On the rack: Chef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud

Château Biac – I love their wine. My restaurants have a tendency to be French-focused, so I’m white Burgundy, red Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhône. I’m a boring guy!

But then I love Mâconnais and I love Beaujolais because I’m from Lyon. Fleurie, Chiroubles, Saint-Amour, Beaujolais Villages – so many interesting producers. I also enjoy La Caravelle Champagne.

At my country house, I have a EuroCave Double. That keeps the wine in good shape. I redid my garage and wanted to do a basement – like a man cave where there would be a little wine room – but there were too many rocks and it was difficult to build. So no man cave! At my apartment, I have a EuroCave and then I have a personal rack inside the cellar of Daniel.

I was 15 and my father had a little plot of land and we were growing Baco Noir [a hybrid grape created to fight phylloxera], which is forbidden now.

It’s a farmer’s wine. We would do the harvest, press the grapes, ferment it and make two barrels. So we’d have about 500 bottles each year, just for our own consumption. It was a very rough wine. It would stain the glasses.

I started cooking early and right away I was always interested in the sommeliers. They all have a back pantry where the tastings happen and I always tried to make friends with them so I could try what was left over in the bottles.

During my career, all the chefs I’ve worked with have had great wine programs.

Georges Blanc was making his own wine in the Mâconnais. Roger Vergé was very good friends with many winemakers from Provence. Winemakers and chefs – we appreciate each other because we can’t do without their wine and they can’t do without our food.

So many celebrities have dined at Daniel. We have a private dining room, the Skybox, which overlooks the kitchen and our guest one night was Matt Damon. I had a glass of wine with Jason Bourne.

Beef short ribs braised in red wine. You can easily find my recipe online.

Once, for charity, I auctioned a dinner at Daniel where I would provide the food and Robert Parker would provide the wines. A close friend purchased it and then gifted it back to me as a 50th birthday celebration.

Sixteen of my current and former chefs each created a course and Robert Parker served 50 wines, including 1929 Latour à Pomerol, 1921 Petrus, 1947 Lafleur, 1955 La Mission Haut-Brion and 1989 Domaine Ramonet Montrachet Grand Cru. We kept the wine labels and had them all framed (pictured below).

I had a 1918 Mouton Rothschild in my personal cellar, and we also had it on our wine list. A client I knew was dining in the Skybox one night. For total provocation and fun I challenged him to order it and told him I would bring my bottle as well and we would open them together. That’s exactly what we did. It was wonderful tasting them side by side comparing how each had evolved.

I will enjoy maybe half a glass of wine after work when I decompress. Usually with my Coravin I go for a Bordeaux, though I’m always curious about what we are serving by the glass in our restaurants. Most recently I opened a Les Forts de Latour.

I live right above Daniel, so I’m never short of wine. I just go downstairs!