Bartenura Moscato presents vino in a can, a kosher wine first

The company said that the wine is already available in stores, and will be widely distributed by early June.

MAY 15, 2020 07:30

ICONIC WINE in its iconic blue bottle (photo credit: Courtesy) — ICONIC WINE in its iconic blue bottle

(photo credit: Courtesy)

Bartenura Moscato, the kosher wine made by Royal Wine Corp., is now offering their super sweet alcoholic beverage in a can – a kosher wine first.

The Bartenura Moscato brand has been mentioned in the lyrics of multiple rap songs by artists, such as popular Canadian-Jewish rapper Drake and Brooklyn native Lil' Kim, the latter revered as one of the greatest female solo hip-hop artists of all time.

The company said that the wine is already available in stores, and will be widely distributed by early June.

The cans are sold in packs of four, for a cool $15. Considering it's the only canned kosher wine out there, its the best price on the market.

WHEN THE Royal Wine Company, the pioneer of quality kosher wine worldwide, first decided to delve into dry kosher wines, they chose to go to Italy rather than to France, and one of their first international brands was Bartenura, named after a 15th century Italian rabbi.

Rabbi Ovadia ben Avraham of Bertinoro was a commentator on the Mishnah, became the rabbi of Bertinoro, a town in the province of Forli and he was known as “The Bartenura.”

To make a Moscato was an obvious thing to do. Its sweetness, low alcohol and easy drinking nature would surely appeal to the Jewish consumer, who was still wedded to sweet wines.

In 1992, Royal decided to put their Moscato in a blue bottle. This caused all sorts of problems for the producer, because blue was not a bottle color approved by the authorities in this particular region.

However, they stuck with it, even though it would have been easier to conform. In 1997, another famous wine brand, Blue Nun, also decided to put their wine in a blue bottle.

Today, the blue bottle has become iconic and is copied all over the world, but those two pioneers became legends.

Bartenura Moscato became the largest-selling wine in the kosher sector (not including kiddush wines like Manischewitz), the largest-selling Italian Moscato in the United States and the largest-selling imported Moscato from anywhere. Blue Nun, then in decline worldwide, became the largest-selling brand in Israel.

Bartenura Moscato is a five-million-bottle brand, and Blue Nun is a two-million-bottle brand in Israel.

Adam Montefiore contributed to this report.