The tiny Jewish community on Cyprus made its own kosher wine. The first 12,000 bottles of Yayin Kafrisin recently rolled out of the Lambouri Winery in Kato Platres, a 300-year-old boutique winery. The Cabernet Sauvignon-Grenach Noir blend was named after the Cypriot wine mentioned in the Talmud as a necessary ingredient for burning incense in the Jerusalem Temple, according to Rabbi Zeev Raskin, the co-director of Chabad on Cyprus. Raskin approached the Cypriot winery with the proposal that it make a kosher wine, and he supervised every step of the production.
Cyprus Jews must import 90 percent of their kosher food. For now the wine is available only on Cyprus, either from the winery or the Chabad House, although it can be shipped abroad. Raskin hopes to sell it in Israel after Passover and in the United States in time for the High Holidays.
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