More views on cooking with wine

I was interested to read my colleague John Stimpfig's article on cooking with wine in the How to Spend It section of this weekend's Financial Times. We'd talked about it a couple of months ago and he quotes my view that it's hard to justify cooking with wines that cost over £20 (see my Decanter article earlier this year).

A few of the chefs he talked to (Raymond Blanc, Eric Chavot of The Capital and John Campbell of the Vineyard at Stockcross) agreed. Others including Rose Gray of the River Café, Martin Lam of Ransome's Dock and Kevin Berkins of the Fence Gate Inn in Burnley (whose ultra extravagant steak and kidney pie made with 1982  Mouton Rothschild prompted the piece) take the contrary view. As does Pierre Lurton of Chateau d'Yquem which actually carries recipes for using the wine on its website. "Raw oysters with Chateau d'Yquem or oysters poached in Yquem are a real delight" they claim. I think I'd need to be convinced about that.