JANUARY 26 • 2023 | 41

to their second home in 
Bridgman, near Benton 
Harbor. They visited the 
company’s store and talked 
to the manager. They learned 
that the Chicago rabbi 
who for many years had 
supervised the production 
of the kosher wine had died, 
and no one in his family 
wanted to take over that 
responsibility. 
St. Julian traces its 
origins to 1921, during the 
Prohibition era, when Border 
City Winery was founded 
in Ontario. The St. Julian 
Wine Company broke off 
as a separate entity in 1941, 
headquartered in Paw Paw.
The winery is headed by 
Apollo Braganini, great-
grandson of the founder, 
Mariano Braganini, and his 
wife, Avelia. During World 
War II and well into the 
1950s, the company built its 
volume on juice-grape-based 
wines, particularly Concords.
Mariano engineered 
a method for shipping 
tankfuls of wine — 1,000 to 
3,000 gallons at a time. The 
company would ship bulk 
quantities of its Concord wine 
to a well-known New York 
winery to supplement their 
production of kosher wine. 
Eventually, St. Julian started 
making its own-label kosher 
wine, Sholom, producing 
5,000 cases annually. 
Sholom wine gained 
enthusiastic customers in 
Detroit and Chicago, which 
have large Jewish populations, 
but it is shipped to almost 
every state. “This particular 
wine has one of the strongest 
followings in our customer 
base,” said Apollo Braganini.
Alicia Nelson asked 
the company’s managers 

if they’d be interested in 
finding another mashgiach 
to supervise production of 
the wine, and they were. She 
contacted Rabbi Jason Miller, 
head of Kosher Michigan, a 
kashrut supervising agency, 
who agreed immediately.
“Someone gave me a metal 
sign with the Sholom wine 
logo on it. It has hung on 
the wall by the bar in my 
basement for several years,” 

said Miller. “I never thought 
that my signature would 
appear on the label of this 
iconic bottle of wine!”
For a wine to be certified 
kosher, its production has to 
be supervised by a trained 
Jewish person from start 
to finish. Miller started 
last summer by overseeing 
St. Julian’s Concord grape 
harvest and the heating, 
fermentation and filtration 

of 20,000 gallons of juice to 
make sure no preservatives or 
artificial colors were added. 
He personally turned on the 
machines that heated the 
grape juice and supervised 
the rest of the production 
process, which took 40 days.
Sholom wine’s labels now 
say the product is “Certified 
by Rabbi Jason Miller, 
Kosher Michigan Kosher 
Certification Agency,” with a 
replica of his signature. 
“Kosher Michigan is 
following the exact same 
kosher supervision process 
as the rabbis who previously 
certified Sholom wine for 
many decades, so there 
should be no concern that 
the highest kosher standards 
are not being followed,” said 
Miller.
Kosher Michigan certifies 
thousands of products 
throughout North American 
and India. Miller said he 
hopes to certify other St. 
Julian products as kosher. “I 
look forward to a longtime 
relationship with the winery,” 
he said.
As for the Nelsons, they 
purchased a case of Sholom 
from Lincoln Rx Pharmacy 
in Oak Park as soon as they 
could. They serve the wine on 
Shabbat and Jewish holidays 
and have given some to 
friends. They were happy 
when Congregation B’nai 
Shalom in Benton Harbor, 
where Nelson officiates once 
a month, also started using it 
again.
St. Julian has a Detroit-
area tasting room and retail 
store in Troy. Other outlets, 
in addition to the one in 
Paw Paw, are in Dundee, 
Frankenmuth, Rockford and 
Union Pier. 

COURTESY OF JASON MILLER

Rabbi Jason Miller 
shows off his 
Sholom Wine sign.

