Wine Suggestions Please ? (non-Merlot's)

Hello

Welcome to the wine group. I think it would help if you told us where you are posting from, geographically, in case you want some specifc ecommendations - it helps if the wines are available. For dry cooking wines I think a basic rule is that they should not be oaked, or at least, not obtrusively so. A Cote-du-Rhone might be useful. They tend to be cheapish, and not heavily oaked. Also they are as arule not tannic which is a bonus.

And, yes, white wine is used in cooking - in sauces with fish, in risotto, in specific dishes like Coq au Riesling and Baeckoffe, mussle soup, spaghetthi sauce - a bottle of dry white comes in handy quite often. Here the frist rule also applies - do not use a very oaked wine. In the case of Coq au RIesling (rooster in RIesling) it stands to reason that the wine used should be a Riesling, of the Alsatian type, meaning, dry and fruity. For fish sauces e g an unoaked Chard might do, or a Muscadet, which is never unoaked.

Please understand that I oversimplify, slightly - this is for didactic purposes, and many will no doubt point out that Alsatian Rieslings are getting more sweet by the year, and that it can be the done thing to use a very tannic wine indeed (like beef braised in Barolo) in cooking, but you have to start somewhere ...

Good luck

Nils

"Robert11" skrev i meddelandet news:9-SdnY3OvNqgg7bVnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com...

Hi Nils,

I live just outside of Boston, Mass.

Much thanks for help, reallyt appreciate it. Sure is a lot to know !

A little confused over which are the relatively inexpensive cooking white wines to try that you suggest ? Could you perhaps just give me the brand names of a few reds, and a few whites in a short list ? That would make it a lot easier for a real beginner like me.

Regards, and thanks again, Bob

I question your statement "Alsatian Rieslings are getting more sweet by the year". I do not believe that it is more RS but more fruit you are tasting. For the past several years I spend some time in Alsace each October and have learned to distinguish fruit from RS.

"Robert11" wrote in news:xqCdnaaWKeOaULHVnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

Since Nils is in Sweden it would be hard for him to make the list for which you ask. For a Cote du Rhone that is readily available look to Perrin Reserve or Parallel 45.

Hello I too visit Alsace on a regular basis, and I have discussed this with a few professionals (Bruno Sorg in Eguisheim,Baur in Turckheim, a cavist in Colmar) and I feel fairly convinced that, even though you are right about there being more fruit, on the one hand it is getting increasingly dificult to make a real dry Riesling (or any other varietal wine), some (as Sorg) actively promote a higher degree of residual sugar. That said, I have also, as you correctly point out, tasted a Riesling which gave the appearance of being sweet-ish, while only having 3 g/L RS.

Cheers

Nils

"Si Beer" skrev i meddelandet news:JYudncy8QtTsTrHVnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com...

While it is certainly possible that as vintages have tended towards the riper/hotter, there is "more fruit" in Alsace Rieslings, it's hard to deny that there is waaaay more RS than in the past. In early '90s Olivier Humbrecht was an outlier as most of his Rieslings weren't really dry. Now it is the Trimbachs who seem the non-conventional ones as all there non-late designated wines are totally dry. I do appreciate ZHs sweetness indice, it's the not knowing what is in bottle that bothers me the most.

For whites, try Kenwood Sauvignon Blanc. They've started adding a little Chardonnay for body and it makes a great wine to poach mussels or make risotti. Should be in the $10 range. If I'm not drinking really expensive wine, and I'm just using a little, like a splash to deglaze a pot, I just use some of what I'm drinking.

Jim