Rabbi Teams up with Platres Winery to Reproduce Talmudic Wine of Cyprus

LARNACA, Cyprus — The Jewish community will be celebrating Passover in style with a new local kosher wine steeped in Talmudic tradition

A Rabbi has teamed up with a local winery to produce a special wine for the island’s Jewish community.

At a time when a kosher chicken shortage has left the community bringing in fowl from Italy, and looking to Israel and Europe to supply other staples for Passover, which started yesterday, such as matzah, Rabbi Arie Zeev Raskin, Chief Rabbi of Cyprus, turned to a local boutique winery to produce a kosher wine.

“Close to 90 per cent of the kosher food here comes via plane or sea,” he said.

“Having wine produced in Cyprus will make it easier for the community to purchase not only the wine, but other Passover products as well.”

Raskin entered into a co-operation with the Lambouri Winery in Kato Platres, a more than 300-year-old operation steeped in tradition, to create a fruity, but dry red wine made from a blend of native Mavro grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache Noir.
With the assistance of Rabbi Pinchas Leibush Padwa, director of kosher supervision for the European Council of Jewish Communities, Raskin supervised every step of the production.

But the rabbi had more than just utilitarian goals in mind; he wanted the final product to be as good as, or better than, other locally-produced wines in the same price bracket. He found a good fit in Lambouri, which uses locally harvested grapes grown on the southern slopes of the Troodos Mountains. The microclimate boasts rich limestone soil, spring showers and hot, sun-drenched summers; mild winters and a gentle breeze help keep the ravaging effects of frost in check.

Partner and winemaker Christos Lambouris told the Sunday Mail that the production process was different to normal.

“We used a special four-way filtration process, adding materials provided by the Jewish community,” he explained, adding that the Rabbi and his assistants oversaw production.

A total of 12,000 bottles were made between last August and March “and I must say that it has turned out to be a very nice wine, full of body and balance.”

It is available direct from the winery, with the price not yet set.

“The Rabbi was very happy with it and there has already been a lot of interest from Jewish communities around the world,” said Lambouris.

“It’s a perfect, unbelievable wine with samples sent worldwide causing great excitement,” Raskin explained. “The wine-making process has to be pure, with no contamination.”

The Rabbi said he’s wanted to make kosher wine in Cyprus ever since learning that the island’s viticulture is mentioned in the Talmud (a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history).

In a discussion there about the incense used in the Holy Temple, yayin kafrisin is mentioned as a necessary commodity; incense producers would soak the Onycha spice in the Cypriot wine to make it more pungent.

In deference to the Talmudic account, Raskin, who foresees an even greater demand for kosher food in Cyprus, named the new wine Yayin Kafrisin, which he said translates as ‘The Wine of Cyprus’.

There are 300 Jewish families comprising around 1,800 people currently living on the island.

“The locals have made us feel very welcome and are understanding to our needs,” he said.