grow all the time. This flavorful ingredient can turn ordinary dishes into extraordinary surprises. From main dishes and sides to desserts and even appetizers, the list of options for cooking with wine is nearly endless.

Newcomers to the concept of cooking with wine, however, often have a lot of questions. It’s hard to tell from a lot of recipes what kind of wine would be best, how much to use and if a little experimentation might be in order. As at-home chefs become more comfortable with the prospect, many discover that wine can add an incredible level of pizzazz to almost any dish. The key is not being afraid to experiment.

Fortunately, there are some tips that can make cooking with wine a little less daunting for newcomers to this ingredient. They range from selecting the right wine for the dish to when it’s acceptable to experiment with a recipe.

How To Pick The Right Wine

The general rule of thumb to follow when a recipe calls for wine is to pick the color and/or variety recommended. Be mindful, however, that recipes almost always taste better when a table-grade wine is selected rather than “cooking” wine.  While there’s nothing necessarily wrong with cooking wines, the flavor and quality of even moderately priced table wines tends to be a whole lot better.

Ideally, most main dishes and side dishes can be created with a favorite red or white wine. White wines, such as Sauvignon Blanc, tend to work extremely well for sautéing chicken, seafood and some vegetables. Red wines, such as Chianti, are excellent for pork and vegetables. Cabernet Sauvignon is also an excellent red choice for cooking.

How Much Wine To Use

Keep in mind that the flavor found in wine-based cooking comes from the wine itself and not the alcohol. As wine is cooked down, the flavors will concentrate. This means it doesn’t necessarily take a lot of wine to produce an incredible dish.

To determine how much wine to use,  follow a recipe closely or even cut down on the amount somewhat. When experimenting with new dishes, remember that a little wine can go a very long way.

Tips For Experimentation

Even if a dish doesn’t call for wine, it can often be added to create a whole new flavor sensation. Some tips that can help with experimentation include:

• Just replace water with wine in favorite recipes, or substitute some of the water with wine
• Add only a tablespoon or two to dishes to get a flavor boost without an overpowering result – this works especially well with gravies
• Just use a favorite wine to baste meats with as they cook
• Before adding wine to a dish, heat it, but don’t let it come to a boil
• Avoid adding cold wine to meat as it can make it tough

About Serving Wine With Wine-Based Dishes

If the plan is to serve table wine with a wine-based dish, make sure to use the same wine for both purposes. This will produce a better overall flavor and prevent two different wines from competing for taste bud attention.

Cooking with wine is a time-honored tradition. Learning how to use this classic ingredient just takes a willingness to experiment.

Just because a wine bears a French name, doesn’t mean it was produced in one of this country’s famous wine-producing regions. And, just because a wine is technically made in a certain location doesn’t mean that’s where the grapes in the mix came from.

So, how can a wine lover easily discern where a particular vintage hails from?

There’s a trick to telling that’s found on most labels if a buyer knows what to look for. The “appellation of origin” will tell a great deal more about a wine than the location of the winery where it was produced.

This particular designation actually denotes the place where most of the grapes used in the bottle were grown. So, if a wine is produced in Florida, but its grapes come from the Napa Valley in California, the appellation of origin will likely say California. The appellation of origin can refer to the name of the country, the state, geographic region or even the county where the grapes come from. American regulations call for 75 percent of the grapes in a bottle to be grown in the listed location.

When the appellation of origin is known, it can tell a great deal about the wine in the bottle. This is especially so if information about the vintage is also known. The harvest location and year can help buyers discern such things as:

• The quality of grapes – It is a known fact that certain parts of the world produce better tasting wine grapes than others. A grape harvest from California, for example, is likely to offer higher quality than grapes grown in Georgia.
• The quality of the particular harvest – When the vintage is matched up with the origin of the harvest, serious buyers can look into the quality of that exact year’s grapes from the specific region. Even in the world’s best grape-producing regions there are good years and bad based on weather conditions.

Find out where the grapes in wine come from and a lot of information about the quality of the product becomes available. To do so, just look for the appellation of origin on the bottle.

Think a wine needs to age for decades to offer a rich, memorable flavor? Think again! Some wines can age for as little as a year and still offer a superior flavor right out of the bottle. It all depends on the kind of wine in question.

