Skip to main content How To » Cooking Questions recipes » Ask the Expert: Substitutes for Red Wine Ask the Expert: Substitutes for Red WineNow that I’m back from my detox -we say “detox” but we all know I had chocolate and caffeine in my backpack- there were a couple of things I was excited to have back in my life after time away. #1: the nightly glass of red wine. I have a glass after dinner most nights, and it’s like a glorious ending to the day. The Pilot and I will enjoy a glass and watch TV or chat, and it’s become an evening ritual. The wine is also like my “dessert,” and I rarely get the nighttime munchies. I usually post a glass here or there on the blog, or during my virtual wine date posts, and am always asked about my favorite inexpensive red wines. It’s good to keep the cost down when drinking it everyday! Here’s the thing: I really don’t discriminate. If it’s red, I’ll drink it, and there’s a 90% chance I will like it.

Over time though, my wine senses have developed a little bit, and I have discovered some delightful reds. Here are my favorite everyday red wines, in no particular order. (Note: I had to Google for the specific flavor notes. Otherwise I would have been like “this one is good,”this one is good, too” and “this one tastes like.. Best Inexpensive Red Wine Apothic red blend (2012): a California red blend (of Zinfandel, Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon) with notes of plum, blackberry, spice and vanilla ($10). This has been the standard for the past year or so, and I love the light sweetness. It has almost no bite at all. Ménage à Trois midnight, dark red blend (2013): a dark and luscious blend (of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Syrah and Petit Verdot), with blackberry, spiced plum and mocha notes. This actually may be my very favorite wine, but’s tricky to find! I got some at Baron’s (which is similar to Sprout’s) in San Diego for about $13.

Dearly Beloved – I Thee Red, red blend (2011): this is another smooth and delicious red blend (of Merlot, Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Syrah, and Cabernet Franc). It has a vibrant flavor with notes of cherry, plum, spice, and anise. This is particularly amazing with a hearty bolognese pasta. Jam Jar Shiraz: this wine tastes like candy. It’s almost like a dessert wine -very sweet- and tastes amazing. If you’re newer to the red wine world and want to start with something sweeter, I highly recommend this one. This lovely wine is bursting with berry flavors and has chocolate undertones (yes, please). Usually it’s around $15 at Whole Foods. Layer Cake Shiraz (2012): this South Australian wine has the flavor of dark berries and chocolate ganache. I don’t buy this one as frequently -I think because I’m always trying to switch it up- but it’s an old favorite. Usually around $12 at Trader Joe’s. Ravenswood Vintners Blend Zinfandel: has raspberry and cocoa flavors, but a bit of a “tang” to it from the alcohol.

It’s not one of the smoothest wines, but I find that it pairs nicely with a cheese board and appetizers. Alamos Malbec (2013): this is another all-time fave, and one that I’ll occasionally order at restaurants. This one is primarily Malbec, but has small portions of Syrah and Bonarda for berry flavor. It has also has spice notes and vanilla, and it’s a beautiful wine for an evening treat. $9-12, depending where you find it (Walgreen’s and Trader Joe’s both carry this one).where to buy 75 wine Rodney Strong Cabernet Sauvignon (2011): this is a smooth wine, with flavors of clack cherry and oak. where is the best port wine fromIt’s usually around $16 at Trader Joe’s.red wine singapore forum

Fellow wine lovers, what’s your favorite inexpensive one? Non-wine friends, is there’s something you like the enjoy at the end of the day? I love hot tea at night, and now that fall is here, I love to steep mint tea in warm almond milk (or chocolate almond milk) and add a little stevia. Enjoy the rest of the day! Like lightning in a jar → ← Mountain Trek RecapAnd once a drinkable wine has been procured, trying to figure out whether it is the best one for a particular recipe can seem impossible. top 10 south american red winesHow much of the wine’s subtler qualities will linger in the finished dish? wine under 7 alcoholHow much of the fruit flavor? best place to buy wine las vegasDoes it matter whether the wine is old or young, inexpensive or pricey, tannic or soft?best alternative to red wine

