What wine to use for cooking?

A touch of wine always gives a great twist to dishes and is a wonderful way to make a meal or dinner special, as it can also be integrated into drinks, desserts, or main courses. But perhaps the question of which wine to use for cooking arises every time you want to prepare a different menu.To help you resolve this doubt, we will tell you a bit about the uses of wine in cooking, and best of all, we give you the best recipes to get started. Wine has three main uses in cooking: as a marinade ingredient, as cooking liquid, and as a flavor enhancer in a finished dish.Its main function when adding it to a dish is to intensify, enhance, and accentuate the flavor and aroma of the food, meaning we do not seek a wine to mask the flavor of what we are cooking, but to strengthen it. Perhaps that’s why California Wines are a great option for preparing, for example, grilled octopus with red wine.As a general principle that applies equally to any seasoning used for cooking, one must be careful with the amount of wine used, as adding too little will not yield results, but too much will be overwhelming. A small amount of wine will enhance the flavor of the dish.On the other hand, if you are worried that your food will taste too much like alcohol, the alcohol in the wine evaporates while the food cooks, leaving only the flavor, and if you boil it, the flavor concentrates, including its acidity and sweetness. This is how it is used to make Braised Octopus in Wine, a dish that turns out delicious thanks to the combination of Red Wine and California White Wine.Finally, the last recommendation for better results when using wine for cooking is to never add it to a dish right before serving. The wine should simmer with the food or sauce to enhance the flavor of the dish; as the wine cooks and reduces, it becomes an extract that aromatizes. Additionally, it needs time to release its flavor into your dish, so wait about 10 minutes or more, taste it, and then decide if you need to add more wine.If you want to prepare Braised Octopus in Wine, a pasta in red wine with mushrooms, chorizo, and bacon, or some carnitas with wine, the simple option that will leave a great flavor in these meals is undoubtedly California Wines, because you can not only include red wine, but also white and rosé, with their delicious recipes and step-by-step guidance from the great Mexican chef Zahie Tellez.