YOU SHOULD KNOW ...

SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
E li Silins makes wine, but he shies away from the title
“winemaker.” Instead, he jokes, he prefers “wine steward” or “microbial
community organizer.”
“I’m not the one making the wine,” Silins said. “I’m trying to facil-
itate conditions where yeast can make wine.”
Whatever his title, Silins, 37, is the boss and brain behind Camuna
Cellars, a Northeast Philadelphia-based winery that sources grapes,
apples, pears and honey from within 300 miles. The natural wine,
cider and mead that Silins produces also happens to be kosher and is
supervised by the West Philadelphia-based Green Mountain Kosher.

Since finding its home in 2019, Camuna Cellars has put its libations
on the shelves of bottle shops in Philadelphia and New York and on
menus at Zahav, Laser Wolf, Vernick and Martha.

Silins, who is Jewish, is aware of the stereotype around kosher
wines — that they are either saccharine and one-note or near-vine-
gar. Instead of focusing on the hechsher, he’s mostly concerned with
10 OCTOBER 6, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
just trying to create a good product,
and one that comes from sustainable
and regenerative practices. He’s guided
by the Jewish practice of stewarding
the land.

“It’s very clear that we are here as
partners in creation — to till and to
tend, l’avdah uloshomrah — that if you
[screw] it up, nobody’s going to be here
to clean up your mess after you,” Silins
said, using stronger language.

Silins sources his grapes from South
Jersey; his apples, pears and honey are
from Chester and Lehigh counties, and
all have been farmed without insec-
ticides or pesticides. Camuna Cellars
avoids using additives like commercial
yeast to stabilize the wine or alter the
flavor of the ingredients.

As a result, Silins can’t always guar-
antee how his product will turn out or
if he’ll be able to bottle
the fruits of his labor
for commercial con-
sumption. Silins’ Jewish
principles of being a
facilitator, not a creator,
in the winemaking pro-
cess, guide the more lais-
sez-faire mindset.

“The grapes might
turn into wine without
me, or they might turn
into vinegar,” he said.

The philosophy Silins
takes means he remains
humble in his role in the
winemaking process,
but his extensive train-
ing in the industry sug-
gests greater prowess.

Catching the winemaking bug
from a stint at a biodynamic winery
in Australia in 2004, Silins — who
always had a love for agriculture —
later found himself as the intern for
the kosher Covenant Wines in Napa
Valley, California, in 2013. Silins went
on to become the winery’s cellar master
a year later, a position he stayed in until
his move to Philadelphia.

If anything, Silins considers his
experience in Australia an outlier, with
his true path to winemaking much
more meandering.

Growing up in a Conversative Jewish
family outside of Chicago, Silins had a
strong Jewish upbringing and educa-
tion but a dissonance with his Jewish
identity. His time at the “hippy-dippy”
Prescott College in Arizona, where stu-
dents practiced Buddhism and spent
time at the nearby Hopi reservation,
didn’t leave Silins with his spiritual itch
scratched, either.

He moved back to Chicago and
lived in — what Silins best describes
as — a commune, sharing a home
with young Jews who kept kosher and
observed Shabbat. In the early days of
the resurgence of the Jewish farming
movement, one resident learned that
their grandmother had bought land
in California in the 1960s, prompting
some members of the group to move
to the West Coast.

After over six years at Covenant,
where Silins learned the ins and outs
of kosher winemaking, the financial
burden of living in California began to
take its toll. Silins and his partner relo-
cated to Philadelphia, where his part-
ner was from, to raise a family and take
stock of the diverse Jewish community
Philadelphia had to offer.

Silins previously started Camuna
Cellars in 2018 in Berkeley but had to
start the project from scratch upon
moving to Philadelphia. His in-laws
own a warehouse in Northeast
Philadelphia, where Silins began mak-
ing wine in a 240-square-foot room.

Buying equipment, finding suppliers
and working with Pennsylvania pro-
duce proved a slow process.

“I have experience making wine, but
then I moved here and thought I knew
what I was doing,” Silins said. “It’s
a totally different thing on the East
Coast, but I’m figuring it out.”
As Silins navigates the changing cli-
mate and ingredients that shape the
wine he’s helping to create, the foun-
dation of his work remains the same.

Silins gave up on trying to control his
environment and end product years
ago when he began the winemaking
journey. All that remains is his com-
mitment to the process, which he finds
nothing short of sacred.

“I have said Camuna kind of became
my spiritual practice,” Silins said, “in a
way of trying to embody my values in
something physical.” JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com Courtesy of Eli Silins
Eli Silins