnoM7C9 Thursdays 6:30pm Eastern Time on the NSN Network and the NSN App

  1. 3h ago

    Is the Wine Ready for the Third Temple

    Send a Text Message to The Kosher Terroir A week after Tisha B’Av, I’m holding a glass of wine and asking the question you’re not “supposed” to ask out loud: are we ready for the Third Temple? Not because I want a political brawl about red heifers or headlines, but because the very fact that the question triggers a fight is already a clue. Our sages pin the Second Temple’s fall on sinat chinam, baseless hatred, which means the real obstacle was never engineering. It was relationship failure, and it can happen even in a generation that learns, gives, and keeps mitzvot. So I do something strange and, honestly: I ask the wine. The Beit HaMikdash had a standing wine order poured every morning and afternoon, plus the added offerings of Shabbat and the festivals, totaling thousands of liters a year. Serious demand requires a serious spec, and the rabbis preserved one in Mishnah Menachot and the Gemara. When you read it like a modern producer, it sounds eerily familiar: ranked vineyard sites, dry-farmed hillsides, no pumped-up vines, no shortcuts in the cellar, clean dry wine only. Here’s the twist, vintage by vintage, parts of the Israeli wine revival are drifting back into compliance without even aiming for it. Then the episode turns from vineyards to people. I share what I keep hearing across the kosher wine and spirits world when I ask about “competition”: equipment gets loaned mid-harvest, yeast gets shipped to a rival in a pinch, and the same line keeps repeating, “a rising tide lifts all boats.” We connect that to positive-sum thinking, to Yoma 38’s claim that no one can touch what’s prepared for another, and to the Torah’s grape story of the spies, scarcity, and self-image. We land in the vineyards again on Tu B’Av, a festival built to erase shame through borrowed dresses and borrowed abundance, and I leave you with a Shabbat challenge that makes the idea real. If this moves you, subscribe, share it with one person you’d like to share a glass with, and leave a review to help more people find the show. What bottle would you put on your table to practice baseless love? Support the show www.TheKosherTerroir.com +972-58-731-1567 +1212-999-4444 TheKosherTerroir@gmail.com Link to Join “The Kosher Terroir” WhatsApp Chat https://chat.whatsapp.com/EHmgm2u5lQW9VMzhnoM7C9 Thursdays 6:30pm Eastern Time on the NSN Network and the NSN App

    Is the Wine Ready for the Third Temple

  2. Jul 20

    The Glass We Send to the Wilderness

    Send a Text Message to The Kosher Terroir The loudest moment at a Jewish wedding isn’t the music. It’s the crack of a glass and the cheer that detonates right on top of it. From Jerusalem, I slow that moment down until it finally makes sense, especially during the Nine Days leading to Tisha B’Av, when Jewish mourning strips away the very tools we use to build connection: weddings, wine, and even the greeting of shalom. Under the chuppah, we count three vessels. Two cups of wine create union: Kiddushin, the act of being set apart, and Nisuin, the overflowing joy of Sheva Brachot that moves from Eden to a future Jerusalem filled with sound again. Along the way, I draw a line between the language of fine wine and the language of holiness, showing how terroir is its own kind of designation, and how a great bottle becomes “full” when many parts resolve into one seamless whole. Then we face the third glass, the one nobody drinks from: empty, wrapped, placed on the floor to be shattered. That emptiness is not a detail, it’s the point. We connect the broken glass to Yom Kippur’s scapegoat ritual, to a wedding day as a personal Day of Atonement, and to the churban as a tragedy of shattered unity caused by sinat chinam. The episode ends with an honest tension: we cheer as if the work is accepted, yet the shards remain, and the world is not yet whole. If this reframes the breaking glass for you, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review. What do you hear in that crack now: sadness, comfort, or a vow to rebuild unity? Support the show www.TheKosherTerroir.com +972-58-731-1567 +1212-999-4444 TheKosherTerroir@gmail.com Link to Join “The Kosher Terroir” WhatsApp Chat https://chat.whatsapp.com/EHmgm2u5lQW9VMzhnoM7C9 Thursdays 6:30pm Eastern Time on the NSN Network and the NSN App

