Cooking with wine is fine anytime.

If you love to cook with wine, you can always blame the ancient Greeks or Romans. They were the first to use wine as a seasoning in food, and knew how to intensify and flavor a dish using the "drunken grape."

When wine is heated, a complex set of flavors are released. Professional chefs know this well and often that divine flavoring in your meal is because of the wine used in the preparation. From chicken and fish to heavy red meats, nearly any dish can benefit from a little wine.

But it's not enough to simply pour a bottle of red or white into a pot and stir. There's a bit of science and art to learn if you want to master cooking with wine so you can amaze your family and friends with your culinary skills.

Cooking with wine isn't as difficult as it seems, either. By the end of this short tutorial, you'll be knowledgeable enough to test the waters with wine in the kitchen.

The first tip: Never cook with a wine that you wouldn't like to be drinking. If you don't like the flavor of the wine in a glass, you definitely won't enjoy it in the food. The cooking and reduction process brings out the best of a good wine and the worst of a bad one. That doesn't mean you need to pay top dollar for a bottle of wine. You just want it to be drinkable.

Wine needs time during the cooking process. Usually, you should wait at least 10 minutes before sampling the dish. This will give the wine time to intensify so the flavors deepen. If you try the dish too early and decide to add more wine, you may be overdoing it and end up not being pleased at the dinner table.

If you're just a beginner, consider using a younger, more powerful wine. It will be more forgiving and you have more latitude in flavoring your dish. A more delicate premium wine can turn on you in an instant, and not in a good way.

Fruity wines will add a fruity flavor to the dish. The alcohol in the wine cooks off, leaving the nuances of the flavors in the dish. So if you want your beef dish to have a berry or cherry overtone, choose a wine that has these characteristics. If you want it to have an essence of apple or pear, go with a wine that feature these flavors.

Letting dishes with wine in them come to a boil is a definite no-no. Bring the heat up slowly. If you're making sauces, use an enamel skillet. You want to stay away from aluminum or cast iron no matter what.

As noted, heat really affects the depth of the flavor. A low cooking temperature will give a dish an entirely different flavor than if you cook the same ingredients at a higher heat.

When choosing wine, it's best to stick with the old axiom. Reds are best with red meats and whites are best if you're preparing poultry, pork, fish or seafood.

If you're not a big wine fancier, you can go with alternatives. Many manufacturers have created seasonings that use the same flavors but without the alcohol, such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay. These seasonings are great for steaks, bread toppings, sauce ingredients or pasta dishes.