In our recent Cooking with White Wine post, we described some of the reasons wine makes an excellent ingredient to certain dishes and how wine’s characteristics complement different foods in different ways. We also included a couple of recipes that included white wine to get you inspired.

Now we’re focussing on red wine, which is generally used in fuller-flavoured, heartier recipes than white wine. This is because red wines typically have higher levels of tannin and a higher ABV than white wines do, which act as a pallet cleanser and flavour improver respectively.

Another general rule to think about when cooking with red or white wine, is how well the wine’s perceived flavours would work in any particular dish. For instance, we know that lemon works well with fish, so you can safely assume a white wine with citrus notes would be the perfect addition to a fish sauce. In a similar fashion, jammy and tart berries are often used in meaty stews, so a red wine brimming with these flavours would do nicely in a beef casserole.

Talking of beef casseroles, here are two meal recipes that include red wine as an ingredient, that you can try – or tweak – at home using your very own homemade wine. If you’ve not made any red wine recently, head over to our stockist page to find a retailer and get your next SG Wines kit.