Kosher wines and spirits

Fifteen years ago, Napa Valley wine producer discovered an old distillery just off the Silverado Trail and revived it to make small-batch gin called Distillery 209. That now has a fraternal kosher twin called No. 209 Kosher-for-Passover Gin. Rudd and his “ginerator” Arne Hillesland couldn’t use the exact formulation as their original model (the cardamom used in No. 209 gin isn’t kosher, for example, nor is any grain-based spirit). The kosher version is based on juniper from Tuscany, plus eight or more botanicals that adhere to kosher dietary law. These include bergamot orange from Calabria, Italy, California bay leaf, lemon peel from Spain, cassia bark from Indonesia, angelica root from Britain and coriander seeds from Romania. Kosher-for-Passover.  (S. Irene Virbila / Los Angeles Times)