Sandy Eller – VIN News
New York, NY – Over 1300 people packed Pier 60 at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan on Monday for an upscale evening featuring fine kosher wines from all over the world and food from over twenty area restaurants and caterers.
Tickets to this year’s Kosher Food and Wine Experience sold out a full two weeks before the event, according to Mordy Herzog, vice president at Royal Wine Corporation, which has been staging the annual event for the past seven years.
“Usually people buy tickets to something like this at the last minute but the level of interest is fantastic,” Herzog told VIN News. “It is all about the food and the wine and people keep coming back every year.”
The annual event was originally created as a vehicle to sell wine, but it was clear that a key component to wine sales was education.
“We don’t want to just tell people what to buy,” explained Herzog. “We want them to experience it on their own. We introduce so many new wines every year but we don’t really have the proper platform for people to taste wines, find the wines they love and pair them with great food.”
While in the early years the KWFE offered catered food to go with the featured wines, adding fine restaurants to the mix took the event to a whole new level, with this year’s event featuring gourmet food from over twenty five restaurants and caterers including Prime Grill, Solo, Le Marais, Glatt a la Carte, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and Pomegranate.
“While there was high end food like steak tartare and sorts of beautiful tongue, brisket, hand-made pastrami and sausage, we also had cholent and kugel. For anyone into food and wine it was absolutely amazing and truly a gastronomic delight,” reported Herzog.
Admission to the event is restricted to adults over twenty one years of age, with ticket prices set at $125 per person. No wine is sold at the KWFE and while participants receive a commemorative wine glass to be used in tasting wine at the show, all glasses must be emptied before leaving the premises.
While Herzog describes the event as social and enjoyable, he finds that first and foremost it is an educational experience.
“My biggest nachas is to see people who are eager to learn about wine,” said Herzog. “They come to this, they write, they take pictures of the wine bottles. They are coming to learn. It is a very civilized crowd who comes to enjoy and many come with alternate drivers so that they are free to taste. People take their wine tasting very seriously and it is an electric event. People are buzzing and having a great time.”
Video: Stefano Giovannini/VINNews
Harkham ‘Aziza’s’ Shiraz will be here at month’s end. Place an inquiry with your local retailer regarding it and ‘Vision Wine Brands’ will be the NY distributor while Vine St. Imports is the importer. (www.vsimports.com)
i,m trying to (import &sell) a new kosher wine , any helpful link or advice will be greatly apprecieated
A way to find what we like without wasting money on future bottle we would not like to share or drink.
A Way to meet the people making the wine and share in a history…Rashi and otherwise!
A Way to not say a Bracha on Shabbos or Yom Tov and cringe after Kiddush Losing Kavanah and Have a wine we truly like and hold that Kavanah thru a meal…
Hatzlacha,
Yehoshua Werth, Manager
The Grapevine Wines & Spirits Wesley Hills / Monsey
I went their to see the future person which I will date since we don’t have pics anymore.
Today’s Ha’Yom Yom (27 Shevat): “Early chassidim resolved in their souls to refrain from anything that is permissible (by Torah law) but for which they felt a desire and urge. This breaks the passion.”
The Hayom Yom for 20 Elul: One who is lowly and crass does not sense his own crassness and lowliness.
This has nothing to do with shidduchim. Most of the people there were married, many came with their spouses. Yes, I see how the article might have construed it to sound like a dating scene kind of thing, but it really wasn’t. And as far as men and women having separate places… A mechitzah is in a shul for different reasons, primarily concentration on prayer. This event was a social dining experience. If you have a problem with that, take it up with the frum people in charge of it. I had no complaints. It was tznius.
no, its not ‘frum’ for men and women to mingle. to compare it to empire kosher is pathetic. this is an entertainment event- while shopping in a store is a different experience. get it? ever heard ofthe concepts and reasons for a mechitza? and yes, the Rebbe demanded separate dinners
does not look frum to me
The Harkham hasn’t been imported to the US yet. It will be available soon. SICK wine! (Don’t confuse with the lower end mevushal Harkham that’s been available here for a while. )
the best part of it all is nobody in the video has any idea what
they are saying they are all drunk “what think about this wine it’s good al’have some more” lol
KOSHER TA’ARUVOIS MORE LIKELY
B’ZOIYOIN
“2 “frum”? seems like a place to develop shidduchim….” Since when is shidduchim not frum? How do you think you’re great grand parents met? “3 1,300 frum men and women mingle “Frum men and women” and “mingle” – sounds like an oxymoron to m” Frum means shomer torah umitzvos. If you think it’s not frum for many men and women to be in a large room together than you need to stop going to empire kosher. If you think men and women eating and mingling together is not frum then I suggest you never attend a Chabad house kiddush, dinner… Read more »
get a life.
not sure about this….
Why not just buy wine at a store?
what is this even supposed to mean?
im sure the wine was good but seriously?
I personally know more than ten people that attended tais event and every single one to varying degrees has some sort of derher when it comes to fine wines. I’m not saying that there weren’t people who fit the description you gave, but it most definitely wasn’t like that.
That Harkham wine from hunter valley Australia was
Unreal and out of this world.
I wish I new about them earlier.
Does anyone know we’re I could by this wine.
i see im not the only one to see the paradox in this:/
“Frum men and women” and “mingle” – sounds like an oxymoron to me…
seems like a place to develop shidduchim….
Most people have no clue whats a good wine they go there to get drunk, at the end they need to call security to throw all the frum people in the streets