I feel like I'm the only person in the world who can't make a simply red wine sauce. Whenever I attempt a sauce with red wine the results are acrid, tannic and unpleasantly sharp. Is there something I'm missing?
I know they're a quite many ways to go about creating brown sauces, namely with Meat Glace and without, so suppose I was just following something of the sort.
1. Add 1 cup wine to sauce pan with aromatics and reduce by 2/3.
2. Add 2 cups rich brown stock to reduced wine and reduce by 2/3.
3. Maybe a thing of butter off heat.
A big part of me thinks I'm under reducing the wine. Today for example I took 250ml of Red Wine + 50ml of Ruby Port down to about 50ml then added 200ml Meat Glace my sauce had that same jarring tannin flavour.
I've tried the Red Wine Sauce in Chefstep's Steak with Red Wine Sauce and even following the visual cue's my sauce tastes like a bottle of wine that's been left in my fridge for too long with a dull grey hue.The only success I've had with a red wine sauce is the pressure-cooked red wine glaze recipe in MC which is awesome but contrary to classical technique.
A big part of me thinks that my stocks and meat glaces just aren't restaurant quality and don't have a robust enough flavor to round out the wine reduction. Another part of me thinks I'm using the wrong wine even though I typically only use low tannin Zinfandel's or Syrahs.
If anyone has any pointers to help me construct better red wine sauces I'd be really grateful.
