Jules Polonetsky
There are winemakers, and then there are wine growers. Ernie Weir insists he is the latter — and after more than five decades in Napa Valley, he has earned the right to make that distinction.
Weir is the founder and winemaker behind Hagafen Cellars, the only fully dedicated kosher winery in Napa Valley, and one of the most consequential figures in the history of American kosher wine. I recently spoke with him for a wide-ranging conversation about the state of the kosher wine market, the mevushal debate he helped reshape, and a new chapter he’s writing under his own name.
Weir grew up in the San Fernando Valley, the son of Holocaust survivors. A sociology degree from UCLA led him to Israel in 1973, where time on a kibbutz deepened his Jewish identity. When he returned to California, he enrolled in the viticulture program at Napa College, then earned a degree in viticulture and enology from UC Davis while working at Domaine Chandon. By 1979, Hagafen Cellars was born, its name drawn from borei pri hagafen, the blessing over wine.
The mission was deceptively simple: make great Napa wine that also happens to be kosher. It worked. Hagafen wines have been poured at White House state dinners across multiple administrations. Now approaching his 52nd vintage, Weir shows no signs of slowing down.
“I really like everything I do,” he told me. “I’m a wine grower and a winemaker. It’s my life.”
To appreciate Weir’s leadership requires the appreciation that at the time of its founding, sweet Manischewitz wine was the norm for kosher wine. Carmel Winery had been in business for decades, and in the late 1970s, it began producing better quality kosher wines, but not at the top international standard. Hagafen deserves recognition as the first winery to produce truly top-quality, dry kosher wines from prized terroir. The Golan Heights Winery was established in 1983, then in the U.S., Herzog Wine Cellars came along in 1985.
The first French Bordeaux kosher wine didn’t come along until 1986, when the Rothschilds began a kosher line.
No conversation with Ernie Weir is complete without touching on mevushal — the flash pasteurization process that allows kosher wine to be poured by non-observant servers at restaurants and catered events. Weir has been doing it for more than 30 years, longer than almost anyone in Napa, and has done more than anyone to demonstrate that it need not compromise quality. When he started out his process of trial and error, the assumption in the broader community was in line with the religious logic — heating the wine reduced its quality so much that it didn’t qualify as decent wine and wasn’t subject to the mevushal restrictions on wine.
“I am naturally inquisitive and wanted to try to push the envelope,” explained Weir. He began a process of trial and error and eventually began testing pasteurization at an apple juice plant using equipment that had been kashered. The wine seemed fine, and even after aging for years, held its quality. Weir also came across research from Australia that indicated that proper flash pasteurization could even improve the quality of white wines by releasing chemical bonds, resulting in enhanced fruitiness. He then worked with an engineering team to build his own equipment. Weir now points to mevushal wines he made that are over 20 years old and still aging well.
His core argument about mevushal is one that any serious winemaker will recognize immediately: the process is almost never the real problem. “You take fine wine made from fine grapes and pasteurize it correctly, and the wine is still fine. You take wine that’s not so good in quality, and you pasteurize it with equipment you can’t justify buying because the quality doesn’t support it — then you have wine that’s not so good.” The conclusion, delivered with characteristic bluntness: “Sometimes we’re blaming the wrong person. We should be blaming the quality of the wine, not the pasteurization process.”
The late Israeli wine critic Daniel Rogov — known for his sharp pen — apparently agreed. Weir recounted that Rogov “declared there was nothing going wrong with those wines” and specifically called out producers doing the process correctly, while separately noting those who weren’t. For Weir, it has long since ceased to be a debate. “For me, it’s a non-issue. I’ve been doing it for more than 30 years.”
1Don Ernesto: Putting His Name on It
The freshest development at Hagafen is the Don Ernesto line — estate-bottled, organically grown, Napa Green certified wines available exclusively direct-to-consumer, either at the winery or online. After half a century in the business, Weir decided it was time to put his name on the label. “After 50 years, it was time to let my name express the wine,” he told me simply.
The nickname, it turns out, is not an affectation. It’s what his Spanish-speaking vineyard crew has called him for years, he said. “I picked it up because of my neighbors and my workers.”
The Don Ernesto tier sits alongside the established Prix label at the premium end of Hagafen’s portfolio, both available only through direct channels, not retail. Hagafen operates two membership tiers: a loyalty club offering quarterly shipments with early access and discounts on wines also available in stores, and a more exclusive estate club for Don Ernesto and Prix wines that never reach retail shelves at all. Which is the top tier? “I am letting Don Ernesto and Prix fight it out for that honor,” he joked.
Weir has been married for many years to Irit, an Israeli, and maintains close ties with Israeli winemakers. He started out advising Carmel and has formally and informally consulted for a wide range of Israeli wineries. Hagafen, about an hour from the famed UC Davis wine program, also draws Israelis who are studying there and drop by to learn from the master. Some of the original Israeli winemakers who first put Israel on the map for quality wine, like Israel Flam, are close friends.
As for succession, Weir is straightforward: none of his children are planning to come into the business. “I’m on my own, so to speak,” he said, before adding with a wry shrug, “but it’s OK. It’s a good life.” He’s not quite ready to define what “eventually” means, either. At 52 vintages and counting, who can blame him?
Hagafen Cellars wines are available at most quality kosher wine stores. The Don Ernesto and Prix labels are available direct-to-consumer only at hagafen.com.
Jules Polonetsky is a Wine and Spirits Education Trust Level 3 certified wine expert who edits a wine education website at kosher-wine.org. He is a former consumers affairs commissioner for New York City.