French Onion Soup

As the sun fades away into winter, our thoughts tend to settle on nice nourishing tasty soups and stews, and a perennial fave is onion soup a la Francais.

Absolute requirements are home made beef stock (might as well buy onion soup in a can if you don't use home made) and real Gruyere to top it (I actually ordered F.O.S once in a highway-side restaurant ad they topped it with what I swore was Velveeta....)

Some recipes use red wine to deglaze and some use white, and some cooks favour adding some brandy to it as you are about to serve it (Julia was in favour of this) but I don't.

My question is about wines to serve with it. The obvious and best respected answer is white, French, and probably Alsatian by choice. I have tried it with lighter reds like Beaujolais or some Burgundies quite successfully, and even a young Bordeaux. In fact I recall trying a Dolcetto with it successfully, but that was before the Italians started trying to make an Incredible Hulk version of what used to be a fresh, young, light wine..

I was wondering what the consensus was here about what wine to serve with it.

I'll reveal my faves - Alsatian - either Pinot Gris or Gewurz work well.

[Jenise]

Yes, a full-bodied white. Gewurz isn't my favorite white by a long shot but it does really really well with FOS. FWIW I don't use wine in the soup. Were I to, it would be dry white vermouth.

I am not an expert on wine for sure but always have used dry, white vermouth in French Onion Soup and many other soups. I heard a chef a long time ago, and cannot recall who he was, but did suggest the said vermouth for many soups. FWIW, I did use Tequilla Gold in a Chicken Tortilla Soup last week and it was an excellent soup. Also, a suggestion from a friend from long ago.

[Jenise]

Julia Child was a fan of dry vermouth. Of course, back when she recommended that it was to keep people away from the horrible cooking wine products of our yesteryears. I never used those, but I've used vermouth for years.