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    10 Oct KASHRUTH QUESTIONS: WITH RABBI MOSHE ELEFANT FROM THE OU

    Posted at 16:20h in by
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    Sherry Casks: Can you
    please explain?
    Sherry is a type of wine. Wine is a very
    sensitive ingredient when it comes
    to Kashrus. There are some scotches,
    particularly single malt scotches, that are aged in sherry
    casks. If the
    sherry cask
    was used for
    n o n – k o s h e r
    sherry, which
    is usually the
    case, there is a
    question that
    comes up if
    that affects the
    status of the
    scotch. It’s not really an ingredient in the scotch, it’s just
    the cask in which the scotch is being aged. It’s therefore
    not that significant and there is not such a serious amount
    in the entire product. The OU’s position is that we will not
    certify, or allow to use at an OU certified event, scotch
    which was aged in a sherry cask even though

    it’s not so significant in the product. There are those that
    are more lenient because of the two reasons I gave: It’s a
    small amount and it’s not part of the actual product. But
    we don’t want to rely on any bedieveds; we don’t want to
    rely on anything that’s not 100%. So the OU’s position
    is that we won’t use any scotch that was aged in sherry
    casks unless it was Kosher sherry casks.

    What does mevushal mean and at
    what temperature is wine considered
    mevushal?
    The word mevushal means cooked. The Halacha is very
    strict about wine and grape juice. Wine was a special
    part of Pagan worship and therefore wine needs to be
    under special supervision. However, because cooked
    wine was considered inferior, the special rules that apply
    to wine and grape juice don’t apply if they’re cooked.
    The word mevushal means cooked, and we know the
    boiling point for anything is 212 degrees. However,
    most Poskim are lenient and say if it’s mevuashal to
    the degree of 190 degrees, that would be okay. There
    are those that are stricter and say that even if it came
    to a boil, that wouldn’t make it mevushal. If you give

    a cup of mevushal wine to someone and another
    cup of wine that isn’t mevushal, you wouldn’t be able
    to tell the difference. So there are poskim who say it
    is only mevushal when the quality of wine has been
    diminished. This isn’t typically the case in the wine that
    we have as mevushal because typically all the wine is
    pasteurized and all grape juice is pasteurized. It’s flash
    pasteurization and the whole pasteurization takes only
    a second or two and it doesn’t affect the taste. So there
    are poskim that say there’s no mevuashal at all when
    relying on pasteurization.