Living in Israel and not having been abroad for two years gave me a warped perspective on Israeli wine. Not bad, of course, but I separate the world of Israel and the world of Jewish and kosher wine. In Israel, you can go in the finest wine shops and see a bottle of the now-kosher Yarden HeightsWine, Domaine du Castel ‘C’, and Tzora Blanc next to to the not-kosher Pelter, Clos du Gat, and Tulip wineries. Go to the finest non-kosher restaurant in Tel Aviv and, along with a full array of shrimp and shellfish, you will see Castel and Yatir and Carmel Single Vineyard on the wine menu.

But, as I recently discovered on a visit to a wine shop in Maryland, that’s not the case abroad. There, below the Yarden Sauvignon Blanc, will be some Herzog Zinfandel not near the rest of the Zin, and below that will be half a row of the atrocious thing called Manishewitz (I was seriously tempted to yell at the store owner for even stocking that and calling it wine!), made in New York. They have nothing to do with each other and, as I’ve often said, where is the Israeli section? Kosher is not a country!

Can you tell me how to change this?