    The Glass We Send to the Wilderness

  3. Jul 16

    Tavlin Distillery - The Taste of Israeli Gin Terroir

    Send a Text Message to The Kosher Terroir Garlic in gin sounds like a mistake until you lean in, take a breath, and realize it smells like home cooking. From the Judean Hills, Tavlin Distillery is building a kosher craft gin that treats botanicals like a kitchen language and terroir like more than soil. I sit down with co-founders Eli and Amir to unpack how a Los Angeles finance guy and a Jerusalem educator with a sommelier-level nose turn a neighborly friendship into a serious Israeli distilling business. We start with the story that sets the tone: a tequila dream powered by wild agave plants, an improvised extraction attempt, and two founders covered in allergic rashes. That failure leads to a smarter choice: gin, a spirit that can be made quickly, shaped endlessly, and perfected through aroma. We talk about what “Tavlin” means, why spice is the heart of their brand, and how they build an Israeli flavor identity using local herbs and botanicals from their region and the broader Israeli cuisine. Then we get practical and nerdy: how they layer flavor through boiling botanicals, vapor baskets, and controlled maceration, plus how they approach safe, clean cuts on a pot still. You’ll also hear how their spicy gin earns a bronze medal at a major London competition, why their handmade ceramic bottles sourced in Hebron are part of the product’s soul, and where their experiments go next, from wine brandy collaborations to arak gin and even aquavit. If you care about Israeli craft spirits, kosher gin, Judean Hills terroir, or the new wave of boutique distilleries, this conversation will give you both story and substance. Subscribe, share this with a gin lover, and leave a review so more listeners can find us. Tavlin Distillery: Eli Kamionski CEO / Amir Master Distiller Head Office: Yahalom Street, Har Tov Industrial Zone, Plot 125  Telephone: +972-58-719-0318 Email: INFO@DRINKTAVLIN.COM https://www.DrinkTavlin.com Support the show www.TheKosherTerroir.com +972-58-731-1567 +1212-999-4444 TheKosherTerroir@gmail.com Link to Join “The Kosher Terroir” WhatsApp Chat https://chat.whatsapp.com/EHmgm2u5lQW9VMzhnoM7C9 Thursdays 6:30pm Eastern Time on the NSN Network and the NSN App

    Tavlin Distillery - The Taste of Israeli Gin Terroir

  4. Jul 9

    Thinkers Distillery - Jerusalem’s First Distillery

    Send a Text Message to The Kosher Terroir A glass door on Agrippa Street hides two towering copper stills and a claim Jerusalem has never been able to make before: a working distillery in the heart of the city. I sit down with Michael Ginnosaur, CEO of Thinkers Distillery, to unpack how a brand can be unapologetically Jerusalem and still chase world-class standards in vodka, gin, and bourbon. We get concrete about what separates a premium spirit from a souvenir bottle. Michael lays out the three essentials: the liquid, the packaging, and the narrative, then shows how Thinkers tries to “further” all three through constant iteration. We talk distilling tech in plain language, including why they run both a column still for purity and a pot still for character, and how an urban distillery near Mahane Yehuda shapes visitor experience, cocktail culture, and brand identity. Then we follow the details that make their spirits unusual: sourcing soft winter wheat from Champagne for a naturally sweet sipping vodka, using a different wheat origin to keep gin botanicals in front, and capturing water from Jerusalem air to control flavor and consistency batch after batch. We also dive into the Dew of Badolach bourbon story, distilled in Ohio, aged while crossing the Atlantic, and matured by the Mediterranean in Haifa, plus questions around kosher certification, gluten, and where the US spirits market is actually heading. Subscribe, share this with a spirits loving friend, and leave a review so more people can find Kosher Terroir. For more information: Thinkers Distillery  Located in: Agrippas Street Shukanyon Market Mall Address: Agripas St 88, Jerusalem Phone: 02-620-5550 ask for Anat Hours: Tuesday | 11 am–8 pm Wednesday | 11 am–8 pm Thursday | 11 am–8 pm Friday | 11 am–2 pm Saturday | Closed Sunday | 11 am–8 pm Monday | 11 am–8 pm Support the show www.TheKosherTerroir.com +972-58-731-1567 +1212-999-4444 TheKosherTerroir@gmail.com Link to Join “The Kosher Terroir” WhatsApp Chat https://chat.whatsapp.com/EHmgm2u5lQW9VMzhnoM7C9 Thursdays 6:30pm Eastern Time on the NSN Network and the NSN App

