I love cooking with wines. But a lot of people get nervous when it comes to cooking with wines because they are afraid they might choose the wrong ones to cook with. There aren’t any hard and fast rules when it comes to putting wines in your dishes, but one rule that you do hear a lot is “Don’t cook with wines that you won’t drink”. This is because you are concentrating the flavour of the wine when you cook it. There are a lot of decent and reasonably priced wines out in the market that I would drink so don’t worry, you don’t need to use expensive wines at all.

The main purposes to cook with wine are 1) as a marinade ingredient, 2) as a cooking liquid and 3) as a flavouring for the dish. Wine helps to intensify, enhance and accent the flavour and aroma of the food. Using too little of it and you will not taste any difference but too much will be overpowering.

When cooking with wine, you want to make sure the alcohol evaporates or else the wine will give a harsh and raw taste to your dish. So you should always add your wine early on in your cooking process and should not add it just before serving. The wine should simmer with the food or the sauce so that you can condense its beautiful flavour.

As for what I mean by a decent wine, there is nothing wrong with a bottle of HKD70 of Merlot if you like the taste of it. By the time your dish is done, you won’t be able to tell the difference between a HKD400 bottle from a HKD70 one. And most of the recipes won’t ask you to use a whole bottle of wine, unless you are making some French beef stews; so pick a reasonably priced wine that you like so that you can also enjoy a glass or two during dinner.

What actually matters is the type of wine you are using. Here is my simple cooking with wine guide for your reference:

3. Don’t ever use red wine in a recipe if it calls for white wine. White wine is much less tannic than red (when you drink red wine and you get a dry and rough feeling in your mouth, that is the effect of tannin). Which means white wine can cook down more without turning making your dish bitter. And of course using red wine in place of white can affect the colour of your dish too. You can get away with it if you use a white wine in place of a red wine.

4. You can cook with leftover wines. If you have an unfinished bottle of wine, you can put the cork back in and store it in the fridge for 3 weeks. (if you have a wine pump, then use it to get as much air out of the bottle as possible before storing in the fridge).

Best white wines to cook with for most dishes:

Sauvigonon Blanc

Pinot Grigio

Pinot Gris

Best red wines to cook with for most dishes:

Merlot

Pinot Noir

Chianti

Full-bodied, dry red wines for bolder flavour dishes such as braised beef stew:

Cabernet Sauvignon

Shiraz