The best red wines to cook with are dry, fruity, and unoaked — a Côtes du Rhône, Merlot, or Chianti you’d happily drink. You don’t need anything expensive, but you do need something you’d sip: if it’s not nice in the glass, it won’t be nice in the pan.
Below: which bottles to reach for, how much to use, what the wine is actually doing — and the recipes that put it to work. If you only take one thing away, make it this: cook with wine you’d drink, and add it early enough to lose its raw edge.
The best red wines to cook with (and the ones to skip)
Reach for dry, medium-bodied reds with good fruit and moderate tannin. Côtes du Rhône, Merlot, Chianti, Grenache and inexpensive Cabernet all braise beautifully. Skip anything labelled “cooking wine” (over-salted and flat), very tannic or heavily oaked bottles (they turn bitter as they reduce), and sweet reds for savoury dishes.
How much red wine to use
For a braise or stew serving four, 250ml — about a large glass — is the sweet spot: enough to flavour the dish without drowning it. For a quick pan sauce, 100–150ml is plenty. The wine should support the dish, not shout over it. Every recipe on the site tells you exactly, in The Wine Note.
What red wine actually does in a dish
Three things, mostly. It deglazes — lifting the caramelised brown bits (the fond) off the pan into the sauce. It reduces — concentrating into deep, savoury body as the liquid cooks down. And it tenderises — its mild acidity helps break down tougher cuts over a long braise. Add it early and let it bubble to cook off the sharp, raw alcohol edge before the slow cook.
Do you cook off the alcohol?
Mostly, yes — but not entirely. A long braise or a reduced sauce burns off the great majority of the alcohol while keeping the flavour. A splash stirred in at the very end keeps more. If you’re cooking for anyone avoiding alcohol, use the substitute below instead.
No open bottle? Red wine substitutes that work
It depends on what the wine was doing. For most braises and sauces, swap in stock plus a splash of red wine vinegar (roughly 200ml stock + 1 tbsp vinegar for every 250ml wine). For a non-alcoholic option, red grape juice cut with a little vinegar gets you close. None are quite the real thing — wine adds a depth that’s hard to fake — but they’ll get dinner on the table.
| If the wine was… | Swap in |
|---|---|
| Braising a tough cut | Beef stock + 1 tbsp red wine vinegar |
| Making a pan sauce | Stock + a squeeze of lemon or splash of balsamic |
| Non-alcoholic needed | Red grape juice + a little vinegar |
Recipes that cook with red wine
Here’s where that open bottle goes to work. Start with the braise that started it all.