How to Choose the Best Dry White Wine for Cooking

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How to Choose the Best Dry White Wine for Cooking

Why Should You Cook with Wine, Anyway?

As an ingredient, wine is a phenomenal flavor enhancer, releasing specific flavor compounds in a way that water or broth cannot, and adding depth and nuance. Wine’s natural acidity also makes it a great tenderizer, breaking down tough proteins and vegetable fibers, and ensuring your finished dish has a melt-in-your-mouth texture. And wine does all this while preventing your other ingredients from becoming dry and gristly.

Why is Dry White Wine Good for Cooking?

Because of its high acidity, dry white wine—i.e. white wine that is not sweet—is an especially good choice for cooking when you aren’t following a recipe that calls for a specific color, style or grape variety.

Like lemon or another citrus juice, it won’t just tenderize, it’ll also cut through excess fat and bring balance to richer dishes. In lighter preparations, meanwhile, dry white wine can accentuate, enrich and complement your ingredients, but with more flavor complexity than something like vinegar or tamarind.

That said, dry white wine is also great for cooking because its taste is more neutral than that of a sweet white wine, or a rosé or a red. When heated, a lot of a wine’s alcohol will burn off, and its acid and flavor will be elevated. Rather than muddy your ingredients or all-out dominate your palate, dry white wine will highlight and heighten your meal’s nuances.

Cooking Wine vs Wine You Want to Cook With

Shouldn’t you use “Cooking Wine”? Wine is wine, isn’t it?

Well, yes, technically, all wine is made from fermented fruit and contains some amount of alcohol. However, those bottles you see at the grocery store labeled as “Cooking Wine” aren’t quite the same as what you’d find at your local wine shop or discover on wsjwine.com, and you should avoid them.

Cooking Wine was never intended to be served and sipped from the glass; it was destined for the oven from the day it was fermented. It’s made from grapes (or in some cases, grape concentrate), but it also contains added salt and preservatives like potassium sorbate meant to extend its shelf life.

Because they can last so long, these selections are a good option for people who don’t drink wine, but still want to cook with it. They’re also great for restaurant chefs who may not want to blow their entire budget on cases and cases of wine that’ll never cross anyone’s lips. But frankly, they don’t taste very nice, and if you’re not careful, their added salt can have an adverse effect on your finished dish.

How to Choose the Right Dry White Wine for Cooking

When it comes to cooking with wine (dry white or otherwise), the number one rule is not to cook with any wine you wouldn’t want to drink. Your dish is only as good as the ingredients you put into it, and cooking with bad wine certainly won’t improve it. And don’t forget, heat will bring a wine’s flavors front and center, so you’ll want to like them.

But you needn’t, and shouldn’t, spend a bundle on your cooking wine, either. In the same way that heat will quell much of your wine’s alcohol, heat will suppress the subtle nuances of a complex or long-aged bottling. So, maybe save that award-winning Sancerre for your next holiday party.

Best Dry White Wines for Cooking

For most dishes, a low-to-moderately priced Pinot Grigio/Pinot Gris or Sauvignon Blanc that you enjoy will do nicely. Both white wine varieties have a comparatively neutral palate as well as the zippy, medium-to-high acidity to integrate and elevate your ingredients, and bring balance to your finished dish. Typically, both also have a low-to-medium amount of alcohol. This is key because highly alcoholic wines can take longer to reduce—that is, evaporate to thicken your cooking liquid and concentrate flavors.

Chardonnay can also be a good dry white wine for cooking. However, make sure to choose one that was not fermented or aged in oak. While they can be delicious to drink, rich, oaky wines can become bitter during cooking. Oak aging can also make a white wine seem sweet to the taste, which may not benefit your recipe.

How to Use Dry White Wine in Cooking

Okay, now that you know dry white wines are the best all-purpose wines for cooking, and you know how to choose one, how exactly can you incorporate wine into your cooking?

In Sauce, Gravy & Risotto

One of the easiest ways to use dry white wine for cooking is to use it to deglaze a pan while making a sauce or gravy. It’s a simple technique in which liquid is added to a hot, just-cooked-in pan in order to loosen and release any caramelized bits stuck to its bottom, and create a delicious base from which to build.

After cooking aromatics like herbs and garlic, meat or vegetables (or all three), remove them from the pan and pour off any excess fat. Next, place the pan over low-to-medium heat, and slowly add a small amount of wine. Bring the wine to a simmer, then use a wooden spoon or silicone spatula to scrape up the bottom of the pan to loosen any caramelized, stuck-on remains. Then all you have to do is keep simmering—the alcohol will cook off and the liquid will eventually reach a saucy consistency.

This can also be a great technique for risotto. To make risotto, you’ll often begin by cooking aromatics and then adding rice to toast it before adding broth or stock. Rather than remove these items from the pan as you would when deglazing, add wine and cook until it’s absorbed. Then add any other cooking liquid you plan to use.

For Braising & Marinating Meat

Braising and marinating are two other cooking techniques in which you can incorporate dry white wine. While you can certainly employ either method for vegetables, they are especially excellent for poultry, beef or pork, again, thanks to our friend, acidity.

Braising is a low-effort, high-reward technique in which meat is seared quickly over high heat before being simmered slowly in a thin layer of liquid. The acidity of a dry white wine makes it an ideal simmering liquid, as it helps break down tough proteins and results in a more tender final dish.

Similarly, a dry white wine’s acid will help tenderize meat when it’s used as a marinade—that is, soaking meat in wine for an extended time before cooking. And because dry white wine is less potent than that of a rosé or red, any flavor it contributes to the meat during marination will be balanced and just-noticeable-enough on the palate, allowing the flavors of any other herbs and spices you use to come to the forefront.

For Poaching Seafood

Poaching relies on moist heat by cooking ingredients in liquid at a very low temperature. A low-and-slow, gentle approach to cooking, it’s often used for more delicate foods like fish and other seafood. Using dry white wine as a poaching liquid provides a subtle flavor that will tone down “fishiness” but won’t overwhelm your overall dish. In this scenario, its acidity will also enhance the seafood’s sweetness.

For Dessert

Yes! You can even use dry white wine to make dessert. In some cakes and pastries, dry white wine can be used to replace a portion of the fat. This lightens and lifts the final product and adds another low-key layer of flavor. Alternatively, if a dessert recipe calls for lemon juice to add brightness or act as a souring agent, dry white wine would be an intriguing replacement.

You could also use dry white wine to macerate fruit for a sauce or filling. Like marinating, this technique involves soaking the ingredients (fruit) in a liquid to soften them, concentrate their flavors and coax out natural juices. Using dry white wine in this application will further enhance the fruits’ flavors by brightening them.

Now that you’re a pro, it’s time to get cooking. Start by checking out our selection of white wines to get your proverbial juices following.