Red wine rewards a little know-how: how to choose it, cook it, store it, and substitute in a pinch. Browse 699 recipes to cook with it.

What is red wine?

Red wine is the deep, savory backbone of slow-cooked food.

Where white wine adds sharp acidity, red wine builds body. It lends color and a touch of tannin along with a rich fruit-and-earth flavor that turns a plain braise into something with depth.

As with any cooking wine, what matters is dry versus sweet, not the price tag. A dry red has little residual sugar, so it can simmer for hours and reduce down without ever turning syrupy or candied.

This page is about red wine as a cooking ingredient. For the wider picture of deglazing and choosing what to pour in, see cooking with wine. The old rule carries over here: if you would not drink it, do not cook with it.

Cooking With Red Wine

Red wine is made for long, slow heat. The classic French braises are built on it. Coq Au Vin à la Slow Cooker simmers chicken in red wine until the sauce goes glossy, and Beef Bourguignon for Two does the same with beef, bacon, and mushrooms.

The reason it works is time. Tannins that taste harsh in a quick sauce soften and round out over a long braise, while the wine reduces and deepens. Hearty Stovetop Beef Stew uses a splash exactly this way, cooked low until the rough edges disappear.

Red wine has a home in the tomato pot too. A glass stirred into a long-simmered ragu or a No Salt Spaghetti Sauce adds depth and a savory undertone that plain tomatoes lack.

For a quick pan sauce, the move is different. Deglaze the seared-steak pan with red wine, then reduce it hard and finish with a knob of butter, the way Beef Tips in Red Wine Sauce pulls a sauce together in minutes.

So the timing rule is simple. Add wine early in a braise so it has time to mellow, and add it late in a quick sauce so you can reduce it fast.

Pairing and the Mistakes to Avoid

Red wine wants bold, fatty partners. Beef, lamb, game, oxtail, short ribs, sausage, earthy mushrooms: all of them stand up to it. That richness is why Braised Short Ribs for Two leans on a red-wine braise to match the meat.

For cooking, pick a dry, medium-bodied red without too much oak. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cotes du Rhone, or a Chianti are all reliable; they have enough structure to carry a braise but not so much tannin that they turn bitter.

The biggest trap is tannin and oak. A big, heavily oaked red reduces into something astringent and drying, so a smooth, fruit-forward bottle is the safer bet for a sauce you plan to cook down hard.

The second trap is the salty cooking wine in the grocery aisle. It is preserved with salt, and reducing it concentrates that salt into a harsh, oversalted sauce.

One more: go easy. Red wine is assertive, so too much can make a dish taste boozy or sour if it has not had time to cook down. Start with less than you think and build.

Substitutes

The best non-alcoholic stand-in is beef or vegetable stock with a small splash of red wine vinegar to mimic the acidity and tang. Start with about a teaspoon of vinegar per ½ cup of stock, then taste, since vinegar is sharper than wine.

For a closer match, mix the stock with a little unsweetened pomegranate or cranberry juice, which brings back the fruity depth that stock alone misses. Keep it unsweetened so the sauce does not turn sweet.

Dry red and dry white can sometimes swap in a pinch.

Expect a lighter color and a more delicate result. White will not give a beef braise the same deep, savory body.

Buying and Storing

A cheap bottle is fine, but it still has to be drinkable. A dry red in the $8 to $12 range is plenty for cooking, and the sip test applies: if it is unpleasant in the glass, it will be unpleasant in the pot.

Once opened, red wine oxidizes and slowly turns flat and vinegary. Re-cork it and store it in the fridge, even though it is a red, and use it within three to five days for cooking.

Cold slows the oxidation. Just let a splash come toward room temperature if you mean to taste it before it goes in.

To avoid opening a bottle for a single splash, freeze leftover wine in an ice cube tray and keep the cubes in a bag. Drop one straight into a simmering braise or sauce whenever a recipe calls for a little red.

Nutrition

Quick facts

Where to find red wine: Red wine is usually found in the beverages section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

Food group: Red wine is a member of the Beverages US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese

红葡萄酒

British (UK) term

Red wine

en français

vin rouge

en español

vino rojo

How much does red wine weigh?

Amount	Weight
1 fl oz	29 grams
1 serving 5 fl oz	147 grams

Related

Beverages

Recipes using red wine

There are 699 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 699 recipes

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