Bordeaux wine substitutes

This is literally the same grape recipe made outside Bordeaux, in Chile, California, Australia or northern Italy, so the tannin, colour and blackcurrant character all land in the same place; New World versions are usually riper, so the sauce reads a touch sweeter and rounder.

Best for

sauce bordelaise, marchand de vin sauce, beef and lamb braises, boeuf bourguignon, reduction sauces, marinades

Look for anything sold as a red blend or Bordeaux blend, or a bottle from Chile, which produces this style cheaply and very well. If the label emphasises heavy oak, choose something else, since oak tastes woody and bitter once reduced.

Provides the same firm tannin, deep colour and blackcurrant note, but without Merlot's plummy flesh to soften it, so a reduction comes out more austere and drying and can taste a little green or herbaceous at the cheaper end.

Best for

beef, lamb, reduction sauces, braises, marinades

Excellent in a long braise where time softens the tannin. In a quick pan sauce, do not reduce it all the way, and finish off the heat with a tablespoon of cold butter, which coats the tannin and makes the sauce taste rounder immediately.

One of the actual Bordeaux grapes and the dominant one on the right bank, so it belongs here; on its own it is softer, plummier and lower in tannin, so the sauce is more velvety and less structured, with less of that firm savoury grip.

Best for

pan sauces, beef and pork, mushroom sauces, tomato-based dishes, lighter braises

The forgiving option, and the better choice if you are nervous about bitterness or cooking for people who find red wine sauces harsh. To add back some of the savoury depth, cook a teaspoon of tomato paste in the pan for a minute before deglazing.

Similar weight and moderate tannin, but Rioja is aged in American oak, which gives it a distinct vanilla, coconut and dill aroma on top of dried-cherry fruit, so the finished sauce tastes sweeter-smelling and less cassis-like than a Bordeaux one.

Best for

beef and lamb braises, chorizo and bean dishes, short ribs, gravies

A very good cooking wine in its own right, just a different accent. It shines with anything involving smoked paprika, chorizo or beans, and reads slightly off in a strictly classical French sauce.

Higher in acidity and lighter in body than Bordeaux, with tart cherry, dried herb and leather instead of blackcurrant and cedar, so the sauce is brighter and thinner and considerably less rich.

Best for

tomato-based braises, ragu, beans and lentils, pork, beef stews with tomato

Choose this deliberately rather than as a compromise: its acidity is a real asset in anything with tomatoes and a slight liability in a classic butter-finished bordelaise. If the sauce tastes thin, reduce it further and add a spoonful of tomato paste.

Rebuilds the savoury depth, the acidity and some of the colour, but there is no honest way to replicate tannin without wine or tea, so the sauce will taste rounder and softer, and it will lack the drying grip that makes a red wine reduction feel substantial.

Best for

alcohol-free cooking, gravies, braises, stews

If you want a little of the tannic structure back, steep a black tea bag in the hot stock for one minute and no longer, then remove it. That is an old trick and it does help, but over-steeping makes the sauce genuinely bitter.