Is there an all-purpose cooking wine?
You can hardly find a T.V. cooking show without seeing a bottle of wine around. One might think it almost impossible to cook up anything very flavorful without using wine. But have you noticed that the wine labels are invariably either unreadable or the bottle turned around so you don't know what wine is being used? Very rarely is specific advice offered about what wine to use for cooking. The usual mantra is "don't cook with any wine you wouldn't drink." Not very helpful, I'm afraid. So here we'll offer some advice you can actually use.
First, never use any wine designated as "cooking wine." These monstrous concoctions are salted and monodimensional. Your dishes will most likely be better without them.
COOKING WITH WHITE WINE
Is there a generic white wine that might be considered an all-purpose white wine for cooking? Yes, there is! It almost never turns up on cooking shows, but was heartily endorsed by Julia Child, maven of French cooking. It's also very inexpensive and better for most dishes than wines costing two or three times as much. That wine is Dry Vermouth. Very good Dry Vermouths can be found for as little as $3.99 a liter. Their advantage is that they are a product of a very dry white wine and an herbal infusion. Wine and herbs? Well, that sounds pretty much like an ideal cooking wine.
If you want the particular flavor of the wine to dominate, as in a wine reduction, then you may want to choose a wine that has a particular flavor profile. I remember once making sautéed mushrooms with fresh herbs and a Chardonnay reduction that was particularly tasty.
COOKING WITH RED WINE
Red wines for cooking are a little more difficult. I don't know of any generic red wine I would keep around the kitchen for cooking purposes. But the same general principles apply: If the flavor of the wine is to dominate the dish, then you will want to select your wine with greater care. Boeuf Bourguinon, for example requires French red Burgundy and a lot of it. You could substitute a New World Pinot Noir, but if you use any other wine you will get a somewhat different result than the classic flavor. But if your dish is not wine specific and the wine plays a supporting role, any decent, dry red wine will work. We recommend wines that are not too fruit forward, such as Chianti and Rioja, as general purpose red wines for cooking.