Two weeks ago I set out to cook with some particularly unappealing wines and promised to taste the results with an open mind. Then I went to the other extreme, cooking with wines that I love (and that are not necessarily cheap) to see how they would hold up in the saucepan.After cooking four dishes with at least three different wines, I can say that cooking is a great equalizer.I whisked several beurre blancs — the classic white wine and butter emulsion — pouring in a New Zealand sauvignon blanc with a perfume of Club Med piña coladas, an overly sweet German riesling and a California chardonnay so oaky it tasted as if it had been aged in a box of No. 2 pencils.best alternative to red wine Although the wines themselves were unpleasant, all the finished sauces tasted just the way they should have: of butter and shallots, with a gentle rasp of acidity from the wine to emphasize the richness. good wine to taste

There were minor variations — the riesling version was slightly sweet — but all of them were much tastier than I had expected. Next I braised duck legs in a nonvintage $5.99 tawny port that reminded me of long-abandoned Halloween candy, with hints of Skittles and off-brand caramels. Then I cooked a second batch of duck legs in a 20-year-old tawny port deliciously scented with walnuts, leather and honey. Again, the difference was barely discernible: both pots were dominated by the recipe’s other ingredients: dried cherries, black pepper, coriander seed and the duck itself. Wincing a little, I boiled a 2003 premier cru Sauternes from Château Suduiraut (“The vineyard is right next door to Yquem,” the saleswoman assured me), then baked it into an egg-and-cream custard to see whether its delicate citrusy, floral notes would survive the onslaught. They did, but the custard I made with a $5.99 moscato from Paso Robles, Calif., was just as fragrant.Over all, wines that I would have poured down the drain rather than sip from a glass were improved by the cooking process, revealing qualities that were neutral at worst and delightful at best.

On the other hand, wines of complexity and finesse were flattened by cooking — or, worse, concentrated by it, taking on big, cartoonish qualities that made them less than appetizing.It wasn’t that the finished dishes were identical — in fact, they did have surprisingly distinct flavors — but the wonderful wines and the awful ones produced equally tasty food, especially if the wine was cooked for more than a few minutes. The final test was a three-way blind tasting of risotto al Barolo, the Piedmontese specialty in which rice is simmered until creamy and tender in Barolo and stock, then whipped with butter and parmigiano. Barolo, made entirely from the nebbiolo grape, is a legendary Italian wine; by law, it must be aged for at least three years to soften its aggressive tannins and to transform it into the smooth aristocrat that fetches top dollar on the international wine market. I made the dish three times in one morning: first with a 2000 Barolo ($69.95), next with a 2005 dolcetto d’Alba ($22.95), and finally with a jack-of-all-wines, a Charles Shaw cabernet sauvignon affectionately known to Trader Joe’s shoppers as Two-Buck Chuck.

(Introduced at $1.99, the price is up to $2.99 at the Manhattan store.)Although the Barolo was rich and complex to drink, of the seven members of the Dining section staff who tasted the risottos, no one liked the Barolo-infused version best. “Least flavorful,” “sharp edges” and “sour,” they said. The winner, by a vote of 4-to-3, was the Charles Shaw wine, which was the youngest and grapiest in the glass: the tasters said the wine’s fruit “stood up well to the cheese” and made the dish rounder. “It’s the best of both worlds,” one taster said, citing the astringency of the Barolo version and the overripe alcoholic perfume of the dolcetto. The young, fruity upstart beat the Old World classic by a mile.“I’m not surprised,” said Molly Stevens, a cooking teacher in Vermont whose book “All About Braising” (W. W. Norton, 2005) called for wine in almost every recipe. “If it had been short ribs, you probably wouldn’t have been able to taste the difference when the dish was done, because meat and wine work together differently,” she said.

