Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Hasidic Winemaker Hopes To Sell Ultra-Orthodox On $100 Bordeaux

Yossi Izakovitch is betting that he can convince ultra-Orthodox Jews that his Bordeaux-style blend is good enough to justify its $100 price tag — and its $93 price differential with Manischewitz. Since its first vintage in 2011, Izakovitch’s Jerusalem winery, Metzuda, has gone from selling 1,500 bottles to 25,000 bottles last year.

“Wine is not just food — it’s art,” Izakovitch told Vinepair. “I like to have a connection with the people who drink my wine and who understand what I’m trying to do.”

Izakovich is an ultra-Orthodox Jew, and markets his different varieties — among them a $25 bottle of Cabernet and a $50 bottle of Shiraz — to ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel and the U.S. He operates without a hechsher, or certification of kashrut, from Israel’s Orthodox Council of Jerusalem, an ultra-Orthodox communal organization. A stamp of approval from the OCJ would forbid Izakovitch from directly handling his barrels and tasting his wine without permission.

“I need to be able to touch my own barrels,” he said. “To make good wine, you have to have total control over the process.”

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.