Best red wine for Coq au Vin?

Recipe doesn’t say… 😕

Cheap enough to waste half a bottle on cooking, good enough you can drink the rest.

Red.

Cheap enough to waste half a bottle on cooking, good enough you can drink the rest.

Keith agrees.

Right, but what wine?

You know – Rioja, Cab Sauv, Chianti, what?

Keiths actual advise was “if it’s not good enough to drink, it’s not good enough to cook with”

In his “Floyd on France” book the receipt calls for a bottle of Gevrey Chambertin. 😯

Coq au Vin is a dish from Burgundy. So a bottle of red from that region should be used. I will let your wallet decide which one.

Which red do you prefer to drink? Buy a cheap bottle of that. Once it’s in a cooking pot you won’t notice the grape type 🙂

Right, but what wine?

You know – Rioja, Cab Sauv, Chianti, what?

Something with a bit of body, Rioja would be fine.

Burgundy sounds about right. Ta. 🙂

Keiths actual advise was “if it’s not good enough to drink, it’s not good enough to cook with

Quite. Why would you put something cheap into a dish on which you’ve spent to get the best ingredients available to you? Weird.

I find it makes almost no difference but maybe I’m a philistine. If you have a younger brash wine you might have to cook it a bit longer to knock some of the booziness of it. I usually just pick up a cheap-ish rioja – that’s mostly because that’s what I’d drink though.

The quality of the chicken is key as well. Idealy an old free range cock that has had chance to roam around in the open and develop some proper muscle structure.

The dish originates from Burgandy so Pinot Noir is what it should be, in many places they collect the remainder of your tasting glass (not the spits) and used the jug of wine for the dish. Avoid anything too oaked like aged Rioja or Bordeaux or most italian wines as they are too acidic.
Pinot is normally very expensive though so any light New World wine would be fine

Yeah…. But if you’ve got your chicken nuggets from Iceland, like Wopster has, then surely Lambrini will do

Or did you stretch to Farmfoods Wopster? 😉

It’s a peasant dish designed to make the best of a tough old bird, why would you spend loads on the ingredients?

Cheap birds need cheap booze 😉

Woah, big Coq 😯

Mr Whoppit – IMO a Burgundy is too good (and expensive) – you really want something a bit “bigger” than a Burgundy (Pinot Noir) – e.g. cheap Bordeaux, Rioja would work too, something from Chile or Argentina (think of price point). Coq of Vin was a recipe designed to cook a tough old male bird, its all quite big flavours – Burgundy is too delicate.

EDIT: I see @woody beat me to it (and with a joke too !)

Raymond says Shiraz or Cab Sauvignon receipe link[/url]

Oh I thought this was a thread about T4 drivers.

Pinot noir is best, but it doesn’t have to be a Burgundy, or even French. You really need a whole bottle if you’re cooking a jointed whole chicken. It’s worth spending a bit more on a decent free-range bird from a good butcher or farmer’s market.

I’m using:

http://www.redonline.co.uk/food/recipes/mary-berry-coq-au-vin

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/groceries/index.jsp?bmUID=1387380298085

Huh?

I see the ex-Floyd recommends 1/2 glass of brandy also.

Why doesn’t that surprise me? 😆

The brandy is for flambeeing the chicken pieces after they have been browned in the pan.

Oh I thought this was a thread about T4 drivers.

👿

What Keith says, don’t cook with anything you wouldn’t drink. I’d suggest a Merlot as fairly mellow as a cab sauv or shiraz/syrah may be a bit too powerful to got with chicken/cock.

The Floyd recommends a Burgundy. I’ll go with that I think. Pinot noir or Chablis.

The Wopster is accosted as reaches out to show his guests his coq……

Oh I thought this was a thread about T4 drivers.

😆

I would also go with a lighter red, perhaps a grenache.

Quite fancy trying it now actually.

“Those who can, do…” etc.

Chablis is white wine. Stick to the Pinot Noir.

Chablis is white wine

So it is. 😳

On second thoughs purhaps some Red Shar-donnay 😉

A reasonable French country red will work just as well as an expensive Pinot from Burgundy and as above, I’d avoid anything overtly oaked, like Rioja or many New World.
Full on Cotes du Rhone and better Bordeaux would be a waste.
Beaujolais Villages will work very well indeed but neuvau will be a bit too light/sweet/thin.
Matching makes sense; use the wines of the region that a dish comes from. Chianti will usually taste better with pizza/pasta than Burgundy will.

Mr Woppit – Member

The Floyd recommends a Burgundy. I’ll go with that I think.

But thanks.

The Frenchies (of which I am one 🙂 ) would say you should use the same wine as you intend to drink with it.

I think that’s BS and would suggest that any full bodied red wine that’s half decent will work. I find that new world wines are perfect for it. Those who question cutting back on the wine, the fact is that simmering the wine for a load of time along with all the other ingredients will typically mean that you can’t notice the extra complexity of more expensive wines which means that’s there’s no point. YMMV.

Mr Woppit – Member

Mr Woppit – Member

The Floyd recommends a Burgundy. I’ll go with that I think.

But thanks.

Red and White Burgundy are my favourite wines, I have some for €5 euros bought direct from growers and I struggle to put that in the cooking as I’d rather drink it but appreciate that may work well. Just so expensive in the UK.

Those who question cutting back on the wine, the fact is that simmering the wine for a load of time along with all the other ingredients will typically mean that you can’t notice the extra complexity of more expensive wines which means that’s there’s no point.

Yeah, but if you’re sticking less than a full bottle in with the bird you’ll be drinking the rest, and one does have limits.

Helps that wine is pretty cheap in Spain, of course.

Toro loco Tempranillo from aldi, a fiver. Not a bad drop.