I like to cook with wine, but don’t like to keep alcohol in the house. How about those alcohol-removed wines like I’ve been seeing lately at the market? Do they taste like wine, or are they just grape juice? Additionally, if I bought some and kept it open in the fridge for recipes, would it go on to ferment anyway?
well, they come both “flat” and sparkling, i’ve tried both and not bad, without the body of real wine or tannic taste. Don’t know about fermentation
I can only give you a somewhat generic second hand answer, but it’s a data point/anecdote at least.
A friend of mine gave up alcohol for lent. We were at a restaurant recently, and they had both red and white non-alcoholic choices available. She had eaten there once before and had a sample of the white in anticipation of this, and thought it was good.
This particular evening, she ordered something that called for a red wine. So tried the non-alcoholic red, but did not like it. So she fell back on the white based on her previous taste. Turns out, after more than just a sampler size, she didn’t like that either.
Her conclusion for those particular wines was that they might be ok in very small quantities, but not as a whole glass.
I had a bottle at a fancy restaurant long ago (can’t remember why I ordered it). It tasted like the most delicious grape juice ever, but not like wine.
A very minor point about using alcohol-removed wines in cooking.
Some flavors are alcohol-soluble - if your dish is depending upon such an interaction, it’s final flavor could be compromised by the change. I seriously doubt it would be a major issue, just a very minor one in terms of perhaps needing some extra intensity to make up for the lack.
NOTE - not everyone agrees that this is the case, and again, it’s a very, Very minor issue IMHO, but figured I’d bring it up since the OP talks specifically about cooking with wine.