Cooking Wine Test: Cheap vs. Expensive Bottles Compared
A cooking experiment tested 15 cheap and expensive wines to see if quality matters. The results show that sweetness and acidity are the most important factors, not price.
Does an expensive bottle of wine make a better pan sauce or braise than a cheap one? The experiment concluded that, in most cases, the differences in the final dish are subtle and price is not the primary factor.
One of the first tests isolated the effect of cooking by reducing different white wines. The test used three distinct varietals.
As the wines reduced, their acidity became the most pronounced flavor. The sweetness in the Riesling concentrated significantly. "So, the first big rule of choosing a wine when cooking is to consider the sweetness: Use a sweet wine only if you want sweetness in the final dish, otherwise use a dry wine," the report stated. The oakiness of the Chardonnay became a minor note after reduction.
Quick Cooking With Wine: Pan Sauces
To test a real cooking application, the experimenter made pan sauces for pork cutlets using four different wines. They used a tart Sauvignon Blanc, an oaky Chardonnay, a light Beaujolais, and a jammy Cabernet Sauvignon.
The acidity of the wine again had the biggest impact on the final sauce. The Sauvignon Blanc produced a sauce that tasted distinctly of lemon, even though none was added. The red wine sauces were incredibly similar to each other. In a blind taste test, a taster could not distinguish between the Beaujolais and Cabernet Sauvignon sauces.
Long Cooking With Wine: Braising
The test then moved to a long-cooked dish, coq au vin. Five different wine types were used for the braise.
The fake wine product made an unpalatable dish. The inexpensive lighter red and the boxed wine both produced good results. Notably, the spoiled wine, which had begun to smell like acetone, created a braise that tasted fine. "This test showed that while a wine may be past its prime as far as drinking is concerned, there are some circumstances when you can get away with cooking with it," the report noted.
The conventional wisdom to only cook with wine you'd drink does not always hold. The fake wine product was terrible for both drinking and cooking. The spoiled wine was undrinkable but worked in the braise. For most dishes, the wine's sweetness and acidity matter far more than its price tag or prestige. A cheap, dry table wine will often do the job just as well as an expensive bottle.