    Thinkers Distillery - Jerusalem’s First Distillery

  5. Jul 1

    The Seventeenth Of Tammuz : The Wine Makers Fast

    Send a Text Message to The Kosher Terroir The strangest release date for a wine podcast might be a fast day and that’s exactly the point. I start with the sound of wine meeting the bottom of a glass, then I ask you to leave the glass empty as the Seventeenth of Tammuz arrives. Not as a gimmick, but as a way to remember the day Jerusalem’s daily Temple offering broke, when the lambs could no longer come and the wine libation, the nesachim, went dry. When the wine stopped, the singing stopped too, and a steady heartbeat of worship went silent. From that courtyard in ancient Jerusalem, we move to the way wine works in Jewish life now: kiddush, weddings, brit milah, Passover, havdalah. If wine is the clearest instrument of joy, then removing it during the Three Weeks and the Nine Days becomes a precise, physical way to grieve. We talk about the tenderness inside the customs, including what some families do with havdalah wine during the Nine Days, and why the empty glass says something a full one never can. Then we step into a July vineyard in Israel and watch the surprise hiding in plain sight: veraison. Grapes begin to soften and blush, sugars start to rise, and the vine turns from growing bigger to making fruit worth giving. While the calendar sinks toward Tisha B’Av, the future is ripening anyway. That arc carries us to Tu B’Av, the vineyard’s day of dancing and beginnings, and even a technical planting deadline that starts the vine’s clock toward permitted fruit. We close with Orlah and what every grower knows: the years that look empty are often the years the roots go deep. If this gave you a new way to think about mourning, hope, Israeli wine, or the Jewish calendar, subscribe, share the episode with someone who’d appreciate it, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show. Support the show www.TheKosherTerroir.com +972-58-731-1567 +1212-999-4444 TheKosherTerroir@gmail.com Link to Join “The Kosher Terroir” WhatsApp Chat https://chat.whatsapp.com/EHmgm2u5lQW9VMzhnoM7C9 Thursdays 6:30pm Eastern Time on the NSN Network and the NSN App

    The Seventeenth Of Tammuz : The Wine Makers Fast

  6. Jun 25

    An Intimate Spanish Wine Tasting with Viña Memorias

    Send a Text Message to The Kosher Terroir Old vines. High altitude. Native Spanish grapes. If those words grab you, pour a glass and come with us to Valencia, where winemaker Armando from Viña  Memorias walks us through a kosher wine tasting that’s equal parts sensory and deeply practical. We’re chasing a specific style: kosher wines that stay light on their feet without losing structure, and wines that make sense in hot weather because they’re built for it. We get into why Bobal from older vineyards tends toward larger clusters, greater ripeness, and a more elegant feel, plus how climate and large day-night temperature swings in Utiel-Requena can preserve acidity and help keep alcohol levels in check. On the white side, we explore Macabeo and its many identities across Spain, how blending choices change with the vintage, and why stainless steel “inox” is a deliberate move to protect fruit and freshness. We also talk about release timing and why letting wines rest in the bottle can be the difference between sharp and seamless. Then we go deeper into technique and tradition: clay tinajas versus oak, micro-oxygenation without wood flavors, lees aging and batonnage for texture, and why some Spanish wine classifications like crianza and reserva often communicate aging time more than quality. We finish with traditional-method sparkling Macabeo and a surprisingly useful tasting ritual that starts with bubble quality before you even chase aromas. If you care about Spanish kosher wine, terroir, old vines, and the real decisions behind “minimal intervention,” this one is for you. Subscribe, share it with a wine-loving friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. Support the show www.TheKosherTerroir.com +972-58-731-1567 +1212-999-4444 TheKosherTerroir@gmail.com Link to Join “The Kosher Terroir” WhatsApp Chat https://chat.whatsapp.com/EHmgm2u5lQW9VMzhnoM7C9 Thursdays 6:30pm Eastern Time on the NSN Network and the NSN App