While aging is important, it’s not necessary for a wine to spend decades under lock and key to offer a sensational taste. The quality of the grapes and the production process itself can play a bigger role on this front than the time a vintage has spent on a wine cellar shelf.

Overall, red wines tend to require a lengthier aging process than whites before they are brought to market. While there are a few exceptions, most white wines only require a minimum of one year of aging to offer a good flavor. The biggest exception is Chardonnay, which tends to call for two years of aging at the least.

Red wines tend to do better when they are aged for at least two years.  Some types of red – Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Nebbiolo and Syrah Petite, do better at three years. A good White Zinfandel can spend about a year aging and still offer exceptional flavor.

Recommended aging for different wines can also hinge on other factors. The vintage – or year grapes were harvested – and the region in which they are grown can also impact the length of time aging should take place to produce a good-tasting wine.

Just because a wine was produced 12 or 24 months in the past doesn’t mean it’s a substandard product. Many wines only require a short aging process to reach maturity and offer excellent quality right out of the bottle. While additional time under proper conditions can yield a better flavor in some cases, this step is often not required to enjoy a good wine.

There’s nothing quite like an excellent dessert wine to add an extra special touch to this course of a meal. Selecting just the right type of wine, however, is essential to make the move a pleasure rather than a flop.

Dessert wines are traditionally quite sweet and they often have rather fruity flavors. This lends them for pairings with certain desserts and not others. In some cases, champagne might prove to be a better choice.

Do keep in mind that if wine is served with other courses in a meal that water should also be served with each course. For guests to be able to fully enjoy the tastes of new wines served, water is necessary to rinse the mouth.

To help dessert wines go over well at the end of a meal, consider these tips:

• Serve the wine alone – A dessert wine doesn’t necessarily have to go with an actual dessert. A sweeter, fruity wine can stand alone as a meal topper that sparkles.
• Serve a light, fruity dessert – Many dessert wines go very well with iced desserts, such as sorbet. It’s even possible to create iced wine with a dessert wine to serve in lieu of wine in a glass or a full dessert.
• Sherry and chocolate go hand-in-hand – If a dessert involves dark chocolate in the mix, sherry is an exceptional choice.
• Ice wines go with almost anything – These sweet, flavorful wines make a great pairing with most desserts, sweet cakes and breads.
• Use champagne to overcome the cheesecake challenge – There are not many wines that go well with this popular, but rich dessert. Champagne, however, can provide the perfect finishing touch.

Finishing off a meal with a dessert wine is a great way to make the experience even more enjoyable. Do take the time to select the bottle carefully to properly compliment the flavors of the meal.

While enthusiasts know there’s nothing quite like a glass of red wine after a long day, not everyone understands just how healthy this indulgence can be. There are numerous studies that indicate moderate consumption of red wine can have very positive effects on the body.

Although it’s true that all wines can have a positive impact on health if consumed in moderation, red wine seems to offer the biggest benefits when compared to other types of wine and alcohol. According to many clinical researchers, the benefits of red wine are found in the abundance of certain components contained in the skin of red grapes.

Scientists have isolated several key components found in red wine grapes that are likely responsible for all the positive effects. The antioxidants found in red wine, especially resveratrol, are thought to produce a finished product that benefits the heart and overall health.

About Wine’s Antioxidants

Red wine is rich in two types of antioxidants that can promote good health – flavonoids and nonflavonoids.  Antioxidants are substances found in foods that can help prevent and slow damage to the body’s cell. Antioxidants are known to attack “free radicals,” which are the byproducts of oxidation in the body. These free radicals are responsible for contributing to such conditions as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and more.

When antioxidants are introduced into the body, they stop can help prevent and even undo some of the damage that free radicals cause. Antioxidants are also thought to help bolster the body’s immune system.

According to researchers from the University of California at Davis, certain types of red wine offer a higher concentration of flavonoids. Those that rank the highest include Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Syrah.

While red wine is a rich source of flavonoids, it is best known for its high content of resveratrol. This nonflavonoid type of antioxidant has been shown to have a number of positive effects on the body. Resveratrol can:

• Help prevent damage to blood vessels
• It can reduce “bad” cholesterol levels in the body
• It prevents the formation of blood clots

Other Benefits Of Wine

While resveratrol is one of the stars of red wine, other forms of wine also produce benefits for health. Alcohol in general can produce these effects in the body:

• An increase in high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, in the blood stream. This is considered the “good” cholesterol.
• A reduction in the formation of blood clots.
• Prevention of arterial damage that is caused by bad cholesterol.

