The above is our wine cellar. It’s about 10 x 8, I’d guess, with room for the small table you see, although we’ve yet to sit down there except to catalog some wine (the room is below ground) and sip something because it’s too gosh-darned cold. We have a special refrigeration unit that keeps the wine cellar at a consistent 58. There’s also a little low cubbyhole off to the left (out of view) that can hold about another 8 cases of boxed wine. The cellar itself (with more shelving over on the left side) holds about 900 bottles. You can see that it’s nearly full. Everything you see above is red wine. White is over on the left side, and it’s only about half full since we drink so little white wine.
I got an email from a blogging friend the other day. She almost never drinks wine and suggested I write up a blog post about what wines I use when I cook, and also what are my solutions (in cooking) when I don’t have wine on hand – what do I substitute? Well, with a fully-stocked wine cellar in our home, that’s not likely to EVER happen. But there are times when I don’t feel like opening a bottle of wine – or what’s open is the wrong type for what I need. Sometimes I just ask my DH Dave if he’ll fetch me a bottle of something – so just read on about what I do. It depends on the situation, what I’m cooking, how important it is, and the cost of the suggested wine type. So, forthwith I’ve written up some info about my wine likes and dislikes, and offer some options for cooking. This post has ended up being way too long, so am going to break it up into several shorter ones. So, Nance, this post is for you . . .
When Dave and I married, lo these many years ago, one of our connections was about wine. We enjoyed sharing a bottle most evenings. We talked about wine, we did wine tastings in our home, we sought out restaurants, wineries and events that showcased wines. And one of the reasons we bought this home was the wine cellar. Previously we had a free-standing refrigerated wine cabinet, but it would only hold about 90 bottles (certainly not enough if you ask Dave!). The cellar in this house was a rustic shell, but it was refrigerated and we did have it outfitted with wine shelving, and had a new refrigeration unit installed a few years ago.
It was back in 1979 that I first took a class about wine appreciation, with my friend Kathy. I was newly single at that time and wanted to learn more about wine in general. It was 2-3 months long offered at the University of California: Irvine, and each week we had lectures, then wine tastings. Where we learned about taste (it was several years later that I learned about the different taste receptors in our mouths and why certain areas recognize sweet, salty, bitter and acid). I learned how to sniff (did the wine smell like a flower patch, an herbaceous garden, a summer afternoon, or, horrors, a pig sty or a barnyard – and yes, there were wines that DID smell like a pig sty). We learned to aerate – swirl – to examine color and clarity, and finally taste, swishing it around in the mouth to contact all those different mouth receptors.And to pay attention to the finish – the last flavor receptors you register as the wine slides down your throat. All important aspects of wine drinking. And I was an avid wine appreciator for a whole lot of years. I still enjoy it, but I just don’t seem to have the appetite for it that I used to, or as my DH does. He drinks wine every night, without fail. I have a glass or two a week, is all.
Pictured left, one of our favorite wines from a small winery (Stephen Ross) here in California, from the region called the Central Coast. Dave buys plenty of wine from this winery as well as others in the area. They grow stupendous pinot noir grapes on the Central Coast. We had this with dinner two nights ago – oh my goodness was it wonderful, a 2004 Aubaine Vineyards Pinot Noir.
What I don’t enjoy is wine with an edge, with tannins, astringency or any bitterness. Which puts me in a difficult classification of wine drinker (not a respected one if you were to ask some wine experts). Most people who drink wine love the tannins and treasure the acidity, and the roughness of some varietals, vintages, like Beaujolais Nouveau. Or young Chianti. On the other hand, I don’t drink much sweet wine either. I seem to prefer the more floral types that have a sweeter edge. They’re not sweet wines by any means, but when you stuff your nose down into the glass you can smell the sugar-sweetness of fruit. And when you sip it you get a hint of sugar on the sides of your mouth. Like ones that have a hint of blackberries, strawberries or cherries. Even raisins or peaches. More white wines have a fruit scent – like peaches or apricots. Red wines more often have floral notes or the scent of berries. I like Merlot. I like the lighter style Pinot Noir. With a big juicy steak I enjoy a Cabernet. Cab is a wine you want to drink with food, not sip on its own. It’s too heavy for that. Zinfandel is also a heavy wine – or at least some of them are. They’re too stringent for me. Pinot Noir, I think, can be a sipping wine, but heavier ones need food to go with them. So you see, there’s no straight answer.
