The Great Kirkland Tequila Debate

This article is brought to you by the editorial team of JLI’s Living Jewish series, which has recently released The Complete Guide to Keeping Kosher as previously reported on COLlive. 

In an age of instant alerts, many people’s pre-Purim prep was interrupted by an alarming message—a popular bottle of Kirkland tequila was found to be nonkosher! Why? How? Was it the reposado? Anejo? Contradictory WhatsApp forwards made it all the more confusing. What exactly transpired here, and what’s the bottom line?

The practice of aging spirits in oak barrels is, fittingly, a well-aged tradition. Originally, distillers used oak barrels purely for storage, only later discovering that the barrel itself improved the spirit. After cost-cutting measures introduced the move to previously used barrels, they realized that barrels from different regions, with different wood densities and different previous contents, each left their own flavor, color, and aroma to the whiskey.

Among the barrels used were those previously holding other whiskeys, bourbons, or sherries (a fortified wine, with similar variations known as port, madeira, and oloroso, among many others). It’s the sherry option—together with anything else in the wine family—that raises kashrus concerns.

What’s the problem with sherry casks?

The specific issue is stam yeinam: wine produced by non-Jews for non-idolatrous purposes, which is rabbinically prohibited. If the whiskey is aged in a barrel that previously held sherry, there would be lingering traces of that prohibited product in the whiskey. The question becomes whether these amounts can be considered batel—insignificant—if they are of relatively small quantity and have a negligible effect on the final product.

This question lies at the heart of the sherry-cask controversy that has dominated kashrus conversations over the last century.

What are the arguments on either side?

While the rulings in Shulchan Aruch are mostly straightforward, the realities of whiskey production are far more complex. Due to the secretive nature of the highly competitive whiskey industry, this discussion was awash with inaccuracies and contradictory accounts. 

The key issues revolved around: How much does the sherry cask contribute to the whiskey?

The specifics were fiercely debated: How much flavor does the sherry actually contribute—and is it from the sherry itself, from qualities of the wood that sherry barrels happen to have, or simply from the wood being presoaked, which softens the harshness that virgin oak imparts? How much residue remains in the barrel before the whiskey goes in? Can other factors in the aging process, like charring or partially aging with non-sherry barrels, offset whatever the sherry adds?

All these factors and more contributed to a wide range of rabbinic positions.

What changed now?

In recent years, it’s become increasingly clear that in most cases, the sherry directly contributes flavor to the whiskey, making its presence impossible to dismiss as halachically insignificant. Single malts were barely on the map when the earlier lenient positions were issued, and those rulings addressed blended whiskeys where sherry contact was incidental. Today’s bottles are a different product entirely. Distillers prominently advertise the sherry influence and the specific notes it adds because that’s the flavor they’re selling. Some even take already-aged whiskey and transfer it into sherry or wine barrels for a secondary maturation specifically to pick up those flavors.

Thus, all mainstream kashrus agencies have moved their position to recommend avoiding all whiskey that explicitly names the presence of wine derivatives on the bottle (using terms such as sherry, port, Madeira, oloroso, sauterne, French cask, European cask, Cognac, double/triple matured/finish, and others). 

But what about my tequila?

Lately, these developments have reached other spirits too, notably tequila, which has become a new favorite for many. Tequila comes in four primary types in increasingly yellow/brown colors: blanco (clear), reposado (lighter yellow), anejo (amber), extra anejo (deeper amber). These variations correspond to the length of time they spent aging (and are priced accordingly), with blanco undergoing no aging, reposado some, and anejo more. The rule is: The longer the aging process, the greater the likelihood of wine barrels being used. Thus, when choosing tequilas, use extra caution when selecting anejo varieties to ensure that they bear no wine influence.

Oh, and our Kirkland bottle? The Kirkland anejo was discovered to be aged in a combination of both American oak (fine) and French oak (problematic). Accordingly, it is subject to a milder form of the sherry cask concern since the final product is shaped by both kosher and nonkosher factors. Ask your rabbi what to do with your bottle, and stay vigilant while on the prowl in the bottle store.

The first volume of Living Jewish, The Complete Guide to Keeping Kosher, is available now at Hamafitz and Judaica World.