The Best Cooking Wine (if You Absolutely Insist on Buying Cooking Wine)

Are you looking for the best wine to cook with? If you’re here and you aren’t a regular Sporked reader (hi, welcome) it’s probably because you’ve picked out a recipe that calls for either “red wine” or “white wine” with zero other details or guidance, and you’re wondering what to buy. My advice would be to go to the wine aisle at your local grocery store and pick a dry white or a full-bodied red that’s, you know, designed to be consumed like wine. Grab whatever’s on sale. There ya go! 

But maybe you’re here specifically looking for the best cooking wine, i.e. the cheap stuff you see alongside vinegar, oil, and spices. Cooking wine is not meant to be consumed like wine, but there are apparently reasons to buy cooking wine instead of drinking wine. For instance, it’s usually supplemented with salt (sometimes LOTS of salt) and preservatives so you can open a bottle, use a few glugs, and then let it sit in the pantry for months without it spoiling. And, as I said, it’s cheap (although, a bottle of Three Buck Chuck at Trader Joe’s is probably cheaper, just saying). So, yeah, there are reasons to buy cooking wine—now let’s talk about the best cooking wine to buy. 

How we taste tested cooking wine 

I purchased every brand and variety of cooking wine I could find at the grocery store. I took a little sip from every bottle, but that didn’t give me much info. So I poured a two-tablespoon portion of wine from each bottle, heated it in a pan over medium-high heat, let the wine reduce by about half, and then tasted it off a spoon. Have you ever wished you could sip hot, salty grape juice?! Well, I just lived your dream. 

Here’s the best white cooking wine, the best sherry cooking wine, and the best red cooking wine (which is also the best marsala cooking wine).  

Best White Cooking Wine

Holland House White Cooking Wine

Target

Holland House is a big name in the cooking wine game, and their white cooking wine was the least offensive of the varieties we tried. It’s not as salty as Goya (JESUS, Goya, what are you doing?) and, when reduced, it still tastes like wine rather than salty grape jelly. If you’re desperate for a white cooking wine (rather than a white wine to cook with), this is the one to buy. 

Credit: Liv Averett / Target

Rating:

5/10

Sporks

Best Sherry Cooking Wine

Holland House Sherry Cooking Wine

Instacart

Okay, I can see buying Holland House Sherry, mostly because I seldom drink sherry on its own so I wouldn’t have a use for a whole bottle of it and it can be kinda pricey. The other cooking sherry we tried developed a strange almost plasticky flavor when it was reduced, but Holland House retained its savory, full flavor. A glug of this will add some complexity to a sauce or bisque.

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

5.5/10

Sporks

Best Cooking Wine

Colombo Dry Marsala

Total Wine

Of all the cooking wines I tasted, this is the only one I would actually consider buying for my own kitchen. It’s a dry cooking wine, so it’s much milder than other red cooking wines. And I gotta say—I really love chicken marsala. When I was growing up, I frequently and proudly declared it was my favorite dish because I thought it was so sophisticated. This cooking wine has that signature marsala flavor—it’s nice and savory without being too salty. I just might make a mushroom sauce with this tonight. 

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

7/10

Sporks

Other cooking wines we tried

Goya White Cooking Wine, Goya Red Cooking Wine, Kedem White Cooking Wine, Kedem Red Cooking Wine, Kedem Sherry Cooking Wine, Holland House Red Cooking Wine