I’ve seen taste tests where heavy oak affects flavor, so I tend to look for cheap, dry, not too much oak.
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I always try for a crisp/acidic white, Flabby wines with some RS do not work the same for me.
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That is possible. Those wines are not allowed in my house in the first place.
For white, my old company imports Chateau Haut-Maurin, Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc. Both good enough to cook with and good enough to drink.
For red, my old company imports Villa des Anges Cabernet Sauvignon, ditto.
I would say that low acidity is the hallmark of a flabby wine. It can also be fully dry. A wine with higher RS can also be highly acidic .
Ditto. Acidity and bright fruit is everything. When I make the daily soups for our café, I will invariably use a dry Riesling or an unoaked Chardonnay, depending on the rest of the ingredients. I’m guessing Chenin Blancs and Melon would also work well, but I have a lot more Riesling and Chard to use up.
For red wine based sauces, I almost exclusively use unoaked Gamay. One of the local wineries makes an unoaked Saperavi (delightfully high acidity), which I bet would be great, but it’s too pricey to use for this at our price points.
I can’t remember whether it was Thomas Keller or Daniel Boulud who recommended boiling and then burning off the fumes. I do that now as it not only gets rid of the alcohol, but any bitterness, which doesn’t happen by just evaporation. I am not sure of the chemistry, but it does work.
As for wine, I use my house wine Chateau Pitray for it.
For white it’s usually Muscadet or an entry level Grüner Veltliner.
For reds it’s basic Bourgogne or Chianti.
Always something decent enough that I would be happy to sip on a glass while I cook.
If something is out of balance or flawed enough that I can’t drink it, I’m not going concentrate it and put it into food that I’m spending time to prepare. Seems like common sense to me.
I disagree. A little sugar makes nearly every dish better. Just like adding a pinch of salt to something sweet. I use off-dry Riesling for everything (in addition to being my main daily drinker).
I prefer to directly control any additional sweetness in my food.
This +1.
Leftover sweet Riesling lasts forever in the fridge and is great for apple or pear tarts and similar.
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I’ve used oxidized reds in various preparations with great success: some sauces, braised meats, poached fruits, etc.
I think high VA wines could also work for deglazing, braising or a play on gastrique sauce.
Not sure about brett.
Hell no to anything corked.
It also makes a great drizzle. I like to add some maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, fresh ground nutmeg, a pinch of salt, a few cloves, then reduce until desired consistency. So delicious.
Oxidised, corked, too acidic and ”too old” wines.
Other than those I use an appasimento in Bag-n-Box for my red cooking wine (it retains it’s red colour) and a Grüner Veltliner BnB for my white. Because they are BnB, they can be stored on the shelf with out thought in between uses.
As a starting point, I’ve always used the theory that if you wouldn’t drink it, you shouldn’t cook with it. Having said that, I’m then looking for something that balances the highest quality vs the least dollars.
Typically I’m looking for more fruit forward wines with little to no oak, especially if what I’m making involves reducing the wine by any significant amount as the tannins will stick out more, the more you reduce.
I use Riesling a lot as I’m usually using white wine to add acidity to the dish as well as flavor and Riesling offers the best QPR for me.
If red is required, I’ll avoid pinot noir, and tend to lean towards low oak shiraz.
There are a few classic sauces that I have made in the past that require fortified wine of some description too.
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I regularly use corked and oxidized wine. If the wine reaches boiling point, all that is cooked out. Sweet wines should only be used if the recipe calls for it, but cheap and damaged wine works perfectly well.
I would never use a corked wine. I can still taste the TCA even after reduction and it can mute the other flavors and aromas I worked hard to build up.
The soup of the day for today at our café used a Dr. Frank Pinot Blanc. The half bottle left after deglazing went home with me and is making my lunch more of an event.
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Oxidation is a chemical reaction. It does not “cook out” by boiling the wine. The boiling point of TCA is 240C at 1 atmosphere. The only possible conclusion is that you don’t mind oxidized and corky notes in your sauces.