Buying wine for cooking

Cabernet Sauvignon on the vine

Many dishes are enhanced by using wine. It can start with a marinade, where wine and herbs infuse and tenderize meat, as all or part of the liquid in a braised dish, or to deglaze a pan after a sauté and make a quick pan sauce.

What wine should I use for cooking?
Great question! The common answer is to use the wine that you’ll drink with the meal. This works if you’re drinking a $20.00 bottle of wine, but not if you’re drinking a $100.00 bottle. The truth is that wine changes when it’s heated, losing some of the more intricate flavor qualities, so paying a lot of money for a complex wine for cooking can be a waste of good wine. In general, I’d go up to $20.00 for a bottle of wine to cook with, but it would have to be a particular wine with particular qualities to make a very special dish.

If you only need a splash of wine, go ahead and use the bottle you’re drinking – the wine will mingle with the flavors in the dish and compliment the wine in your glass. The most important thing to keep in mind is to use a wine that you would drink in your cooking. A poor quality wine will show in your final dish.

Only cook with a wine that you would drink.

What do I do with the leftover wine after I use a glass to cook with and drink a couple of glasses?

 I’ve seen this question posted on blogs and in newspapers, and heard it in wine lectures, and the usual reply from the “expert” is “Well, drink it of course!” This makes me mad because in being flippant, they ignore the very real issues of leftover wine. Wine is not a staple item; it’s a luxury, and costs money that you could spend elsewhere. An open bottle of wine goes stale after a couple of days, and goes to waste.  By not using the full bottles worth, you may as well pour it down the drain. And let’s not even talk about over-imbibing then getting in your car.

Here’s the secret: You can freeze wine for cooking. Please note, I said for cooking, not drinking. Don’t drink wine that has been frozen. It literally falls apart, solids separating from the water and alcohol, and it tastes fractured. But that doesn’t matter if you use it to cook since it’s going to be heated and mingle with the other ingredients. So get yourself a couple of regular $.99 ice cube trays and freeze the wine you don’t use. After the wine is frozen, pop the cubes out, put in a freezer-safe bag or container and label it with the type of wine.

I’ve used ice cube trays for small amounts of wine, containers for larger amounts (over two cups), and sometimes, when it’s late at night and I’m tired and in my pajamas, I just re-cork the partial bottle and stick the whole thing in the freezer.

What if I don’t regularly open full bottles, but I need wine to deglaze a pan, or a cup of wine to make a sauce?

The cost can add up quickly if you don’t drink a lot of wine and but buy full bottles of wine for cooking. Even freezing it becomes a problem if you accumulate too many frozen wine-cubes.  The answer is to buy a smaller bottle of wine – or a box of wine.

Go to the “different packaging” aisle of your supermarket and look around. Wine isn’t sold just in 750ml. bottles anymore. There are boxes which contain the equivalent of three bottles of wine, boxes that hold one bottle of wine (lighter than bottles, easier to transport), individual, sealed plastic glasses of wine, individual cans, and individual serving sized bottles of wine. For cooking, the boxes and the individual bottles of wine make the most sense.

Boxed Wine

Wine boxes are sturdy boxes with a bag of wine inside and a spigot at the bottom. They generally hold the equivalent of three bottles of wine, but cost the same as about two bottles. The bag collapses down around the wine as the wine is drawn off, keeping the oxygen out and the wine fresh for up to three months. This is great if you like the wine – you can siphon off a few ounces for deglazing a pan, or a few cups for a marinade or braise, and of course, fill your glass for a drink.

You’ll often see boxed wine being served at parties, or used as an everyday drinking wine by your friends. Don’t tell anyone, but many bars and restaurants use boxed wine to serve wine by the glass. Since the interior bag keeps the oxygen out, the wine lasts longer than it would in a partially poured bottle, so the restaurant can be confident that they’re serving fresh-tasting wine for a longer time than if they poured from a bottle. 

Tiny Bottles

My favorite trick for cooking wine is those individual serving size bottles of wine. These 187 ml bottles hold about a cup of wine, often the perfect amount of wine for a dish. I admit, when these little bottles first came out, I looked down my nose at them. The first offerings contained sweet, cheap wines, but in a bid to find a larger audience, some wineries are putting decent wines in these small bottles. Nothing award-winning, mind you, but perfectly good wine for cooking. I recommend chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon in these small bottles. Some stores sell these small bottles individually in the refrigerated case, but they’re more affordable if you go to the wine aisle and buy them in the four-packs. Sometimes discount stores such as Grocery Outlet offer 12-packs at a great price. My current box of baby bottles breaks down to a per-bottle cost of $.80.

If you’re a connoisseur, don’t bother to scream at me. I love good wine. I buy and drink good wine. But in reality, little bottles and boxes are affordable, packaged in the perfect size for cooking, and unless you’re specifically matching a cooking wine to a dish or drinking wine, they serve the purpose quite well.

Wine makes food better, whether you’re drinking it or cooking with it – or both. A good wine in your glass is refreshing and compliments the food, and food cooked with wine has more depth and complexity. If you keep wine around, you’ll always be ready to splash or glug some into a dish – and it will be delicious!

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