Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

A Very Forward Passover Guide To All Things Wine And Booze

There’s so much more to Pesach alcohol than your grandfather’s Silvovitz (or Arak if you’re Sephardi) and the four cups of wine during the Seder.

First, some ground rules:

Jews are biblically prohibited from consuming chometz, products that contain even a speck of wheat, barley, rye, oats or spelt, during the 8 days of Passover. The most notable exception is, of course, matzo — which is produced under carefully-controlled conditions to make sure that it is baked before it has a chance to rise. Indeed, as an extra precaution, some communities have the custom to avoid eating even matzo if it has come into contact with any liquid (known as matza sh’ruyah in Hebrew or gebrochts in Yiddish).

So anything with chametz is out. Of course, many beloved alcoholic beverages are formed from derivatives of these five grains: beer, most whiskey and any other alcohol that doesn’t have reliable kosher for Passover certification. As the Orthodox Union states in their 2018 Passover Guide, “Alcohol and other fermented products are subject to additional halachic stringencies because of their strong taste and smell,” so reliable certification is a must for observant consumers.

But there’s so much that is kosher for Passover: Most kosher wine and brandies and many varieties of gin, tequila and vodka.

Below, we present our kosher for Passover picks — whether it’s a warming cocktail, a bracingly bitter shot or a chilled glass of rosé that you crave, you deserve to enjoy all eight days of Passover with a cold (or hot) drink in hand.

Brandy

Proper brandy is made from distilled wine, so kosher varieties are often kosher for Passover by default. There are also varieties made from other fruits, such as the classic Slivovitz (made from plums), Clear Creek Cherry Brandy (technically a schnapps), and Boukha Bokobsa (made from figs). The fancy classicists can stick with Louis Royer Cognac XO.

Recommended Cocktail: A Sweet Reminder Of Survival

</br/>

Gin

Technically a type of flavored vodka, gin can be hard to find with Passover certification. Thankfully, Distillery 209 makes a beautiful bottle of kosher for Passover gin.

Recommended Cocktail: It’s Basically Summer Now Right?

</br/>

Rum

Do you know the Secret Jewish History of Rum? Unfortunately, although it’s derived from sugarcane and doesn’t need kosher certification during the year, I was unable to find any brands that are certified for Passover. If you have, email me!

Tequila

Made from agave, there are several kosher for Passover tequila options, including Cava White Tequila and Barón Tequila Blanco. The Supervisores en Calidad Kosher of Mexico have also released a comprehensive list of tequilas that they certify for Passover use, even without it being indicated on the label.

Recommended “Cocktail”: Just pretend you’re in college and pair with some salt and a wedge of lime — ice and seltzer optional.

Vodka

Vodka is the sad lunch of alcohols — you can make it out of just about anything. Those that are kosher for Passover are mostly potato based, including 3 Kilos Vodka, Askalon Vodka, Givon Vodka, Moses Vodka and even this delicious-sounding David’s Harp Citron Lemon Flavored Vodka.

Recommended Cocktail: Vodka Does Not Deserve A Cocktail — It Deserves A Reminder Of The Pain Of Jewish History

</br/>

Wine

I saved the best for last, of course. In 2018, you don’t even have to try to find a wine that’s kosher for Passover. There are so many delicious options: Champagne. Bordeaux. My new 2018 favorites. Overpriced kosher wine hawked by a celebrity. Easy classics.

Just please do me a favor: you owe it to your Seder guests not to serve Manischewitz. Haven’t the Jews suffered enough?

A Note About Kitniyot

It is possible, although less common, to produce whiskey from corn. Is this kosher for Passover?

For the past 800 years or so, Ashkenazi Jews have refrained from eating products made from or containing kitniyot — Rice, millet and legumes — during Passover.

For Sephardic Jews and Ashkenazi Jews who belong to the Conservative movement, kitniyot is fine to consume, though individual customs vary by family and community, and alcohols derived from these products may be consumed if they have reliable certification.

Did we miss any of your favorite wines and sprits? Send us an email!

Laura E. Adkins is the Forward’s deputy opinion editor. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @Laura_E_Adkins

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  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.