Food - Drink
You Should Absolutely Avoid Cooking With These Wine Varieties
By MATTHEW SPINA
While cooking removes many of a wine’s distinctions, and minute differences between bottles are hard to detect, some qualities, like sweetness or acidity, can be very noticeable.
Adding sweet wines to a dish will significantly change its flavor, so they shouldn't be used for cooking. If you are cooking with white wine, that means no Riesling or Moscato.
The only sweet reds you need to worry about are obvious dessert wines like port, but there are also “late harvest” varieties of normally dry grapes like Zinfandel that are sweeter.
Even off-dry or semi-sweet wines may not be the best choices to put in food, since you're typically cooking down the wine, which concentrates its sweetness.
If you do want wine with a touch of sweetness that won’t overwhelm a dish, opt for dry wines that lean towards fruity flavors, such as Merlot or Malbec.
Sauvignon blanc or chardonnay are good options for white wines that can be light and fruity while still being crisp and not overly sweet.