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Q. Some chefs and cookbooks recommend cooking with the same wine you are planning to drink with the meal; others say to use any cheap wine because the alcohol cooks out and it doesn't really matter. Which is correct?

A. Well, actually, both -- or neither. If I need just a little bit of wine to enhance a sauté, or for a quick reduction, I will use a splash of the wine I'm planning to have with the meal. It's easy and it is pretty much guaranteed to match flavors.

But if you need a lot of wine -- a whole bottle or two -- it's clearly impractical to use the same wine you will be drinking, unless you drink really cheap wine. In that instance I see no problem with finding an inexpensive wine to cook with. Just try to avoid wines that are either oaky (cheap wines will use oak chips or powders, which will do not-so-good things for the food) or sugary (a common trick with cheap wines is to leave some unfermented grape sugars). For cooking, you want plain, unadorned, fruit-driven wines with no obvious off-aromas.

* Paul Gregutt can be reached at wine@seattletimes.com.