Many cooks—including some of us here at Cook’s Illustrated—have long followed the advice that any wine you cook with needs to be good enough to drink. But is this conventional wisdom really true? Can you really tell the caliber of a wine once it’s been heated for long periods in a dish, not to mention reduced? We decided to answer this question once and for all.
The Best Wine for Cooking (Is Not What You Think)
You’ve probably heard that you shouldn’t cook with wine you wouldn’t drink, but we wanted to test that advice for ourselves. Our results turned the old adage on its head.
We made pan sauces and beef and chicken stews with red and white wines from a range of calibers and price points. Some wines were lovely to drink, some were uninspiring, and some were downright terrible.
Our results turned the old adage on its head. Not only did some cheap bottles (a $4 Sauvignon Blanc and a $4 Cabernet Sauvignon) make perfectly good additions to our stews and sauces, but a few very fine drinking wines (a subtly sweet Riesling, an oaky California Chardonnay, a tannic Bordeaux, and a sweet Italian Lambrusco) actually imparted flavors to the food that we didn’t like.
The important factor to consider isn’t price or even how nice a wine is to drink but whether it features distinct characteristics that will become concentrated through cooking and distract from the flavor of the dish. In other words, the best wine for cooking is an unremarkable one. Bright, balanced flavors are good. Distinctly tannic, sweet, or oaky flavors are not.
Overall, don’t hesitate to reach for the cheap stuff!
Our Recommendations for Wine to Cook With
| Red Wines | White Wines |
|---|---|
A blend (such as Côtes du Rhône) |
Sauvignon Blanc or Chenin Blanc |
A medium-bodied single varietal (Pinot Noir, Merlot, or Grenache) |
Pinot Grigio |
General table wine |
Albariño |
Cook with Wine Using These Recipes
Recipe Red Wine Risotto with Beans (Paniscia)
Northern Italians put an unexpected spin on risotto for a satisfying one-pot meal.
Recipe Hearty Beef Stew
Choose chuck, use a combination of broth and wine, and thicken at the beginning for a simple but intensely flavored stew.
Recipe White Wine Pan Sauce
Lighter and brighter in taste than its red wine sibling, white wine pan sauce makes plain pan-seared chicken breasts or pork tenderloin seem special.
Recipe Quick Chicken Fricassee
This classic French dish of poached chicken in cream sauce would have a lot going for it, if we could streamline the recipe and punch up the flavors.
Leave a comment and join the conversation!