cooking wine

[Kcwhippet]

The problem with using an oaky Chardonnay, or any other oaky wine, in cooking is precisely because of the oak. When using any wine as an addition to the soup base, in a sauce or in a reduction the liquid (alcohol and water) will evaporate to some degree leaving the less volatile components in the final preparation. If you start with a wine that has a prominent oakiness, the final preparation will often leave you with the impression that you're sucking on hardwood flooring. That's not a character I'd be pleased with in the foods I cook.
Heed Foodie's advice well on not using supermarket cooking wines. They start with generally inferior wines and have added sugar, salt and preservatives. They add the salt primarily to make them unfit as drinking wines, so why would you want to cook with them? It's very difficult to adjust the seasoning later on in a dish because of the added salt and sugar. If a preparation calls for minimal salt, you would probably overseason if you added the recipe amount to a dish prepared with the "cooking wine". Just say no! I was taught to season minimally during preparation and to adjust, if needed, just before serving. That technique has worked for me for about forty years so far. I guess I tend to go on about preparing good food, but I hate to see a dish ruined by using inferior ingredients.