I know the rule that you should never cook with a wine that’s no good to drink, but I’m completely inexperienced with wines so that really doesn’t help a lot. Does anyone have some suggestions on a good marsala, burgundy, and dry white wine? Not only would I be incredibly grateful, but I’d be less ignorant, too.
Most wines not in a jug/box these days are probably decent enough to cook with and even some of those are fine. Those warnings were issued back when Americans really didn’t have much choice in the wine department and you could easily get stuck with some oversweet monstrosity or even salted “cooking wine.”
I recently cooked with a domestic pinot noir which was of a good label, so I felt secure in using it. I should have tasted it first.
I couldn’t figure out why my stew tasted so awful. I then belatedly thought of tasting the wine - it was so heavily woody that it tasted like it was pressed from cedar pencils. It spoiled my whole batch of red wine beef stew, which got tossed, as did the rest of the wine.
Moral: if it tastes good to you to drink, it should taste good to cook with. Myself, I don’t like the taste of woody or overly sweet wines, so I avoid those.
That said, “Burgundy” used to be a generic term for red wine, but now is properly used only for wine from that region in France. The non-French version of the same type of wine would be called Cabernet Sauvignon, for the type of grape used as the major, or, often, only component. (True Burgundy usually has other grapes used for balancing the Cabernet, which is very robust.) Other dry reds are Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Zinfandel.
Dry whites include Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Chenin Blanc, Riesling, and White Zinfandel are sweeter, but can be used in some recipes.
Marsala is a fortified wine and would be classed with stronger wines like sherry and port.
Uh oh! 
You’re thinking of Bordeaux.
Burgundy is only Pinot Noir if red, only Chardonnay if white. (You can still find some generic US or Aussie wines as long as they have an indication of origin, they were ‘grandfathered’ in.)
I use boxed wine for cooking, it’s fine.
You’re quite right. I’ve been out of the wine scene for a while.
This is my general rule when cooking with wine; however, you have to remember that cooking will concentrate the flavor. So even a slight woody taste will become more pronounced when cooked.
Most good liquor stores carry 4-packs of airline-sized wine bottles from decent vintners. We usually keep a pack of cab and a pack of chard from Gallo around, just to cook with. That saves waste, unless you plan to drink the wine you’re cooking with with dinner.
Thank you! I just didn’t particularly relish the thought of having to taste god-only knows how many possible wines to find one that I liked the taste of. Silenus, I like that idea. I think I’ll give it a try!
The Great Burgundies are, but “lesser” burgundies can also be made from Gamay, Aligoté, and Pinot Blanc.
Yep. True true. Some can be. A little more info:
There are basically 4 levels to the AOC wine laws in Burgundy -
Regional Appellation or Bourgogne Regionalle - The basic every day wines you mention. Wines are labeled simply as Bourgogne AOC (or Bourgogne Blanc or Bourgogne Rouge) and may be made of any of the grapes permitted to grow there. (Eight total, but the big 3 are definitley Pinot Noir, Chard, and Gamay.) Some may include the varietal on the label, but it is not required. If the varietal is stated, it must be 100% of the wine. While these can be any of the grapes permitted, most are indeed Chard or Pinot.
Village wines - Because of the way the AOC wine laws are structured (in theory, the more specific the AOC appellation, the better the wine) it is more common to find Aligote labeled as its own AOC appellation - Bourgogne Aligote or Bouzeron for example - and they can be very hard to find outside of France. It’s also used to make sparkling from Burgundy - Cremant de Bourgogne.
For Gamay, most of it is in Beaujolais (lumped into Burgundy, often with a village name like Fleurie, Morgan, etc.) or blends as other AOC appellations such as Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire or Bourgogne Passe-Tout-Grains.
Beyond those, most Village and Village/Vineyard specific wines are made solely from either Pinot or Chard.
**Premier Cru **- Only Pinot Noir or Chardonnay
Grand Cru - Only Pinot Noir or Chardonnay
I shouldn’t have typed ‘only’, but rather ‘mostly.’ I was being hasty while posting from work. 
There’s a little more info on this site.
The New York Times did a whole analysis of the issue recently in their cooking section, and found that a)there’s almost no ‘undrinkable’ wine out there anymore, and b)using really expensive wines in cooking was either a waste or made the food worse than similar cheap wines in their trials.
Moved from IMHO to CS.
I use Two Buck Chuck to cook with. It works perfectly, and the price is right.
Sorry for the misplacement and thank you for the correction!
DrainBead, thank you for the recommendation! I had to actually Google “Two Buck Chuck” to figure out what it was, but now that I know, I’ll certainly be giving it a try.
I was just introduced to Two Buck Chuck last month while up in Georgia for a friend’s wedding. That stuff rocks. I don’t supposed you can get that in south FL, can you?