This might explain how the chef Mario Batali got away with pouring an inexpensive California merlot into the beef with Barolo served at Babbo, as Bill Buford observed in “Heat” (Knopf, 2006), his account of his work at the restaurant. In an e-mail message, Mr. Batali said he preferred to cook with Barolo when he would be drinking Barolo, saying that “the resulting comparison of the raw, uncooked wine and the muted, deeper and reduced flavor of the wine in the finished dish ... allows more of the entire spectrum of specific grape flavor, a dance on the ballroom of the diner’s palate.” (He did not dispute Mr. Buford’s assertion, however.) Mark Ladner, the executive chef at Del Posto, Mr. Batali’s restaurant on the fringe of the meatpacking district, sees several hundred dollars’ worth of aged Barolo stirred into its version of the risotto, a signature dish, every week. “My brain tells me it should matter,” he said, “but once a wine is cooked I’m not sure how much even a discerning palate can tell.“

When I make the dish at home, I use a dolcetto d’Alba — a simpler wine from the same region — and honestly I like it even better.” The difference between Barolo and dolcetto does reveal one hard rule of cooking with wine: watch out for tannins. Found in grape skins and seeds, tannins are bitter-tasting plant compounds that can give red wine and tea some desirable tartness but become unpleasantly astringent when cooked. (Barolo, young Bordeaux and northern Rhônes are examples of very tannic wines.) “I wouldn’t cook with Barolo even if I could afford it,” said Bob Millman, a longtime wine buyer for Morrell & Co. in Manhattan.“Tannins are what get you into trouble in cooking,” Ms. Stevens said, because they are accentuated and concentrated by heat. “For reds, err soft,” she said, and choose a wine with a smooth finish. Are there any other hard rules for choosing wine for cooking? One: don’t be afraid of cheap wine. In 1961, when Mrs. Child handed down her edict in “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” decent wines at the very low end of the price scale were almost impossible to find in the United States.Now, inexpensive wines flow from all over the world: a $6 bottle is often a pleasant surprise (though sometimes, still, unredeemable plonk).“

Often customers come in looking for an inexpensive wine to cook with, and when I steer them to our $5.99 and $6.99 Portuguese wines, which are perfectly good for most dishes, they are uncomfortable with it,” said Gregory dal Piaz, a salesman who specializes in wine and food pairings at Astor Wines and Spirits in SoHo. “They think it is just too cheap.” At the other end of the price scale, the experts agree that it is wasteful, even outrageous, to cook with old, fine and expensive wines. “Let’s take the most horrifying example, a Romanée-Conti, among the most subtle and aristocratic wines on the planet,” Mr. Millman said. “There is no way that its complexity and finesse will be expressed if you cook it, even for a minute. The essential flavors that make it a Romanée-Conti will be lost.”Ms. Stevens said that she divides the vast and bewildering universe of wine into Tuesday night bottles and Saturday night bottles, and that she cheerfully cooks with whatever Tuesday wine happens to be open.

“I really resent opening a bottle just because a recipe calls for a quarter cup of something,” she said, “but the acidity of wine in cooking really is irreplaceable. You can’t just leave it out or sub in another liquid.”Plain dry vermouth, she said, which lasts indefinitely, is her standby white for cooking. (This was also Mrs. Child’s solution. Red vermouth, however, cannot be used in recipes calling for red wine; Before these cooking sessions, I would have been suspicious of a recipe that casually called for “Sauternes or another dessert wine,” as Nigella Lawson’s custard recipe does. I still would not swap in a sugary ruby port for drier tawny, or pour Manischewitz into a coq au vin — sweet wines and dry should be kept in their places.But beyond that, cooking with wine is just that — cooking — and wine is only one of the ingredients that give a finished dish its flavor. Aromatics, spices, herbs, sugar and especially meat and fat tend to erase the distinct flavors of wine.Mr. Millman, the wine buyer, maintains that cooking with wines that have the same terroir as the food produces the best-tasting results, but Mr. Ladner, the chef, isn’t so sure.“