Origins Organic Imports introduced 2021-vintage Alavida Malbec (SRP $19), Argentina’s first USDA-certified organic and kosher wine and one of few wines in the world to attain this unusual dual status. Alavida Malbec is also vegan, gluten-free, and Ecocert-approved.
It’s currently available in Washington, DC; Delaware; California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, Vermont and Washington State. It will become available in New York State and Oregon April 1.
The Alavida name is a riff on “A la vida!” Spanish for “To life!” and itself a riff on the traditional Hebrew toast “L’chaim!” Origins Organic is owned by husband-and-wife team Labid al Ameri and Anne Bousquet. “Argentina is a nation rich in diversity, and our own multi-cultural family has been making certified organic wines in Argentina since 1997,” al Ameri observes.
The new wine hails from high-altitude vineyards in the Uco Valley, an area identified with a growing number of the Mendoza region’s finest quality wines. Grapes grow at 4,000+ feet in the Andes foothills, where daily temperature swings of up to 60° F deliver more sugar (hot days) and more acid (cold nights). By omitting SO2, characteristics associated with the Uco Valley’s high-altitude, cool-climate terroir are heightened and enhanced. Purity of fruit, aroma, flavors, and freshness become even more apparent.
The winemaking process for Alavida is almost identical to that used in making a non-kosher wine, with two exceptions. Ingredients such as yeast must be kosher, and the wine physically made by a sabbath-observant Jewish team under the supervision of a rabbi. For Alavida that means double the number of people involved: a Jewish team member to handle grapes and wine, paired with a home team member standing alongside and directing. For Alavida, that entailed five duos! Winemaker Rodrigo Serrano gave the work orders; his Jewish counterparts executed them.
Once the truck filled with grapes arrived at the winery, the Jewish team took the grapes from the truck, used the forklift, pressed the on/off button at the sorting table, and so on. Though the visiting team members were experienced winemakers, they had never worked at this quality level. At the end of each day, everything was locked by the rabbi. If winemaker Serrano wanted to take a sample, he could not do so. Indeed, if a non-Jewish person were to stumble and accidentally touch a tank, the wine is no longer kosher – representing a potential loss of 4,700 liters of wine.