Food and wine are intimately entwined, and ever since wine has been made it has been used in food preparation. Most people think of wine as something to drink with food; most chefs think of wine as something to put into food, an ingredient to cook with, and will use it in a broad range of dishes. Wine is a complex beverage that adds flavor, color, alcohol, and texture to a dish; it also accents and improves foods natural taste, and brings out the richness in other ingredients.

Wine gets its flavor from the grape itself, the place it is grown, and the process by which the wine is made.

Each variety of grapes is different. Other than just white and red, they can vary from very sweet to very dry. Even grapes from the same vine can vary from year to year, depending on the amount of rain and sunlight. A Chardonnay grape grown in Burgundy tastes different than a Chardonnay grape from California. Even Chardonnay grapes grown on opposite sides of the same small hill can have a different taste.

Another contributor to taste in wine is yeast. It is through the fermentation process that wine gets most of its flavor. Yeast turns sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol. Often oxygen is also present. Oxygen has the nasty habit of turning a perfectly good wine into vinegar. However, sulfite, which is a salt, occurs naturally in all wine and will prevent oxidation. If not enough is present, the winemaker will add more. If everything goes well, the acid will not stay an acid, but combine with the alcohol and other compounds from the grapes and create something called an “ester” which is a flavor compound. It is from the “ester” and the activity of the yeast that wine gets its characteristics such as hints of berries or apples.

Alcohol by itself has very little or no flavor. However, it is a liquid in which color and flavor can be dissolved and extracted and combine with other substances to create new aromas and greater depth of flavors.

Alcohol has a lower freezing point than water, which must be taken into account when making frozen desserts.

Fortified wine is a wine with added alcohol, which delays spoilage. Once opened, they will last six months or more. Fortified wine such as Sherry, Port wine, Madeira, Marsala, and Vermouth are often used in cooking because of their special flavors and higher alcohol content.

Depending on how it is used, many things happen to wine during cooking. If wine is used in a long cooking process, such as a stew, a soup, or an oven braised roast, a lot of the alcohol will evaporate, but not necessarily all of it. The flavors will concentrate, which is important to remember because a reduced sweet wine will become sweeter and a fruity wine will be fruitier.

The best wine to cook with is one you would drink, and in most cases it is safe to serve a wine with a dish in which the wine has been used, but a drinkable inexpensive wine, will work just fine in most dishes.

Wine labeled “Cooking wine” is best avoided, it is of poor quality and often salt is added (Restaurant owners used to add salt to wine given to the kitchen to prevent the cooks from drinking it.)

Many recipes, both old and new, include wine. If you are working with a good recipe it will tell you what kind of wine and the proper time to add it.

There are several factors to consider when cooking with wine; color, sweetness, acidity, and flavor being the most important.

Use lighter wines for delicate dishes and sauces but more flavorful wines in the intense dishes and sauces. However, don’t let a wine overpower a dish. This is especially important when using sweet wine.

Chefs will use wine throughout the cooking process. As an example, in French onion soup Sherry is often added early in the cooking process, but it gains tremendously with just a little splash at the very end. Try it and enjoy.