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Reduction Sauces from Fruit Table Wines





12 April 25



As I started exploring the use of our wines in making foods it became clear early in the process that I would one day need to learn about making wine reduction sauces. Honestly this is a cooking technique that I’ve vaguely been aware of for years, but since I only rarely eat at “fine dining” establishments and am loath to use good wine for anything other than drinking, this was not an area where I had much experience. However, given the success that I had with some of my other fruit wine-based recipes, I was excited to give this a try and see what kinds of results I would get.





Finding recipes for wine reduction sauces was easy enough and, since all the ones I found were relatively similar, adapting the recipes for our Vin series wines was straight forward. The generic recipe I used in these tests was:

-Roughly chop one shallot and sauté in 1 tablespoon of olive oil

-Add one cup of wine and one sprig of fresh rosemary

-Heat to a gentle boil and reduce volume by half

-Add 1 cup of broth and one tablespoon of butter (or olive oil to make it vegan)

-Return to gentle boil and reduce volume to about three-quarter cup

-Strain and serve immediately


Throughout these tests, I varied the broth component between beef, chicken, and vegetable depending on which recipe I was making. I also substituted olive oil for butter in some cases to see how a vegan adaptation would work and, while the ones that skipped the butter were not quite as rich, the overall flavor of the sauces were still fantastic. I think that there is a lot of room for further experimentation here, especially with using different herbs than rosemary, and this is something I look forward to in the future!



Vin Apricot Reduction Sauce



I made the Vin Apricot reduction sauce using vegetable broth and only olive oil, and this yielded a very fruity sauce with stone fruit notes but not obviously apricot. Overall the sauce was more fruity than savory and had a hint of residual sweetness that went fantastically when served over vegetarian stuffed squash.



Vin Blackberry Reduction Sauce



Pairing our Vin Blackberry with beef has always been successful in previous tests so I decided to stay in that lane with the reduction sauce, which was made using beef broth. The reduction sauce had crystal clear overtones of blackberries supported by the shallots and rosemary with a savory buttery finish that did, in fact, pair rather nicely with a grilled NY strip steak.



Vin Blueberry Reduction Sauce



Another vegan adaptation of these reduction sauces, I made the Vin Blueberry reduction sauce using vegetable broth and only olive oil. This resulted in a sauce that had a beautiful purple/magenta coloration with a bright berry flavor accented by the rosemary and shallots, resulting in an overall extremely balanced sauce that was absolutely fantastic served of grilled mushroom-based steak cutlets.



Vin Cranberry Reduction Sauce



Vin Cranberry reduction was made with chicken broth and butter, producing a reddish brown sauce with a strong cranberry flavor profile. Very smooth overall and with a hint of herbs, this sauce went very nicely along with some Thanksgiving leftovers.



Vin Peach Reduction Sauce



I used vegetable broth and butter to make the Vin Peach reduction sauce. This combination produced a sauce that expressed subtle but present peach flavor along with a significant note from the rosemary but with only hints of the shallots. Overall a fruity balanced sauce that was superb when served over zaatar-spiced grilled chicken.



Vin Plum Reduction Sauce



When I first decided to try making reduction sauces from our table wines, I knew right away that I really wanted to make a sauce from Vin Plum that would pair well with grilled tuna steaks. So, for this wine I decided to use vegetable broth and keep the butter, which produced as rich dark purple sauce with an overall fruity and herby flavor profile. And, yes, it was an incredible accompaniment to grilled tuna steaks!



Vin Raspberry Reduction Sauce



Vin Raspberry reduction sauce was made using butter and beef broth and resulted in a deep red sauce. Flavor wise, the sauce was extraordinarily fruit forward with complimentary notes from the shallots and rosemary and resulted in a luscious, savory profile that paired extremely well with braised short ribs.



Vin Strawberry Reduction Sauce



Saving what was the best for last, I made the Vin Strawberry reduction sauce using vegetable broth and butter. This sauce very bright and fruity, although the strawberry flavor was present it was faint but was just an amazing compliment to the rosemary. I served this sauce over oven roasted salmon and it was truly spectacular.



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snowkiss winery
wine. reimagined.