    An Intimate Spanish Wine Tasting with Viña Memorias

  7. Jun 18

    Mevushal - Boiled not Spoiled

    Send a Text Message to The Kosher Terroir We boil wine on purpose and then argue about whether it’s ruined. That tension sits at the heart of mevushal, the “cooked” kosher wine category that some drinkers dismiss, some skeptics call a loophole, and every caterer quietly relies on to make a wedding run. From Jerusalem, I walk you through why Jewish law treats wine differently from almost every other food: a bottle can be perfectly kosher by ingredients and still change status based only on who touches it. We put the law and the wine on the same table. I trace the Talmudic roots of the handling restriction, then unpack three competing explanations for why cooked wine is exempt. Those “whys” lead straight into the modern fight over what cooked even means, from boiling reduction to Rav Moshe Feinstein’s yad soledet bo threshold around 175°F, and the objections that demand a noticeable change in taste, aroma, or color. Once flash pasteurization enters the picture, one sealed machine can produce three very different halachic outcomes. Then we go to the cellar and ask what heat actually does. Pasteurization can deliver microbial stability, protein stability, and consistency for shipping and events, which matters for kosher wine at scale. But there’s a bill: aromatic compounds like terpenes can drop, ester profiles can shift, and aging potential may narrow, especially for serious whites and cellar-worthy reds. A final curveball using brandy and distillation shows what cooking can protect going forward and what it can never “fix” after the fact. If you’ve ever wondered whether mevushal is lesser or simply different, you’ll leave with a clearer framework for choosing the right bottle for the right job. Subscribe, share this with a friend who refuses to drink cooked wine, and leave a review so more people find Kosher Terroir. Support the show www.TheKosherTerroir.com +972-58-731-1567 +1212-999-4444 TheKosherTerroir@gmail.com Link to Join “The Kosher Terroir” WhatsApp Chat https://chat.whatsapp.com/EHmgm2u5lQW9VMzhnoM7C9 Thursdays 6:30pm Eastern Time on the NSN Network and the NSN App

    Mevushal - Boiled not Spoiled

  8. Jun 10

    Summer Wine Heresies

    Send a Text Message to The Kosher Terroir You’re about to watch a wine snob inside your head lose the argument, one delicious “heresy” at a time. From Jerusalem, I’m Simon Jacob, and I’m making the case that the most respectful way to love wine is to use the right bottle for the right moment, including the messy, loud, sun-soaked moments where pitchers and ice belong on the table. Yes, we even go straight at the taboo: cola in red wine, and why it’s technically defensible. We start by drawing a clean line between ageworthy “library bottles” and bright, cheerful wines that are built to be mixed. Then I give you a simple shopping checklist for the best summer wine cocktails: high acidity, fruit-forward flavor, low oak, modest alcohol, soft tannins for reds, and a price that keeps the whole thing honest. If you drink kosher, this is a golden era. Crisp, high-acid kosher rosé and unoaked whites are everywhere, and we talk about why Mavushal wine can be a real advantage when the pitcher is getting passed around at a party. Then we taste four styles of wine as foundations and build five drinks you can actually host with: an honest spritz where the wine leads, a white peach and thyme sangria that gets better overnight, the Basque classic Kalimotxo, a real-deal frose with the food science that makes it silky, and a low-alcohol wine highball for long afternoons. I tie it together with one formula you can memorize so you can invent endlessly without clinging to recipes. Make your own house sangria and tell me what you built, then subscribe, share the episode with your summer-host friend, and leave a review so more people find the show. Support the show www.TheKosherTerroir.com +972-58-731-1567 +1212-999-4444 TheKosherTerroir@gmail.com Link to Join “The Kosher Terroir” WhatsApp Chat https://chat.whatsapp.com/EHmgm2u5lQW9VMzhnoM7C9 Thursdays 6:30pm Eastern Time on the NSN Network and the NSN App

    Summer Wine Heresies
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5
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8 Ratings

About

We are enjoying incredible global growth in Kosher wine. From here in Jerusalem, Israel, we will uncover the latest trends, speak to the industry's movers and shakers, and point out ways to quickly improve your wine-tasting experience. Please tune in for some serious fun while we explore and experience The Kosher Terroir...www.TheKosherTerroir.com+972-58-731-1567+1212-999-4444TheKosherTerroir@gmail.comLink to Join “The Kosher Terroir” WhatsApp Chat https://chat.whatsapp.com/EHmgm2u5lQW9VMzhnoM7C9 Thursdays 6:30pm Eastern Time on the NSN Network and the NSN App

Information

  • Creator
    Solomon Simon Jacob
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    145
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Kosher Terroir
  • Show Website
    The Kosher Terroir

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