Move over, slivovitz; here comes kosher-for-Passover aromatic gin
Galilee-based Jullius Distillery offers grain-free liquor that can be imbibed during the hametz-free festival
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Kosher-for-Passover spirits can be hard to find. For decades, even centuries, Jews have made do with slivovitz, a clear fruit brandy made from plums that often tastes like a glorified paint thinner.
But one Israeli distiller, ‘Joov’ Yuval Hargil, realized this year that his gin, Akko-Wild Gin of Galilee, made at the Jullius Distillery, uses a base spirit made from grapes, not grain, rendering it kosher for Passover.
It’s a spirit that could please many a kosher-for-Passover customer.
“I didn’t plan to have kosher-for-Passover gin, the idea was to create an Israeli gin, gin from the Galilee,” said Hargil, a former wine and spirits reviewer who opened his Western Galilee distillery in Kibbutz Hanita ten years ago.
“That’s my philosophy not just for gin, but for all the products,” he said. “I wanted products that were completely Israeli, from start to finish.”
Hargil has never worked with the grains usually used to distill gin, as they’re generally imported from Eastern or Western Europe, and only uses local, Israeli-grown ingredients.
The Jullius gin is made from a base spirit of local grapes, and then layered with juniper berries, which can only be found in Israel’s north, on Mount Meron and Mount Hermon, the location of Israel’s lone ski resort.
The rest of the spirit is distilled from 12 Galilean botanicals, including leaves of laurel, fig, olive and mastic trees, creating a wild, aromatic gin that has a pleasing, velvety texture.
“I chose ingredients that would offer a very local flavor, very Mediterranean,” said Hargil. “When you open it, you don’t smell Scandinavia or England. It’s Israeli gin, and it has an Israeli flavor. English gin doesn’t interest me; that exists already.”
This recent batch of kosher-for-Passover gin was made during the summer, and has been distilling since August. All of the Jullius spirits are distilled for at least six months, following the European stipulations for spirits.
Hargil also made his own version of kosher-for-Passover slivovitz, a drink he has always personally loved for the memories it evokes of his grandfather drinking it during Passover.
“It’s very tied to Judaism, because in Eastern Europe, that’s what they drank on Passover,” he said.
Eastern European Jews stuck with slivovitz during Passover because most liquors were either made from grains or, if they were based on fruit, made in distilleries used for grain alcohols.
“The Jews would distill it themselves,” said Hargil. “Plums were the most available fruit for making brandy, and they were grown for making liquor, not for food.”
The word slivovitz comes from sliva, the Russian word for plum, akin, said Hargil, to shezif, the Hebrew word for plum.
“It’s a matter of history and tradition,” he said, “and many observant Jews still drink it. I made it because of my love for it.”
The Jullius slivovitz is colorless, like the slivovitzes of yore, but with a far richer flavor and aroma. It was created with late-summer, sugary black plums grown in the Upper Galilee.
All of Hargil’s products are kosher, something that was personally important to him when he “crossed the line” from writing about spirits to making them.
“I’m not kosher in my private life, but it was important to me that my spirits could be drunk in hotels and religious homes,” he said. “If I’m making an Israeli product, made with only Israeli ingredients, it has to be kosher. Part of its identity is as something local, and it wouldn’t make sense not to be able to sell it to the kosher audience; they’re important customers.”
Jullius Distillery has a pop-up shop in Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market on Rechov Hashomer through Thursday, March 29, offering tastes and sales of their spirits.
The kosher-for-Passover spirits are also available at Derech Hayayin stores, and in Jerusalem at Avi Ben, Shahar, Ahim Nehemiah, Kos shel Bracha and HaMismach.
