(Decanter) - Like any other ingredient you need to understand how wine works in a dish and the best techniques for using it. Here are 10 things to remember:

1) The wine you use needs to be drinkable. By that I mean it must be clean and fresh and, obviously, not corked. It shouldn’t taste like vinegar or be so old it’s lost all its fruit. If you have leftover wine decant it into a smaller bottle or container so that the air doesn’t get to it. Wine that’s been left open for 4–5 days is probably OK. Wine that’s been sitting in your cupboard for 4–5 months generally isn’t.

2) That doesn’t mean it has to be the wine you normally drink. I’ve had great success using sweeter wines such as white Grenache or blush Zinfandel which are not particularly to my taste but which are great in a recipe or cocktail.

3) Don’t use wines labelled as cooking wines which tend to be particularly poor quality and not that much of a saving over a cheap bottle of wine.