(WSJ) - The biggest misunderstanding about kosher wine isn’t that it’s sweet but that it’s somehow “different” from other wines.

Jay Buchsbaum was clarifying a few misconceptions about kosher wines for me, something he does on a regular basis—for both consumers and the trade—as director of education for Bayonne, N.J.-based Royal Wine Corp., the top kosher wine importer, distributor and producer in the U.S. His other title with the company is vice president of marketing.

“Kosher wine is made in precisely the same way as ‘regular’ wine,” said Mr. Buchsbaum over lunch this week at Reserve Cut in the Setai Hotel on Broad Street.

The restaurant is a favorite of Mr. Buchsbaum because of its extensive all-kosher wine list. The only difference between certified kosher wine and non-kosher wine, he added, was rabbinical oversight and the handling by Sabbath-observant Jews and “sometimes using isinglass” to fine the kosher wine.

The other big fallacy that Mr. Buchsbaum straightened out was that most Israeli wines are kosher. That was a misconception that I held myself. In fact, only about 20% of Israeli wine brands are certified kosher, according to Mr. Buchsbaum, although over the years he has been working to convince nonkosher Israeli producers to reconsider. (He has managed to convert a few producers over the years, including Domaine du Castel, an estate that initially produced a special kosher cuvée wine in 2002 and became fully kosher the following year.)