Whether you are a wine connisseur or drink wine just once in a while sometimes it's nice to have a stash to cook with. Writer Leslie Brenner, author of Fear of Wine: An Introductory Guide to the Grape offers some insight into putting together your wine stash.
Just for the cook
People are often surprised that I -- a food and wine writer -- don't have a wine
cellar. But I don't, and probably for some of the same reasons you don't. I
can't be bothered. I'm too busy to put one together. I don't have the space.
I don't want to spend thousands of dollars on an oversized, refrigerated,
humidity-controlled unit.
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It's easy and inexpensive to put together a cook's stash of 14 bottles. Just gather the following:
Two bottles of sparkling wine. They needn't be expensive. One goes in the rack, the other in the fridge for a spur-of-the-moment celebration or even just a festive apéritif when an unexpected friend drops by.
Three bottles of "all-purpose" white and four "all-purpose" reds. These should be simple and inexpensive, wines you'd be just as happy drinking with a weekday dinner as you would using to make a quick pan-sauce. I like to keep these wines under $10. For whites, sauvignon blanc is a good choice; if it doesn't have too much oak, it pairs with everything and works in any sauce. For red, pinot noir, soft merlot, Rioja from Spain, inexpensive Italian red, beaujolais or Côtes du Rhône are versatile to cook with and easy to drink.
One bottle of special-occasion white, such as a chardonnay you've been dying to try or a white Burgundy.
One bottle of special-occasion red for when you pull out all the stops making dinner. A meritage blend, an interesting cabernet, a red Bordeaux, Burgundy, Brunello or Hermitage -- whatever most excites you. But hey, it doesn't have to be a special occasion to drink it; maybe you just feel like treating yourself after a rough week.
One bottle of "wild-card" white. Something that stands up to ethnic or spicy foods. Rieslings go wonderfully with Asian and Pacific Rim flavors.
One bottle of rosé. These are terrific with casual foods, cold cuts, grilled chicken and vegetables-just about anything. They also work well with spicy foods.
A BIG red. One bottle for that night you feel like plopping a steak on the grill. Or lamb chops. This can be cabernet, meritage, syrah, red Bordeaux, Zinfandel, Barolo -- whatever chewy red you like with red meat.
Now, that's a stash you can use. The beautiful part is you get to have wine
on demand, and you only need to replenish it as the stash gets low. In the
meantime, enjoy!
Links, information and more for you
About the author: Leslie Brenner is a contributing editor at Travel + Leisure and author of Fear of Wine: An Introductory Guide to the Grape. Her acclaimed novel, Greetings from the Golden State, has just been released in paperback. Her new book, The Fourth Star: Dispatches From Inside Daniel Boulud's Celebrated New York Restaurant, will be published in May 2002.
