08 Dec MAJOR U.S. HASHGACHAS WANT YOU TO ONLY DRINK ALCOHOL WITH A HASHGACHA

IS GREY GOOSE KOSHER?

Last Thursday Social media exploded with viral messages that Grey Goose Vodka, a drink used in many Kosher homes, was non-Kosher. Some Kashrus agencies released statements, and some kosher liquor stores immediately pulled the products from their shelves.

The information that was The information that was circulating was that Grey Goose vodka was using grape alcohol to produce their vodka. This rumorturned out to be NOT true. They were able to verify this, as there is an importer in Israel who manufacturers Grey Goose for Israel with kosher supervision and we were able to speak to the certifying Rabbi who confirmed that they do not use grape alcohol for the vodka. However, there are non-kosher ingredients in the factory, but they’re not being used in the Grey Goose vodka. This may mean that there may potentially be minor equipment issues. Nothing major in terms of kashrus. This is the beginning and the end of the story. Everything else is rumors.

There are many lessons to learn from this story, but to me the most important lesson is the need for hashgacha. I was just on the phone with one of the Rabbonim involved, and I told him that my view is that we live in a world where, Boruch Hashem, there are so many products available with reliable hashgacha. Why should we buy a product without a hashgacha? We were lucky that the Grey Goose vodka did not use grape alcohol, but that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t have been the other way around and it doesn’t mean such a thing won’t happen in the future. Any company who is not certified has no commitment to not using a certain ingredient that they choose- such as grape alcohol, since no one is watching.

There is an attitude that people have of “vodka is always kosher”; just because somebody will produce a list of kosher items out there, does this mean we should bring this into our home and have in our shul. My attitude is as follows: Anything that could potentially be non-kosher, you should not buy without a hechsher.

We do know that vodka can be non-kosher. I was just talking to somebody who was telling me that he knows of a certain vodka that has a milchig ingredient. This is supposed to be a very high class vodka that people are using for kiddush on shabbos. They’re having a fleishig cholent, meat board and dairy vodka in the same meal without realizing it. Is that the way we’re supposed to live? Are we that desperate? Where is the Yiras Shamayim? We should not be buying food without a reliable hechsher if there is a potential for this product to be non-kosher.

There are two more things I’d like to mention. I am very impressed that as soon as the community discovered there was a problem, hashgachas immediately stopped allowing it to be used and people were removing it from restaurants and homes. It is to be commended that as soon as people thought there was an issue, they reacted properly. The second lesson is how easily and quickly rumors can start. One can start a rumor that is not true and in a couple hours turn over the world. Before you say anything or put anything in print, you should make sure that what you’re saying is completely accurate.

CAN YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN SHERRY CASKS?

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 non-kosher sherry, which is usually the case, there is a ques- tion 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 po- sition 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.