Wine for Drinking & Cooking!

Hi friends, 

Today I wanted to touch on a question I am asked over and over again on a regular basis and that is, "What Kind Of Wine Do You Cook With?! The answer is very simple, any wine that you enjoy drinking!! Years ago, I was told that if a wine isn't good enough to drink, you shouldn't use it in cooking and when you think about it, that makes total sense. When you cook with wine, it intensifies the flavor and therefore the better tasting the wine, the better the outcome of your dish will be. I am no wine expert by any means but I know what I like and I am the first to admit that walking into a liquor store and browsing over to the wine section gives me a bit of anxiety, too much to choose from and I end up just grabbing what I always do for fear that if I try something new, I won't end up liking it.

I recently came across Club W which is a monthly wine subscription that tailors to you and your palate. When I found out about Club W, I did at first question how this worked, but after filling out my personal palate profile I was pretty confident that I would end up liking what was sent to me and I am happy to report, I was! I received three bottles of wine last month, two whites and one red and the cool thing about this is that after you've tried the wine that was sent to you, you can go back on their website and rate them. If you're not a fan of one (or all) the bottles you have received, they will use your ratings on that particular bottle and work on sending you something a bit more up your alley the next time. I have truly been enjoying the wine I have received. I've cooked with them as well and the flavors have been delicious!! 

I recently made a big pot of Chicken and Dumplings and used the Pinot Grigio that came in my box this past month and loved the subtle yet bright (you can tell I'm not a wine specialist by how I describe them haha) flavor it brought to my dish. Chicken and Dumplings traditionally is pretty heavy and can be a tiny bit bland if you don't add some good ingredients, and just like in my chicken noodle soup I always add a good glass of white wine to bring a little life to the dish.

Another great recipe I made recently Is my Mini Ravioli Soup and in that video I added a good glass of the Red Wine Blend that came in the same box as the Pinot Grigio, the Red Wine Blend delivered such good depth of flavor in a relatively quick cooking soup.  I never ended up cooking with the Riesling that I received this past month because we drank the whole bottle at dinner, it was out of this world!!

Using good wine makes a big difference in the final outcome and the reason why I (and some of my friends that are subscribed to to Club W) have been so pleased and impressed by it, is that I can try new bottles of wine monthly without worrying that I'm spending an arm and a leg on a bottle of wine I might not like. Plus, It's like Christmas every month when they show up in the mail!!

Since I loved it so much and thought you would too, I asked Club W for a promo code that you can use to get a discount. If you use our promo code you will receive three bottles for the price of two. Either use this link http://www.clubw.com/vitale or promo code 'vitale' (no capital letters).

The wines I used in these recipes are:

                                   
2011 Score Red Blend             2012 Sonoro Pinot Grigio

It really depends on your palate and what you like, but I really enjoyed these! My dad loved the Red Blend (as you may have seen in my vlog!).