Hello

Welcome to the wine group.
I think it would help if you told us where you are posting from,
geographically, in case you want some specifc ecommendations - it helps if
the wines are available.
For dry cooking wines I think a basic rule is that they should not be oaked,
or at least, not obtrusively so.
A Cote-du-Rhone might be useful. They tend to be cheapish, and not heavily
oaked. Also they are as arule not tannic which is a bonus.

And, yes, white wine is used in cooking - in sauces with fish, in risotto,
in specific dishes like Coq au Riesling and Baeckoffe, mussle soup,
spaghetthi sauce - a bottle of dry white comes in handy quite often. Here
the frist rule also applies - do not use a very oaked wine. In the case of
Coq au RIesling (rooster in RIesling) it stands to reason that the wine used
should be a Riesling, of the Alsatian type, meaning, dry and fruity. For
fish sauces e g an unoaked Chard might do, or a Muscadet, which is never
unoaked.

Please understand that I oversimplify, slightly - this is for didactic
purposes, and many will no doubt point out that Alsatian Rieslings are
getting more sweet by the year, and that it can be the done thing to use a
very tannic wine indeed (like beef braised in Barolo) in cooking, but you
have to start somewhere ...

Good luck

Nils

"Robert11" > skrev i meddelandet
...
> Hello,
>
> Know nothing about wines, frankly.
>
> Previously I got a friend a Merlot wine for cooking.
> Loves it.
>
> Would like to expand his horizons in cooking wines a bit.
>
> Might anyone please suggest other, non-Merlot's, for under perhaps $12 or
> so for him to try also ?
>
> Do they use white wines for cooking (much) ?
>
> Thanks,
> Bob
>