Asians Fall for Manischewitz — Creating New Buzz for Much-Maligned Wine

Manischewitz wine Image by iStock
Manischewitz wine, which is often mocked among Jews for its overly sweet taste, has found a new set of customers — Asian Americans.
The kosher beverage, which apparently resembles a fermented grape drink from northern China, is becoming a household staple in Asian households across the country, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Huy Trieu, who manages an Asian supermarket near Los Angeles, remarked that Manischewitz is popular among Chinese and Vietnamese customers. “I don’t see any Caucasians buying it,” he said.
Manischewitz joins Bartenura Blue, a kosher moscato wine that has also found success among non-Jewish clientele.
Bartenura has embraced its new customer base — African Americans — placing billboards in predominantly black neighborhoods and launching advertising campaigns featuring black actors, such as the one below.
Manischewitz has also gained traction in recent years among Christians, with some churches choosing to use the kosher wine to represent Jesus’ blood in the Holy Communion service.
Jews who have a soft spot for the wine, but prefer beverages less reminiscent of cough syrup, can follow one of the many innovative recipes by chef Amy Kritzer, of the blog “What Jew Wanna Eat,” which feature Manischewitz as an ingredient.
The wine can be used to flavor chocolate truffles, to poach eggs, or in a variety of other delicious recipes.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
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.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 2
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 3
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
- 4
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
In Case You Missed It
-
Film & TV In ‘The Rehearsal,’ Nathan Fielder fights the removal of his Holocaust fashion episode
-
Fast Forward AJC, USC Shoah Foundation announce partnership to document antisemitism since World War II
-
Yiddish יצחק באַשעװיסעס מיינונגען וועגן די אַמעריקאַנער ייִדןIsaac Bashevis’ opinion of American Jews
אין זײַנע „פֿאָרווערטס“־אַרטיקלען האָט ער קריטיקירט זייער צוגאַנג צום חורבן און צו ייִדישקײט.
-
Culture In a Haredi Jerusalem neighborhood, doctors’ visits are free, but the wait may cost you
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.