In anticipation of next week’s upcoming Kosher Food and Wine Experience, I took the opportunity to pay a visit to Royal Wine, KFWE’s host and the kosher wine industries’ undisputed king. As I drove up to their headquarters in Bayonne, New Jersey, I wasn’t greeted by a palatial edifice that one might expect from The King of Kosher wines, but rather a simple, functional, homey building that was most certainly function over form. Inside the building, in what is the nerve center of Royal Wine, is a series of cubicles and small offices that are filled with busy employees who each serve a vital function within the corporate infrastructure of Royal Wine. As I walked through the catacomb of partially enclosed workspaces, I was struck by the realization that this was the workforce that runs the company that owns almost 75% of the kosher wine industry. These were the people who ensure that those who keep kosher have as many options as they do when they go shopping for wine.

The Kosher Food and Wine Experience is held every year around this time to showcase some of the new and best wines that Royal represents. The event is augmented by a number of high-end food establishments that present their top efforts alongside Royal’s wine selection. This combination makes for one of the most anticipated kosher events of the year. I felt it would be worthwhile to not just attend as I have in the past, but to get Royal Wine’s take on why KFWE is so important and what their thoughts were on the growing kosher wine industry. To that end I sat down with Gary Landsman, Royal Wine’s Director of Marketing and Public Relations, to pick his brain and hear what he had to say about the goings on at Royal.