Talking Wine for Passover and Beyond: Estie Wartenberg

This evening, Tuesday March 31, Estie Wartenbeg (who represents Recanati Winery for Palm Bay International), will be our guest at 10:00opm (Eastern Time). We will be discussing Recanati‘s newest offerings and old favorites. Food and wine pairings and more.

Meanwhile, in case you missed it, please listen to last eve’s broadcast with Our guests were Ami and Larissa Nahari the owners of The River – Fine Kosher Wines.

Don’t forget to tune us in this evening at 10:00 pm (Eastern Time) when we will be talking to Esti Wartenberg (who represents Recanati Winery for Palm Bay International),

CS 

The Jewish Week’s Grand Kosher Wine Tasting

Yesterday at the City Winery (155 Varick Street, NYC; Tel: 212.608.0555) The Jewish Week held its annual Grand Kosher Wine Tasting. The most prestigious wine distributors and importers were there with hundreds of wines from all over the world.

Partial views of the crowd…

As always many old friends and familiar faces were there…

Chaim Hezkel, from Liquors Galore, talking wine to an enrapt audience…

Yeruchum Rosenberg, Aron Ritter (center), from the Kosher Wine Society, and Dani Myers, trying to taste some wine…

Nineteen distributors and stores were showing off their best wines, spirits and cocktails, food was available at eight different tables representing meat restaurants, cheese distributors, sausage distributors and chocolate stores.

It wasn’t easy to photograph Brent Delman, TheCheeseGuy.com. His was one of the most popular tables, too many people around waiting to taste his products.

Gershon Bodner of Morad Wines, Estie Wartenberg of Recanati Wines, Shai Germezian of Allied Importers, Zaan Eksteen with Backsberg Wines, Ron Jordan who represents Taanug Wines from Spain, Mayer Jacobovits from Israeli Wines Direct, Michael from Skyview Wines & Spirits were, Shlomo Blashska and Jay Buchsbaum from Royal Wine Corporation were just some of the people manning the tables.

As always it was a pleasure to see Alyson Nathan from Abigael’s, and Yossi Horowitz, Esq., who over the last few weeks served as a judges –  in choosing the 18 Top Wines for each of the nine Jewish Week lists – together Miriam Morgenstern from Wine Spectator, and Aron Ritter from Kosher Wine Society among others.

Though I took copious notes, there were just too many wines to post on all of them, but I will discuss a few new selections I discovered here…

Backsberg Wines from South Africa…

Backsberg Chardonnay Paarl 2013 –  With a very fresh lemon, melon and hazelnut tones combine to a give it a delightful aroma; its natural acidity is balanced by sweet fruit flavors of white peach, providing a medium bodied palate with a long, rewarding finish.

Backsberg Brut Paarl – A strong flavored mix of green apple and pear, with a long refreshing finish.

Backsberg Pinotage 2011 – With strong mulberry and strawberry notes, with hints of herbs, all combining to a very fruity finish.

Taanug Cava – Three grape varieties (Macabeo, Parellada, and Xarel-lo), are fermented separately, then blended and fermented again together in the bottle for 12 months. Intensely fruity on the nose, it is smooth on the palate and has a long finish; with a pale straw color and considerable effervescence.

TheCheeseGuy.com featured a selection selection of cheeses including a very creamy brie style from Vermont (my new favorite!!). Sabra presented their hummus variations and Greek yogurt dips. La Brochette Restaurant, as expected, had a nice meat selection but they run out way to early. Grow and Behold served some delicious, juicy sausages. I only wish I hadn’t been too full to taste the rest of the food.

All in all it was a very enjoyable and educational evening, and of course… delicious!

CS

This Evening’s Kosher Scene Radio Show

Our guest this evening at 10:00pm (Eastern Time), on our BlogTalkRadio show, will be Estie Wartenberg US sales/brand manager for Israel’s Recanati Winery. Among other subjects we will be talking about next week’s exciting Night of Wine and Art at the Igal Fedida Gallery.

Who is Ms. Wartenberg, what qualifies for her current position? In her own words:

I began my wine journey at the Royal Wine Corp in 2001, where I was hired as a sales representative for Queens, NY. In 2005 I was the first salesperson ever at Royal Wine Corp to receive the “Sales person of the Year” award. In 2007 I left Royal to go to The Beverage Network Publications and worked as the Sales and Marketing Manager out of their corporate office on John Street in NYC. I also wrote articles on Kosher wine for their industry magazines; The Beverage Media and The Beverage Journal. While I was working for the magazine, I got a call from Palm Bay International, the US importer for Recanati Wines. They were looking for someone with a background in Kosher wine to manage their Kosher brand in the US. (Palm Bay International mainly imports Italian non Kosher wine.) Palm Bay hired me in February 2010 to be the US Sales/Brand Manager for Recanati Winery.

Meanwhile, in case you missed it, why not listen to last week’s broadcast with Allison Josephs from Jew in the City?

Don’t forget to tune us in this evening at 10:00pm (Eastern Time), on our BlogTalkRadio show, will be Estie Wartenberg US sales/brand manager for Israel’s Recanati Winery. We’ll be wait’n for ya!

CS