Fun with Wine:

Wine should be fun. Think of it as a food, not as an alcoholic beverage. This will liberate you to use wine to introduce savory flavors both in cooking and at mealtime. Next, get rid of the false correlation between wine and snobbery. Dont worry about buying a bad wine or having to spend too much money for a good bottle - with much of the world competing to make wine, it's easy to find good value. Finally, realize that it's OK to admit to a lack of wine knowledge. Who really has the time to learn all about wines from Europe, South America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, or U.S. wines from New York, Massachusetts, the Northwest, and Texas?

So think of wine as something to buy and experiment with, like cheese, chocolates, or artisanal bread. As with most experiments, a few guidelines help. But if nothing else - and you are not one of the unfortunate group that finds alcohol incompatible - let me at least encourage you to play with wine, and don't feel constrained to follow any limits.

First, there are only a couple of do nots when choosing a wine to cook with. Never cook with cooking wine. The reason that cooking wine can be sold without an alcohol license is that cooking wine has so much added salt it is legally considered undrinkable.

Second, any wine under $5.00/bottle is going to be unsatisfactory. When cooking with wine, taste and flavor are concentrated as the liquid is reduced. Most very inexpensive wine is sweet and will develop a syrupy taste.

Finally, do not add wine to a sauce and then try to reduce it rapidly. Boil the sauce gently rather than rapidly to keep the wine from breaking down.  Speed up the process by using a cooking pan with a wide surface, i.e. a skillet rather than a saucepan.

When choosing a wine for either cooking or drinking, here are a couple of suggestions to get you started. Match primary taste characteristics. Acidic wines go well with acidic or salty foods, sweet food works well with sweeter wines, and bitter wines - those with real tannin - work with bitter foods. This pairing will tame the primary taste and bring additional complexities to a dish, whether you're using the wine in the food or drinking it separately.

Classic food/wine pairings follow this line. Serve a dry, acidic Sauvignon Blanc with salty oysters or fish in a acidic citrus sauce. Chardonnay, which can be sweet, works well with meat served in a fruit sauce or lobster. Cabernet, a wine with a lot of tannin, marries especially well with grilled meats, as the grilled flavor is actually bitter.

When pairing wine and food, however, remember to evaluate which is the completed dish's strongest taste element. Chicken with an Italian tomato sauce which can be sweet should be matched with a different wine than chicken with an acidic lemon garlic sauce.

A second starting point in choosing a wine could be to match a wine with its native food - it's also a great way to brush up on your geography. Chianti works with that chicken in tomato sauce. An Australian Shiraz/Cabernet tastes great with lamb. Muscadet from Normandy matches fish nicely. Red wines from Burgundy belong with Beef Bourgogne.

Californian Merlot and Chardonnay have become popular as middle of the road wines. Their soft, low alcohol, and mild tannin characteristics match Californian fusion cuisine which can have a wild assortment of flavors.

If you're totally at a loss, and want a good, all-purpose reasonably priced drinking and/or cooking wine, try wines that are a grape blend. No one element will predominate and the cooking sauce will remain complex. Some of my favorite blends are from Australia, for example Cabernet/Shiraz. Since these are often reasonably priced, you can experiment enthusiastically.

Wine is a huge topic and is well addressed on the Web and in books. Besides the fun of trying new wines, it can be entertaining to do research. It is quite easy to get specific guidelines on how to match food and wine. To start, there is a good guide that can be found at http://www.wineloverspage.com/foodwine. Or next time you read The Wall Street Journal on a Friday, read the Tastings column by Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher. Its full of practical, fun suggestions on what to buy and enjoy. I'll end with one of their suggestions for a great sipping white wine i.e. any New Zealand made Sauvignon Blanc.