For Sephardim who accepted the rulings of Maran Hashulchan Aruch: If a person received a gift of a case of wine that is not kosher wine valued at $250 retail price in the aggregate. What should the recipient do? Throw the wine out or would it be permissible to re-gift the non-kosher wine to his non-Jewish employees?
Answer:
If the wine is manufactured by non-idolaters, it is permitted to derive benefit from the wine by giving it to a non-Jew.
Because it is hard to know who manufactured the wine, and because of the general decline in religious belief (this can depend on where the wine was made), there is room for leniency.
If it was manufactured by Christians, there is a dispute among authorities as to whether it is permitted or not, and there remains room for leniency where there is a loss (for instance, where an alternative gift will have to be bought to replace the wine).
This answer does not address the general question of giving gifts to non-Jews, which we have addressed elsewhere.
See Tur, Shulchan Aruch, and Rema, Yoreh De’ah 123:1, where two opinions are cited concerning today’s idolaters; Shulchan Aruch 124:6 (concerning a non-Jew who we know does not worship idolatry); Taz 123:2 (permits where there is a loss); see also Shoel Venishal 6:142; Ben Ish Chai Balak 4; Yashiv Moshe 1:203. Although the prohibition of setam yeinam does not apply to wine that has been cooked (boiled or heated to a high temperature; see Minchas Yitzchak vol. 7, no. 61), in the case of non-kosher wine, the concern is that the wine was handled and poured by non-Jews before the heating process (for pasteurized wine), and the stringency would therefore remain.