My husband drinks more (red) Zinfandel than anything else, but he will drink almost any wine except for sweeter types. When I open a bottle of wine that’s meant just for me, I may have one glass and that’s it. And I’ve never had more than two glasses anytime. But nowadays one glass is enough and I don’t want any more, even the next day. We have the small pump that removes air from the bottle and it will keep for a few days, but generally Dave will drink up whatever I haven’t, so I shouldn’t worry about it. So, first we’re going to talk about red wine. In coming days I’ll talk about other wines too. So stay tuned.
RED WINE:
COOKING: Red wines offer a stronger body and depth than white wines, so keep that in mind when you cook.You wouldn’t want to use red wine in a delicate sauce for mild fish. It would overpower the fish. I don’t use the cheapest of wines for cooking, but I also don’t use very expensive wines, either. Nor would I ever use Two Buck Chuck in anything. If it’s not something I’d drink, then it doesn’t deserve to be in my food. But if I need red wine I generally will open an inexpensive (let’s say $8-10) bottle like Blackstone Merlot. We almost always have that in the cellar (because I like it and Dave doesn’t). It works. Merlot is a mellow wine – with no strong flavors one way or the other. If the dish I’m making can handle some sweetness, I might even use Sweet Vermouth – a red version of the more well-known white Vermouth. But I rarely use the sweet stuff – it’s too sweet usually. But it will keep on the shelf for months without deterioration. So I keep it around. Cabernet doesn’t normally get used in cooking around my house, but I will use an inexpensive bottle of Pinot Noir. I have one recipe on my blog that calls for an entire bottle of Zinfandel. If you’re interested, it’s called Zinfandel Sausage Sauce for Pasta. It’s a sensational recipe, and the wine is boiled down, reduced, yet the intense wine flavor is still there. It’s just a different type of red Bolognese sauce (spaghetti sauce), but made with the wine. It definitely has a winey flavor.
SUBSTITUTIONS: Actually I only have a few suggestions to substitute for red wine. Grape juice is far too sweet – it’s sweetened before it’s bottled. Way too much sugar for cooking. Some online recommendations suggest using grape juice with vinegar or lemon juice added. Well, maybe that would work. I haven’t tried it, so can’t make a recommendation here. There are some non-alcoholic wines out there (Ariel, I believe is one) but I’ve never used it. Apple juice could be substituted for wine, but I’d mix it half juice and half water, maybe adding a bit of lemon juice to tone it down. Chicken broth (or beef, vegetable) would also work, but add a little lemon juice (about a tsp.) to that as well. If the dish you’re making is a braised type, or soup, tomato juice would also work too. I read online that someone uses baby-food cherry juice (I would suppose it’s not sweetened). Another option is pomegranate juice – just try to choose one that’s less sweet (check the nutrition label for sugar). If the recipe you’re using is recommending the wine/juice be reduced by half (or whatever amount), remember that whatever sugar is in juice will be more concentrated – so it will be sweeter than the original. Same goes for salt (for instance if you used V-8 juice – I wouldn’t – but let’s suppose you did – it contains a huge amount of sodium – so if you reduced that liquid, it would be inordinately salty and likely inedible (advice: use low-sodium V-8). Whatever you do, though, make sure you substitute the same amount of juice/water/broth as wine measurement.
There are resources abounding around the internet on this subject:
About.com: Home Cooking – this site has an amazing list of substitutions for oodles of alcoholic beverages, including liqueurs.
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