If you're visiting a Jewish home for Passover or any other festive occastion, it might be a good idea to pick up a bottle of kosher wine. There's more to kosher wine these days than Manischewitz or Kedem; it's a rapidly growing sector of the market that includes fine wines from all over the world.

The Expanding Kosher Wine Market

In 2007, the "Kosher" designation edged out "All Natural" and "No Additives or Preservatives" to become the most popular claim found on new consumer food products in 2007, says Mintel's Global New Products Database, which monitors packaged goods worldwide. Still, it’s hard to find any article about kosher wine that doesn’t start off by exclaiming that “it ain’t just Manischewitz anymore.”

But you may already know that sophisticated/enjoyable/delicious—even award-winning— kosher wine is being produced in regions as diverse as France, Israel, California, Australia, Spain and South Africa. Perhaps you even know, thanks to folks like Nextbook’s Sara Ivry, what makes wine kosher and when kosher wine started catching up to its nonkosher counterpart.

 LODI INTERNATIONAL WINE AWARDS

Have you ever purchased a bottle of wine after hearing it won a big award at a prestigious competition?  I certainly have.   I thought, “It has to be fantastic, it won an award.”  But when I tried it, it was a big, fat dud.  This has happened to me more than once, and I bet it has probably happened to you too.

I started thinking maybe there was something wrong with me because after all, these wine experts can’t be wrong.  Well, there’s nothing wrong with me.  Ok, maybe there is, but that’s for my therapist to figure out.  I’ll rephrase.  There’s nothing wrong with my taste buds, and there’s nothing wrong with yours either.

I love Christmas.  But I hate trying to figure out what to get some people on my list.  So I did some research on what I think are some great gifts for wine lovers.  I found some wonderful wine gadgets starting at just $9.  I hope this list helps you find the perfect vino gift too!

Private Preserve ($9.00)
Private Preserve is a wine preserver in an aerosol can.  If you’re like me, you may want to open a bottle of wine and have just one glass.  The rest of the bottle just goes to waste or I end up cooking with it. 

With Private Preserve, you can save the wine!  I’ve treated wine with Private Preserve and it tasted great a of couple weeks later.  The company says it can preserve wine up to a year.  Wineries and restaurants use this stuff to keep their wines from spoiling.

Private Preserve is totally safe and completely tasteless.  It’s the same gas used by wineries when they bottle wine.
You can preserve 100 bottles or more with just one can of Private Preserve.  The product can also be used to preserve port, sherry, single malts, single batch bourbons, old Cognac, sake, ultra fine tequila, fine cooking oils and vinegars.
You can purchase Private Preserve at many large wine retailers and many smaller stores like WineStyles.  To buy online, try www.winepreserve.com or www.wineenthusiast.com.