Advice On Drinking Red Wine

While red wine can provide the heart a boost for better health, it is important to consume any alcoholic beverage in moderation. Overuse of wine or any other alcoholic beverage can have adverse impacts on the body.

When there’s a desire to unwind at the end of a long day, red wine can provide a flavorful boost that’s also good for the health. This timeless classic has been shown time and again to offer benefits that are good for the heart when consumption levels remain in the moderate range.

Serious wine connoisseurs keep up with vintages like weather buffs watch the news. Beginners just developing an appreciation for wine, however, might not see the real value in paying attention to vintage. Many, in fact, wonder if it really matters at all.

The answer is yes and no. Vintage simply refers to the year in which the grapes used in a bottle of wine were harvested from the fields. While this might seem like a meaningless number all in all, it’s not. When the vintage is know, wine enthusiasts can tell a number of things about the product in the bottle without even tasting it. Depending on a buyer’s knowledge of wine and wine producing regions, the number can reveal:

• Information about the aging process – Different types of wines have different periods of time they are expected to age if the flavor is going to be of quality.  A decent Chenin Blanc, for example, might only call for a year of aging, whereas an excellent Cabernet Sauvignon could age for 15 years to reach its full flavor potential.
• Information about the flavor of the grapes – When the origin of the grapes is also known, vintage can tell wine lovers a whole lot about the flavor in the bottle. Certain weather conditions during a particular year’s growing season might produce exceptionally fine tasting wine grapes or even substandard ones. If a buyer follows the quality of weather during certain growing years, the vintage could reveal a great deal.
• Winery specific information – Some wineries have vintages that are of exceptional quality. When a buyer follows information about releases, the vintage on the bottle can mean a lot in regard to specific wineries and their production quality.

While vintage can play a role in telling about the quality of wine in a bottle, wine lovers just starting out don’t need to worry about what “critics” say so much. Go with a wine selection that meets personal taste and the vintage likely won’t matter at all.

Many would-be wine collectors shy away from this rewarding hobby out of fear the costs will run too high. While certain vintages might set a buyer back a bit, wine storage doesn’t have to be a big-ticket concern.

Wine lovers really don’t have to spend thousands of dollars installing specialty made cellars to protect their favorite bottles from the elements. When budgeting matters, there are some exceptional alternatives that cost less than most people realize.

There are a few things to consider when coming up with a budget storage area for wine. First of all, wine should be stored out of direct sunlight. The darker the area, generally the better. Try to avoid large fluctuations in temperature and humidity. The range of temperatures wine should between 45 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

So, what can the budget-minded do to protect their purchases and ensure a good flavor when a bottle is opened?

Here are some wine storage ideas that don’t cost a bundle:

• Counter storage – if only a few bottles will be purchased at any given time, a counter rack can work fairly well.  Make sure the rack allows for bottles to be stored on their sides and that it is kept out of direct sunlight. Ideally, try to place wine racks in the coolest room in a home and preferably one without harsh exposure to the sun during the day. Do keep in mind the temperatures in a home are not likely to fall in the ideal range, but for short-term storage this solution can work quite well.
• Mini-cellars – There are special refrigerators meant to store wine that don’t cost as much as many people think. Some models cost under a few hundred dollars and provide optimum internal conditions for the storage of wine above ground.

Storing wine doesn’t always call for a special cellar and a huge investment. When budgets matter, there are alternatives that work extremely well.

When fine dishes are served in multiple courses, it’s not uncommon to enhance the experience by pairing menu items with appropriate wine selections. When this is the case, however, it is imperative for hosts and hostesses to understand a few guiding rules. Serving multiple wines with a meal does take a little know-how to pull off without interfering with the flavor of the food or the enjoyment of the wine selection.

