best red wine for jus/sauce

I was reading an article on cook’s illustrated where they tested a bunch of different wines and basically thought that cotes du rhone (or any higher quality unoaked blend) was best for making red wine jus or sauce. Any one have experience with this? The one we made yesterday we used a mid-priced merlot I had sitting around and it was great.

Pretty much any decent dry, low oak red works well. Keys are no RS, low oak, good acidity, and not too tannic (for red wine). A nice CdR checks those boxes and has a lot of flavor.

-Al

when I make it next I’ll browse the cellar for a bit. I still have a few orphan bottles that I’ve received as gifts or whatever but many of them are cabs. I’m sure I can find some random cdr that will work, though.

Agree with low oak. In my experience oak flavors can concentrate and ruin a sauce.

Current favorite cooking red is kirkland CdR for 6.99 per

Any of then shiners people have dropped off and I have no idea what it is or who gave it to me. Open the bottle and take a taste. If it’s really good, it’s the wine we drink. It’s not so good it’s the one we cook with and finish after the wine we drank for dinner.

Agree minimal oak. Also if it’s not too fancy a preparation, “whatever is open” subject to the above and not too high a “value “ on the wine. Some say can use corked wine but I have only done that a couple of times with minimally corked. Was ok. But I haven’t pushed it.
I rarely buy wine specially for jus or gravy. Coq au vin boeuf bourgignon is another matter!

[edited Cow au vin to Coq au vin!!!]

How well would a corked wine work?

I laughed at a local restaurant for taking my corked wine to cook with, and posted about it here. People I trust said it is perfectly fine to cook with corked wine, as it will cook off.

This thread relates: Using corked wine making Coq au vin - Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes - WineBerserkers

and it references this article: Cooking with corked wines – winenous

Thanks