Enjoy your wine -- in so many ways!
Wine has been an important element of human culture for centuries. It is a beverage that can accompany a meal, or that can be used to create and transform the most humble culinary creation. Wine acts as a flavour agent and can be used in a variety of culinary applications.
The acidity of wine helps balance flavours and as such is often used in stocks and in braising. You will also often find recipes that call for wine as a flavouring agent in wine jellies, soups and reductions.
Tips for cooking with wine
- Always remember -- if you won’t drink it, don’t put it in your cooking!
- Try replacing the water or stock in your favourite recipe with one of your favourite wines.
- Mix a little bit of wine with some oil to baste meat or poultry.
- Warm wine slightly before adding to red meat dishes, as cold wine tends to toughen meat, whereas warm wine serves as a tenderizer.
- Add a couple of tablespoons of red wine to pan drippings to create a rich brown gravy for red meat.
- When serving wine with dinner, use either the same wine that you used in cooking, or match with a wine in the same family, in order to balance your meal.
Recommended culinary wine pairings
Red meat & red meat dishes
Young, full bodied red wines
Red sauces
Young, full bodied robust red wine
Beef stock based soups, stews & casseroles
Earthy red, full bodied wine
Fish, shellfish, seafood
Dry white wine
Poultry or pork
Dry white wine
Light or white cream sauces
Dry white wine
Seafood soups & stews
Crisp, dry white wine
Vegetable soups & consommes
Sherry, or any similar dry fortified wine
Sweet desserts
Sweet white wine or sweet fortified wine
Try some of our favourite recipes with wine:
Brie with Garlic and Sun Dried Tomatoes
Stuffed Brie
Bacon & Onion Quiche
Cabernet Braised Short Ribs
Cheese Fondue
Sweet Cherry Bread Pudding
Did You Know?
- According to Statistics Canada, in 2007 Canadians (aged 15 and older) drank over 15 litres of wine per person, more than 5 times than they did in the early 1960s.
- There are over 10,000 varieties of grapes.
- It takes about 2.5 pounds of grapes to make a 750ml bottle of wine.
- Canadian wine sales (both domestic and exports) totaled $1.6 billion in 2007.
- In 2007, Italy unseated France to become the biggest wine drinking country in the world.
- Approximately 400 grapevines can grow on one acre of land.
- When newer oak barrels are used in the winemaking process, they can create a hint of vanilla flavour and aroma.
- The single lever waiter style corkscrew, originally called the “Butler’s Friend” was invented and patented by German Carl Wienke in 1882.
- The Egyptians first used corks as stoppers thousand of years ago.
- In the 1600s French monk Dom Perignon, replaced the wooden stopper traditionally used to plug sparkling wine bottles with what we now consider the modern day cork stopper!