Kedem Wines: The Kiddush Bottle Everyone Grew Up On
Kedem is the American kosher wine brand built on Concord grapes, and its range runs from very sweet Concord and Malaga through semi-sweet Matuk bottlings to a handful labeled dry. Almost everyone reading this has held a Kedem bottle at a kiddush before they were old enough to drink it.
Pour the Concord and you know it instantly. Grape jelly and cold soda, thick and purple, sweet in a way that makes no apology. That is not a criticism. It is a description of a wine that was designed to do a specific job in a specific room, and it does that job better than anything else on the shelf.
Who makes Kedem wine?
Kedem is a brand of Royal Wine Corp, the Herzog family business, with the American winery operation in New York State. Concord is a native American grape, hardy in a northern climate where European vines struggle, and it carries a distinctive foxy, jammy character that is unmistakable once you know it. That grape is the foundation of the whole brand.
The name Kedem means east, or ancient, depending on how you take it. The bottles have been showing up on Shabbos tables in America for generations, which is most of the point.
What is in the Kedem range?
| Bottling | Sweetness | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Concord Grape | Very sweet | Kiddush, the four cups, children's tables |
| Cream Malaga | Very sweet | Dessert, or a small glass after the meal |
| Matuk Rouge and Matuk Kal | Sweet to semi-sweet | A softer step down from Concord |
| Cream Niagara and Cream Rose | Sweet | White and pink versions of the same idea |
| Burgundy Royale and Chablis | Labeled dry | A table wine for guests who want less sugar |
| Marsala | Cooking | The kitchen, not the glass |
The sweet core
Kedem Concord Grape in 1.5L is the archetype and the size most households actually buy, because it gets poured for a crowd. Kedem Cream Malaga is richer and rounder, closer to a dessert wine, and it holds up well against sponge cake or fruit at the end of a meal.
The Matuk line
Matuk simply means sweet in Hebrew, and kal means light. Kedem Matuk Rouge Soft is the red, and Kedem Matuk Kal is the lighter-bodied option for people who find full Concord too much. Both sit in the semi-sweet zone, which our guide to semi-dry and semi-sweet wine maps out properly.
The dry bottlings, and what those names mean
Kedem Burgundy Royale Dry and Kedem Chablis White Dry need one honest clarification. These are semi-generic American label names, a convention that goes back a century, and they do not indicate wine from Burgundy or from Chablis in France. Burgundy here means a red table wine and Chablis means a white one. Read the word dry, ignore the geography, and you will not be surprised.
Are they bone dry by a wine critic's standard? No. They are dry relative to the rest of the Kedem shelf, which is the comparison that matters when you are choosing among these bottles.
Why does Kedem taste the way it does?
Concord is a labrusca grape, not the vinifera species behind Cabernet or Chardonnay. It brings a grapey, almost candied aroma that winemakers call foxy, and it is naturally high in acid and low in the sugar needed for a balanced dry wine. Sweetening it is not a shortcut, it is what makes the grape work at all. Understanding that turns the sweetness from a flaw into a design choice.
It also explains why Concord tastes exactly like grape juice to most people. It is largely the same grape.
When should you reach for Kedem?
- Kiddush for a shul or a large family: the 1.5L bottles, every time. The math is unbeatable and nobody will object to the taste.
- The four cups at the seder: sweet wine is far easier to drink in quantity. See our notes on choosing wine for the four cups.
- A table with mixed preferences: put out one sweet and one of the dry bottlings and let people choose.
- Cooking: Kedem Marsala Cooking Wine for chicken marsala and pan sauces.
- A dinner where the wine is the point: this is not that. Look at our red wine collection instead.
That last line is not a knock on the brand. It is the difference between a wine that serves the room and a wine that asks for the room's attention. Kedem is the first kind, and most tables need one.
Kedem or Manischewitz?
They are cousins in style and both built on Concord. Manischewitz leans a touch sweeter and syrupier in its flagship, and Kedem offers a wider spread including the dry-labeled bottlings and the Matuk range. If you want the sweetest possible glass, that is Manischewitz territory, and our Manischewitz guide covers it. If you want options across a table, Kedem gives you more to work with. Both sit alongside the rest of our semi-sweet collection.
Frequently asked questions
Is Kedem wine mevushal?
Many Kedem bottlings are, which is part of why the brand is standard at shuls and catered events, but it varies by wine and by production run. The bottle states it. Check the label rather than assuming, and see mevushal versus non-mevushal for why it matters at an event.
How sweet is Kedem Concord?
Very. It sits in dessert-wine territory on sugar, well above a semi-sweet table wine. If that is too much, Matuk Kal is the lighter step and Burgundy Royale Dry is the real change of direction.
Does Kedem wine need to be refrigerated?
Before opening, no. After opening, yes, and the sweet Concord bottlings actually keep better than dry wine does once air gets in, typically a week or more in the fridge with the cap tight. Serve the sweet ones cold, around 45 degrees. Warm Concord is heavy going.
Is Kedem the same as Kedem grape juice?
Same brand and largely the same grape, different product. The juice is unfermented and carries no alcohol. The wine is fermented and then sweetened to style.
What alcohol level is Kedem wine?
The sweet Concord-based wines are generally lower in alcohol than a standard dry table wine, which is part of why they are easy to drink several small glasses of at a kiddush. The exact figure is printed on each label.
Nobody buys Kedem to be impressed. They buy it because it is cold, it is sweet, it is on the table when the bracha is made, and it never once let anyone down.