Ideally, wines served with each course will enhance the flavors of the dishes and make the culinary experience more enjoyable. To make sure this is the case, be sure to:

• Pay attention to color – To ensure that maximum enjoyment of the flavors of wine goes along with a multicourse meal, it’s important to serve white, lighter bodied wines before run, fuller bodied varieties. This can also impact meal planning, so do keep it in mind.
• Be mindful of quality – It’s often best to serve a good wine before pulling out the best vintage planned for the meal. The higher in quality the wine, the later it should be served.
• Serve young wine before old – While this typically follows the quality rule, it’s not always the case. Just try to serve newer vintages before older if they fit with the meal plan correctly.
• Offer dry before sweet – This simply provides for a better flavor experience throughout all courses. It tends to follow along with proper dish pairings, as well, so it’s an easy rule to follow.
• Keep ingredients in mind – If a dish is made with a particular wine in the recipe, be sure to serve that kind of wine with the dish. Serving a different wine can mute the flavors and enjoyment of both.
• Remember rinsing – Do not forget to serve water with every course so the mouth can be properly rinsed in between different wine pairings. This will clean the palate for better enjoyment of the next wine without the flavors of the previous selection and menu item clouding the experience.

Serving multiple wines with a meal is a great way to enhance the culinary experience. Just make sure the selections follow the basic rules to ensure full enjoyment with every course.

When savoring the flavor of fine wine is a passion, having access to the right accessories is a must. While seasoned connoisseurs have had plenty of time to collect odds and ends, newcomers to this pursuit are likely to find themselves a little taken aback by the sheer volume of accessories available.

So, what do beginners really need to enjoy fine wines at home?

There are a few must-have items that should be available in any up-and-coming wine enthusiast’s home. They include:

• A corkscrew – This is perhaps the most essential item to have on hand when fine wines are under discussion. Removing the cork without breaking it is an art in and of itself, but it just can’t be done without one of these devices. Corkscrews do offer a great deal of variety. From standard twist and waiter-style models to stationary devices that make popping the cork very easy, wine lovers do have their choice and a number of budget levels to consider.
•  Decanters – These provide a very nice touch for serving wine in a formal dinner setting. Serving straight from the bottle, however, is also perfectly acceptable.
• Buckets – Ice buckets or chillers are also an excellent idea for serving fine and making sure it’s at the right temperature for enjoyment.
• Stoppers – Saving wine for future use is much easier when a stopper is available to replace the cork after pouring. There are a number of options on this front ranging from very inexpensive stoppers to highly decorative creations.
• Cellars – Serious wine collectors might want to consider a small electric “cellar” if they don’t actually have a room to accommodate. Refrigerator models are much less expensive than many realize and they can help maintain proper storage of finer vintages.

Savoring the body, bouquet and flavor of fine wine does call for a few accessories. A few simple items, however, can make all the difference for beginners who want to preserve and serve correctly.

Wine enthusiasts have their own language that newcomers might not fully understand. While beginning tasters may know what they like and why they like it, they often find themselves at a loss for words on how to explain the flavors they experience.

One of the most common terms that newcomers will come into contact with is “body.”  Wines are often described as full-bodied, medium-bodied and light-bodied.

So, what do these terms mean and what the heck does having a “body” have to do with wine?

In wine circles, the word body refers to a wine’s substance. The “thicker” it happens to be, the more full bodied a wine is. This term refers to how a wine feels in the mouth, how it swirls in a glass and even how “rich” the flavor is.

Full-bodied wines have the consistency of milk in many cases and will fall down a glass in sheets, clearly showing some clinginess. Medium-body vintages are lighter, but will still show some clinging. In the case of medium-bodied wines, the wine swirled in a glass will break off into streaks or legs, rather than sheets. Light-bodied wines do not cling and often have the consistency of water.

The body of a wine can also impact the flavors. For example:

• Full-bodied wine – This will typically be a darker wine that has a strong, rich and robust flavor.  Port wine is a good example. Keep in mind that some white wines are often described as full, or fuller bodied. Sauvignon Blanc is an example.
• Medium-bodied wine – This type of wine generally offers an abundance of flavor without feeling too heavy in the process.  Many red wines fall into this class, such as Merlot and Chianti.
• Light-bodied wine – Light-bodied examples tend to be smoother and have a consistency very much like water. Riesling is a good example.

Body simply describes the thickness and robustness of a wine. The thicker and bolder, the fuller it happens to be.