Menachos 8:6 - 8:7

קרותים והטולים – they are the names of places (in Judea; in the actual Talmud text of Talmud Menahot 86b, they are called קרוחים ועטולין and some have a reading of חטולין for the second location).

אליוסטן – sweet wine on account of the sun, for the grapes were suspended in the sun to sweeten them. Sun in the Greek language is יוסטן/Yostan [but in the Mishnah itself, it is called אליסטון ; in the Talmud (ibid.), it is called הליסטיון].

יין ישן – that twelve months have passed upon it, its redness/reddish color passes, and in Sceripture it states (Proverbs 23:31): “Do not ogle that red wine [as it lends its color to the cup],” so we see, at the time that it is reddish, it is choice [wine].

לא מתוק – when it is sweet on account of itself, for if it were on account of the sun, the first clause [of the Mishnah] would teach that if he brought אליוסטן /Elyostan, it would be kosher/fit (whereas it is only the de facto position where it is kosher according to the earlier passage in the Mishnah). Another explanation: wine that did not pass over it forty days, but the first [explanation] is essential.

מן הדליות (from branches of the vine trained to an espalier) – from the grape-vines that are suspended on top of beams of the loom and reeds that are high off the ground.

אלא מן הרגליות (grapes growing in a row on isolated vines) – from grape-vines that lie on the ground between the feet of people that are not trained to an espalier.

העבודים – that are tended to twice a year. That they did around the grape-vines to turn over the ground soil that are in their roots and make indentations/holes there to water them, and this is their being tended to.

בחצבים גדולים (large stone pitchers/earthenware jugs) – that these large utensils damage the flavor of the wine.

כדי שיהא ריחו נודף – when the wine jug/vessel is full, the smell/odor goes outside and does not spread.

קמחין – like small, thin, white berries that ascend over the face of the wine that are similar to flour.

ומאמצעה – he places a bung in the middle of the (earthen) wine jug .

קנה – the cubit of measurement was regularly in the hand of the treasurer.

זרק את הגיד והקיש בקנה – that is to say, when he tossed the wine, the froth of the sediment when the sediment begins to leave, the treasurer struck with a reed that was in his hand and pushed up away that he should not enter with a utensil that has wine in it. But my Rabbis/teachers explained that he struck with the reed that was in his hand to hint to the one pulling the wine from the (earthen) wine jug, that he should close the jug with a bung, and he would not say to him, ‘close it,” because the speech was difficult (i.e., injurious/bad) for the wine. And this is what it explains in the Gemara (Tractate Menahot 87a).

רבי יוסי בר' יהודה אומר יין שעלו בו קמחין פסול – But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yosi b’Rabbi Yehuda. And all of those that we have stated in our Mishnah that are invalid, whether with choice flour, whether with oil or whether with wine, if he transgressed and sanctified them, we flog him with the floggings of rebelliousness according to the Rabbis, for it is like the law of someone who sanctifies [an animal] with a blemish to the altar, for he is flogged according to the Torah, as it is written regarding something with a blemish (Leviticus 22:20): “You shall not offer any that has a defect, [for it will not be accepted in your favor],” and they (i.e., the Rabbis) stated in the Sifra, that the words, לא תקריבו/you shall not offer, means nothing other than do not sanctify. And just as they would bring the choice flour and the wine and the oil from known choice places, as it is taught in our Mishnah, so they would bring the sacrifices from known places, rams from Moab, lambs from Hebron, calves from Sharon, and pigeons, that is turtle-doves and young pigeons from the Mount of the King.