Drinking wine is easy. Cooking with it or serving it to guests can be a little bit more stressful. It's ironic, really—the very thing we stress out about (Is a $13 bottle too cheap to bring to a friend's house? Will this Rioja ruin mybeef stew?) is the thing that is supposed to make us feel relaxed.
So settle down. Today, the availability of high-quality, affordable wines is so vast—Epicurious is even getting into the wine gamewith two easy-drinking, food-friendly sippers—that it's actually a kind of hard to go wrong. You just need to follow a few rules.
The most important rule in wine: Drink what you like. If you're not sure what you like, there are a couple of things you can do. First, find a local wine shop with a helpful staff and tell them what kinds of foods you like to eat. They can steer you toward something complimentary. Take notes so you don't forget what you either did or did not like about that wine, and when you return to the wine store, share those notes with the staff member. As he or she learns your preferences, they can steer you toward more bottles you'll love.
The next thing you can do is host or attend a wine tasting, but do so with a plan. The best wine tastings will teach you something about a specific wine. Instead of just grabbing a few bottles of whatever off the wine store shelves, opt for one of three styles of wine tasting:
Choose wines that all come from one region.
Choose the same variety of wine from multiple regions.
Choose the same variety of wine in multiple price points.
You may find that you love California riesling, but not the German style. Or you may realize that Rioja is your spirit region. You may even be shocked to find out that the $45 bottle isn't worth the price since you like the $12 bottle just as much. The key here is that it's all about preference.
Oh, and one more point: If you want to drinkwhite winein the dark of winter, red at the height of summer, orroséall year long, don't let anyone tell you you can't.
Two hard truths about serving wine at home: Room temperature is (usually) too warm to serve wine—yes, even red. And wine just out of the refrigerator is is (usually) too cold to serve—yes, even white.
The ideal temperature for serving red wine is somewhere between 55ºF to 65ºF. For white wines, that temperature is 45ºF to 55ºF. So what's the best way to get your wine to the recommended temperature? Store it in your proprietary, temperature-controlled wine cellar, of course! Don't have one of those? Instead, continue to store red wine at room temperature, but pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes or so before uncorking.
Similarly, continue to store white wine in the fridge, and then remove it about 10 minutes before you plan to serve it.
If you have forgotten to chill wine altogether, grab a bucket or a mixing bowl and then fill it withice, water, and a handful of salt. The water creates more surface area than using ice alone and the salt will drop the temperature of the mix, making the wine ready for perfectly-temped consumption in just about 10 minutes.
If you want to keep wine cool and you're planning to dine al fresco—say you're headed to apicnicorbeach party—take a tip from your beer-drinking aunt Tammy andgrab some beer koozies. You'll need two per bottle: one goes on the bottom of the bottle, and one on top, with the neck of the bottle poking through the koozie's hole. As a bonus, this trick also keeps bottles from clinking against each other while in transit.
For holidays, like Thanksgiving, when there are multiple palates to please and multiple dishes with varying flavors, choosing a wine can be a little more difficult. The best solution:Offer a few choices, like one red, one white, and one bubbly—or just go for the bubbly since people rarely turn it down.
If you do want a red and white option, our own California-produced Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay are perfect choices for the holidays. The spicy plum and cherry flavors in the Cabernet pair wonderfully with the deeply savory flavors typical of a holiday table (sage, rosemary, etc.). And our barely-oaked Chardonnay is dry and crisp with an acidic finish that cuts through the rich fatty foods of the holiday table. (It'll help you get through your drunk uncle's stories, too.)
Let's say you somehow have booze left over. Don't eventhinkabout pouring it down the sink. Just store it in the fridge anduse it to add deep flavor to your dinners all week long. Both red and white wine adds instant flavor to pan sauces, braises and stews—just try to use up any excess wine within five days of opening a bottle.
