The Best Way To Use Leftover Wine For Future Meals

Wine is one of the best ingredients to have waiting in the wings, and not just for pleasurable drinking. If you've got a spare bottle rattling around that nobody's eager to down, get to the kitchen because there's a world of flavor that can level up dinner or dessert. The smartest way to use leftover wine for future meals? Transform it into a delicious marinade. 

Before you get started, have a look at which ingredients will bring out the best in your booze. Beginning with the dry white wines, a chardonnay, pinot grigio, and sauvignon blanc have a crisp and acidic taste ideal for creating a zesty chicken or seafood marinade. Combined with garlic, lemon, and a bit of herbs, this bright marinade helps ignite the tart flavors in poultry, fish, and vegetables. Alternatively, consider adding these wines into tomato and cream-based sauces. French onion and chicken noodle soup can benefit from simmering some wine in the broth as well. Go with white wine for light, aromatic dishes.

Red wine, on the other hand, shines as the marinade base for juicy steaks, racks of lamb, and pork tenderloins. Use leftover wine to make red wine vinegar and combine it with Worcestershire sauce and Dijon mustard for a tenderizing beef marinade. Cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and pinot noir are the default for many cooks because of the fruity boldness they give to rich and savory dishes, such as coq au vin. Red wine offers a lot of depth to fatty broths, sauteed mushrooms, and even barbecue sauces.

Looking beyond the realm of savory marinades, you can also try to incorporate your leftover wine into your baking. Sparkling wine should be your new secret weapon when it comes to upgrading a boxed cake mix. The carbonation in Champagne and Prosecco fluffs up the cake in the baking process, resulting in a spongey, moist dessert. Sweet and bubbly wines are ideal for making chewy sugar cookies, truffles, and buttercream frostings, and they can be put into about any dessert you can think of. Leftover sparkling wine also makes a great sweet syrup for cocktails or frozen treats.

White wine normally isn't the first choice for desserts, but something like a fruity viognier in a slightly bitter tiramisu or berry tart makes sense. If you're not feeling so adventurous, red wine has always been welcome in the dessert family. Red wine and chocolate go hand-in-hand. Try Chianti in a chocolate torta alla melagrana for a must-try Italian cake. Zinfandel and merlot are excellent options for a molten chocolate cake, brownies, or mousse. Some leftover red is the opposite of a problem for a resourceful home cook or baker.