Hi Rabbi Simon,
Someone asked me a question to which I do not know the correct answer.
He went out for drinks recently, and he thought cocktails were kosher—and so he told his friends. They had martinis which contain vermouth, so they definitely drank stam yeinam [that is, wine produced unsupervised for general consumption—forbidden by rabbinic law].
Now he feels really bad about it and wants to know what to do and whether he has to tell his frum friends too.
Best wishes
Martin
Hi Martin
Thank you for your question.
Vermouth indeed requires explicit rabbinic supervision as it is a grape derivative and is subject to the principles of stam yayin. Just for the sake of halakhic analysis, there may be grounds to mitigate the transgression if the cocktail was less than 16% vermouth, and the vermouth itself may be only 75% wine (taking into account the opinion that we do not say חנ”ן בשאר איסורים).
But this is only to slightly assuage his conscience. Cocktails with vermouth (other than with kosher supervision) should certainly be avoided, and he likely violated a rabbinic prohibition through lack of knowledge and failure of due diligence. I believe he must tell his friends of his error so that the mistake is not perpetrated. (He would then be guilty of the more serious wrongdoing of causing others to sin.)
But he should not reproach himself excessively. A person can fully understand Torah only after occasional error. You live and learn.
I hope this is helpful.
Rabbi Rashi Simon