I always liken walking into a wine shop to ask for kosher wine to what some men must feel when walking into a drugstore to buy tampons for their girlfriend for the first time. For any discerning drinker who knows what he or she likes and keeps quality at the forefront of wine-purchasing decisions, it’s just a little bit uncomfortable. And why? Kosher wine has a stigma of being not so great—it fulfills a need, but you’re surely not going to get much joy out of it. Some of this stems from the old methods of mevushal wine production. Mevushal—the kind of kosher wine that can still be deemed kosher even when nonobservant or non-Jewish caterers or restaurant waitstaff members serve it—was literally boiled for pasteurization before bottling. That made it okay for consumption for religious reasons, yes, but it also seriously degraded the wine’s flavor profile and ageability.

Those who have been paying attention to kosher wine over the past decade or so know that there are now some reliable, quality-conscious examples out there. For one, Israeli wine culture has been quietly honing its skills and identity, and the country boasts more than just a handful of kosher wineries. Look for names like Domaine du Castel, Yatir, and Flam, whose vintners draw inspiration not only from European traditions and often New World training (read: UC Davis) but from a local history that traces its grape-growing origins back thousands of years. Jeff Morgan, cofounder of Covenant Wines, which operates out of an urban winery in Berkeley, California, found his calling in 2002 while tasting such wines—namely, the aforementioned Domaine du Castel wines of Eli Ben Zaken. He partnered with Leslie Rudd (of Napa’s Rudd Winery), found a three-acre parcel of vines at Larkmead Vineyards, and set out to make not “good kosher wine” but “good wine that happens to be kosher.”