Favorite wines to cook with?

Well I was thinking about having friends over for dinner next weekend and it hit me that one of the things I have meant to ask on here is what wines in particular does everyone like to use when cooking? Reds, whites, any particular labels, I asking for everything in general. I love to cook (and think for what I do know that I am pretty decent at least ) but admit there is a lot I still need and want to learn...

As they say "if you can drink it, you can cook with it"...That being said, I usually cook with what ever is the cheapest stuff you can find. Bel Arbor is fine and cheap...I really don't feel that your going to notice a big difference between that and a more expensive wine if you are using it to say, braise some short ribs or using it for sauce making...Some people may feel differently; But that's just my opinion.. I recommend saving your money for other ingredients.

Since I will drink any wine I will also cook with any wine. Not that I don't appreciate better wines, I just appreciate a bargain more. There are plenty of great wines at great prices too.

If I had company coming then I would probably just use an affordable mass market wine to cook with and serve some that were a bit more special with the meal. Any wine shop will be able to help you if you tell them what you're going to be making.

Oh, and you asked for labels, I would cook with an Alice White, a Barefoot, Funky Lama (I can get this for 5.99 a bottle and I won't hesitate to drink it for a cheap buzz), Rosemont, or whatever. I've worked in fine dining and boxed wine is often used, so if you think that you might start cooking with wine more often, don't hesitate to pick up a box that will keep for weeks.

To drink with the meal though I would go for some smaller market, more interesting wines.

Thanks for the input guys! Pretty much that is what I have been doing the whole time without any other guidance, using the lower priced wines for the cooking part and serving a better quality one to drink. I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't any rules of thumb that I wasn't aware of that would be an improvement on what I have already been doing, and knew you all would have some great advice. Although, being in the social circle I am in I really have never had any education on good wines either...typically I have tried to find good bargains that I may have read about and just go with what I like. Learning more is one of the goals I have for the future, the only exposure outside of my own experimenting had been the bottle of Blue Nun my mother would get on occasion when I was growing up (every year I get a bottle to open on Christmas as my way of remembrance, I know she would have gotten a kick out of that ). If anyone knows of any good wine tastings that would be ideal for the inexperienced I would be more than happy to take suggestions

There's no better way outside of the industry to get an education than to visit tastings. Get out and go! Free wine and munchies!

But then its never free because you always end up buying more than you expected to.

I also cook with cheap wine. In fact, I prefer to keep a box of relatively inexpensive stuff around just for cooking. Yep, you read that right - I said box.

[Robin Garr]

I also cook with cheap wine. In fact, I prefer to keep a box of relatively inexpensive stuff around just for cooking. Yep, you read that right - I said box.

Which box, Beth? The Bota Box brand red is surprisingly good. We served it at a church lunch last weekend, and six boxes - three red and three white - were plenty for 200 people. (Six boxes = 36 bottles, I believe.)

Which box, Beth?

When it comes to wine to cook with, I don't have a particular brand that I'm loyal to. I don't go for the absolute cheapest stuff (i.e. - Franzia), but I try to keep it inexpensive. I've been happy with Black Box, Trove, and even a box of Corbett Canyon. I had one once that was called Cube or The Cube or something like that. It was decent too. I love to cook with wine; it gives everything such a nice depth of flavor. I cook with white more than red, so if I'm using red wine, I'll usually just crack a bottle and drink whatever I don't cook with. (That isn't the case these days though, as I'm currently pregnant!) I haven't tried Bota. In fact, I'm not sure I've seen it.