CAVEAT: I AM NOT A POSEK AND I do not play one on tv.
The other day a young rabbi was offended when I told him in some things I don’t trust on the major kashrut certifying agencies in the U.S. and UK when it comes to potent potables: Canadian, Irish, and scotch whisk(e)ys.1
Check the liquor lists for cRc, Star-K, OU, and London Bet Din. Note the differences.
My problem with the kashrut organizations is that they allow – some more grudgingly than others – whiskeys that have spent time in casks that once contained non-kosher wine.
Almost all Irish and scotch whiskeys are initially aged in either ex-Bourbon barrels or “virgin” oak barrels. Some are then aged a little longer in wine casks specifically to add wine flavor to the liquid.
Some kashrut agencies contend that as long as the “wine connection” is not listed on the bottle’s label, the consumer can “assume” that the potable is “acceptable.”
Chivas Regal, a blend of several scotches, does not admit to wine cask aging on the bottle, but to its credit, when asked, I was told that some of the scotch in a Chivas blend DID spend time in a wine cask. Chivas and Johnny Walker blended scotches are synagogue favorites, albeit both have some liquid aged in a ex-wine cask.
That might suggest why the poskim2 are so accepting of liquors aged in non-kosher wine casks. The same reason none have come out and forbidden smoking. The latter may eventually be prohibited.
Some Irish and scotch distillers DO advertise that products spend time in a ex-wine cask and even provide the type wine, e.g., sherries, sauterne, chardonnay, even zinfandel, pinot noir, syrah, merlot, and cabernet sauvignon.
Arran Sauternes Cask Finish and Benriach 21 Year Old Tawny Port Finish 46% are examples of scotch whiskeys that clearly state the product was aged, at least for awhile, in ex-wine casks. (The information was provided by The Celtic Whiskey Shop and Wines on the Green3.)
A WORD ABOUT BOURBON
Real Bourbon – Bourbon sans flavors – must be aged in new barrels. U.S. law specifies what may constitute “Bourbon.”4
There are beginning to be pseudo-Bourbons that are aged in ex-wine casks, and there are many flavored Bourbons and blends.
“Real” Bourbons – sans flavorings and aging in wine casks – generally are considered kosher.
IF YOU WANT A WINE FINISH
Distillers who want to produce a strictly kosher wine-finished potable should look to the growing number of vintners in Israel. Assuming the Israeli wine is kosher – not everything that is Israeli is kosher – then there would be no problem with wine-finished products as long as the ex-wine casks contained kosher wines.
Meanwhile, Israel is developing its own whiskey industry. When exports will begin to my area is any ones guess. (Hopefully it won’t be priced out of sight.)
Meanwhile, I keep checking to see what affordable whiskeys are suitable for my consumption.
Sources
1. Canadian and scotch spell “whisky” sans the “e”; Bourbon and Irish spell “whiskey” with an “e.” Scotland is the country, Scots are the people, and scotch is the drink.
2. Poskim, פוסקים is the term in Jewish law for "decisor"—a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive or in those situations where no halakhic precedent exists. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posek)
3. https://www.celticwhiskeyshop.com/
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourbon_whiskey#Legal_requirements
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
