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.