So... I was at Binny's and they were having a wine tasting for kosher wines. There were five bottles they were sampling. Cool. I was there early and they hadn't really started yet. I picked up a nice chardonnay and the nice lady asked me if I'd like a sample. Before I handed the bottle back to her, I noticed that the wine was not מבושל/cooked. The nice lady certainly was a Binny's employee; she was also most certainly not Jewish. You know me, smooth, delicate, always knows the right thing to say. So I said, "Actually, if you pour this, then I can't drink it." "Oh, right! They told me there were a couple of wines that I couldn't pour. I forgot! Thank you." As I had arrived as they were still setting up, I was able to open the bottle and then pour myself a sample (and actually bought a bottle of it). Then a Jewish, whom I had met before and knew was Jewish, arrived and took over.
I related the story, focusing on the non-mevushal aspect. Someone asked, though, suppose I had walked in later and saw the wines open for tasting. Would I be allowed to sample even the mevushal wines? After all, how do I know they didn't switch the bottle? In case your first reaction is to say/think, with some disdain, "Oh, puhleeze.... why would they do such a thing?", let me tell you a couple of stories.
My grandfather -- with whom I was very close and who was brilliant and had huge influence (which I think I say nearly every time I mention him; I miss him a lot) -- told me that in the old days (think late 1800s) the grinding methods left some impurities, bits of grit/stones/sand, in the flour. To prevent consumer fraud, there are legal limits on the maximum acceptable grit. As grinding methods got better, the flour get better. Nonetheless, the flour mills still added some sand, careful to stay below the legal limit, because sand was cheaper than flour. Until eventually the regulations caught up with the technology.
Second story: R' Fishbane of the CRC and AKO related that a Beis Yaakov student told him about a Dunkin Donuts in New Jersey that offered chalav yisroel for its kosher clientele. She was delighted and ordered a coffee with chalav yisroel milk. When he went to pour the milk -- which was behind a barrier and separated from the other milks and creamers -- discovered that it was empty. He told her, "Oh, don't worry." and proceeded to refill the chalav yisroel carton from the stahm milk. The young lady forwent her coffee that day.
Back to our wine tasting at Binny's. Wine is a much more kosher sensitive item than milk. So even if the wine is mevushal, how can you trust them?
Good question. I asked R' Fuerst. R' Fuerst told me that I needed to ask someone in hashgacha. R' Fishbane just happened to be there (I adore coincidences), so I asked him. (R' Fishbane actually initially directed me to R' Fuerst; I told him, "been there, done that" in a nice way.) R' Fishbane said that while wine is a generally much more kosher sensitive item, in this case they are letting you taste that wine to encourage you to buy it. The kind of people who buy the kind of wines they were offering would know the difference; if not right away, certainly when they got home and sampled their purchase. It would be very bad business for Binny's to bait and switch the wine. Milk, on the other hand -- I am told by people who drink the stuff -- all tastes the same, more or less. (The editorial comment about the potability of milk is mine, not R' Fishbane.)
As usual:
- Nothing in the food service industry is as cut and dried as it seems.
- A non-expert cannot compare one situation to another.
- As a non-expert in halacha, I did not go straight to R' Fishbane, but first went to whom I always direct my halachic questions; the dayan.
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