Until recently, this was a tall order for wine. “Before 1980, the only kosher wines were sweet, sacramental wines,” says Aron Ritter, president of the Kosher Wine Society.

“But there has been an explosion in the kosher wine world. Excellent kosher wine is being produced all over.” And it’s not just for Passover.

What was once the Concord-grape sinecure of Manischewitz and other, smaller American and Israeli winemakers has become one of the wine industry’s fastest growing segments. Spain, France, Chile and Australia are in on the act, producing kosher wines using grapes from chardonnay to granache.

More and more wine shops carry a variety of kosher wines, often separating them into a special section. Online retailer Kosher Wine (kosherwine.com) has hundreds of different bottles for sale, from nearly every major wine-growing region in the world.

What makes a wine kosher, in the strictest sense, is this: It must be produced, from beginning to end by Sabbath-observant Jews. If any other hands touch the product, it’s no longer kosher.

There are limited workarounds. For example, heating the wine to 194 degrees makes it meshuval, or unfit for use by non-Jews, thereby maintaining its usability on the kosher table. This process (as with any kosher food production) must be overseen by a mashgiach, who keeps an eye on the process to ensure the rules are followed correctly

Israel is the world’s top producer of kosher wines, says Ritter, who cites the Mediterranean weather and wealth of microclimates as boons to production. “Cabernets do very well there,” he says. “But Israel has many new producers from California, Australia and other places. New grape varietals and technologies are being introduced all the time.”But still, there is that pesky association with kosher wine, that it’s generally a cloying drink two steps removed from grape jam.