5 ms·

Yeah, $5 wine is basically cooking wine. It isn't meant to be consumed as a beverage. On the other hand, the average person is unlikely to be able to tell the

Yeah, $5 wine is basically cooking wine. It isn't meant to be consumed as a beverage. On the other hand, the average person is unlikely to be able to tell the difference between a $25 bottle of wine and a $2500 bottle of wine.

icebraining 9y ago
Not really, you can find plenty of decent Italian and Portuguese wines for that price. To take the first example I found, the 2014 Quinta de Cabriz is 46th in the world top 100 of the Wine Spectator and costs $5 in Portugal, and less than $7 in the US. The last wine I drank was a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo; I can't remember the specific winemaker, but it was quite nice and was less than $9, despite being bought in another European country.
cletus 9y ago
This is completely misguided. When you cook with wine you lose all the alcohol, which is the only constant between two bottles of wine. You're just left with the rest from which comes the taste. There's no such thing as "cooking wine". Bad wine is bad wine. If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it. That all being said, I personally think wine snobbery is basically bullshit and I think blind taste tests tend to support that view. Still, a wine isn't bad because it's $5. Nor is it good because it's $30. When I lived in the UK I'd often get by with the table wine from Tesco for under 5 pounds and honestly it was fine. I found quite a few decent bottles of Portugese and Chilean wine for under 10 pounds. Beaujolais wasn't more than 3-5 pounds.
- ceejayoz 9y ago
  > When you cook with wine you lose all the alcohol, which is the only constant between two bottles of wine. You're just left with the rest from which comes the taste. This is a myth. Even after 2.5 hours of simmering/baking, 5% remains. Flambeing leaves 75%, and a 15 minute simmer still leaves nearly half. https://www.oasas.ny.gov/admed/fyi/fyi-cooking.cfm https://www.oasas.ny.gov/admed/fyi/fyi-cooking.cfm
  - hacking_again 9y ago
    You can almost always substitute 3/4 cup white vermouth (e.g. Martini) for 1 cup white wine. Generally tastes just as good, and you don't have to drink the remainder of the bottle.
    - noonespecial 9y ago
      >and you don't have to drink the remainder of the bottle. You say that like its a bad thing. Cooking with the wine is a great way for it to end up on the table surrounded by random glasses where "I don't want to trouble you", becomes "well, since its open anyway".
      - hacking_again 9y ago
        Oh, I'm not really a drinker, so I miss these things. Do you mean for getting girls drunk with plausible deniability?
        QuercusMax 9y ago
        Pretty sure nothing that creepy was intended. More like wine is often thought of a "special occasion" type of drink (especially in the US), and so opening a bottle is a non-standard occurrence at dinner time. If you're a guest, it may seem rude to ask somebody to open their "special" wine. But if you are cooking with the wine, you already have the bottle open. Since an opened bottle of wine will rapidly deteriorate if you don't drink it within a fairly short time period (day or so), you may as well drink the remainder, thus put the open bottle on the table (where family/guests are gathered), and it will be consumed with relish.
        hacking_again 9y ago
        Ah, thanks for the explanation. For whatever reason, the idea of finding ways to encourage dinner guests to accept food or drink is foreign to me.
  - 9y ago
stewbrew 9y ago
Maybe you just live in the wrong region. Over here, you can get a decent wine for 5 EUR, if you know where to buy. That said a wine for 30 EUR from the same wine maker most likely is a lot better. One thing I've learned is to buy from good local wine makers (I admit that's not possible everywhere though :-) and to forget about wine stores, international prizes etc.
- dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago
  I wholeheartedly agree. If you live in Tuscany, you can buy wonderful vino sfuso from 2014/2015 at €2/liter in a small local shop. But there is no chance you could taste anything similar at the same price in the USA.

icebraining 9y ago

Not really, you can find plenty of decent Italian and Portuguese wines for that price. To take the first example I found, the 2014 Quinta de Cabriz is 46th in the world top 100 of the Wine Spectator and costs $5 in Portugal, and less than $7 in the US. The last wine I drank was a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo; I can't remember the specific winemaker, but it was quite nice and was less than $9, despite being bought in another European country.

cletus 9y ago

This is completely misguided. When you cook with wine you lose all the alcohol, which is the only constant between two bottles of wine. You're just left with the rest from which comes the taste. There's no such thing as "cooking wine". Bad wine is bad wine. If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it. That all being said, I personally think wine snobbery is basically bullshit and I think blind taste tests tend to support that view. Still, a wine isn't bad because it's $5. Nor is it good because it's $30. When I lived in the UK I'd often get by with the table wine from Tesco for under 5 pounds and honestly it was fine. I found quite a few decent bottles of Portugese and Chilean wine for under 10 pounds. Beaujolais wasn't more than 3-5 pounds.

ceejayoz 9y ago
> When you cook with wine you lose all the alcohol, which is the only constant between two bottles of wine. You're just left with the rest from which comes the taste. This is a myth. Even after 2.5 hours of simmering/baking, 5% remains. Flambeing leaves 75%, and a 15 minute simmer still leaves nearly half. https://www.oasas.ny.gov/admed/fyi/fyi-cooking.cfm https://www.oasas.ny.gov/admed/fyi/fyi-cooking.cfm
- hacking_again 9y ago
  You can almost always substitute 3/4 cup white vermouth (e.g. Martini) for 1 cup white wine. Generally tastes just as good, and you don't have to drink the remainder of the bottle.
  - noonespecial 9y ago
    >and you don't have to drink the remainder of the bottle. You say that like its a bad thing. Cooking with the wine is a great way for it to end up on the table surrounded by random glasses where "I don't want to trouble you", becomes "well, since its open anyway".
    - hacking_again 9y ago
      Oh, I'm not really a drinker, so I miss these things. Do you mean for getting girls drunk with plausible deniability?
      - QuercusMax 9y ago
        Pretty sure nothing that creepy was intended. More like wine is often thought of a "special occasion" type of drink (especially in the US), and so opening a bottle is a non-standard occurrence at dinner time. If you're a guest, it may seem rude to ask somebody to open their "special" wine. But if you are cooking with the wine, you already have the bottle open. Since an opened bottle of wine will rapidly deteriorate if you don't drink it within a fairly short time period (day or so), you may as well drink the remainder, thus put the open bottle on the table (where family/guests are gathered), and it will be consumed with relish.
        hacking_again 9y ago
        Ah, thanks for the explanation. For whatever reason, the idea of finding ways to encourage dinner guests to accept food or drink is foreign to me.
- 9y ago

stewbrew 9y ago

Maybe you just live in the wrong region. Over here, you can get a decent wine for 5 EUR, if you know where to buy. That said a wine for 30 EUR from the same wine maker most likely is a lot better. One thing I've learned is to buy from good local wine makers (I admit that's not possible everywhere though :-) and to forget about wine stores, international prizes etc.

dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago
I wholeheartedly agree. If you live in Tuscany, you can buy wonderful vino sfuso from 2014/2015 at €2/liter in a small local shop. But there is no chance you could taste anything similar at the same price in the USA.