[Avodah] Grape Juice

[Kenneth Miller]

I concede that the Gemara considers Yayin Mevushal problematic for ritual purposes because of its inferior quality. But I don't recall ever seeing a detailed description of the exact way in which it is inferior. Several posters seem to be presuming that the inferiority lies in its worse flavor. I'm not convinced of this, and I'd like to know if anyone can cite sources.

For comparison: If one added spices to his wine, that wine is now in a suboptimal category, similar to yayin mevushal. But it could be argued that the flavor has improved, not worsened, and if so, then what's wrong with it? My guess would be that flavor is not the only important criterion: What we want is pure, pristine, unadulterated WINE - and this no longer qualifies.

Similarly, I have long suspected that the disqualification of yayin mevushal is not because the flavor has worsened, but because the wine has been tampered with.

Consider: The vine produces grapes, and the grapes produce wine. Or so one might think, but the text of the bracha teaches us differently: The true fruit of the vine is not the grape, but the wine. (We see this in hilchos trumos umaasros as well.) The whole tachlis of the grape not its fleshy meat, but its liquid extract. For whatever reason (and my point is that the reason may or may *not* have been flavor) Chazal felt that cooking constitutes tampering of the sort which renders the extract suboptimal or even passul.

So: Does anyone know if the Gemara or poskim discuss the exact reasons why mevushal is a problem (or than merely bucking the question back to whether it could be used for korbanos)?

Akiva Miller
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