Watch this video Q&A with Eleven Madison Park's Wine Director

There’s a lot at stake when you are in charge of the wine list at one of the best restaurants in the world. Eleven Madison Park in New York finished their upgrades to the wine cellar earlier this year and is known to hold an inventory of around 15,000 bottles and a selection running anywhere between 3000-5000 wines. The 200-page long wine list contains 70 pages dedicated to Burgundy alone. 

So what’s it like to be in Cedric Nicaise’s shoes, the Director of Wine at this New York institution? In this Instagram video by the team, Nicaise answers 11 questions to give you an idea. 

Here are the questions and answers below:

1. Favourite grape: chardonnay
2. The first restaurant to be sommelier at: Aureole, NY
3. Advice he’d give to someone starting their first wine collection: Buy for now, buy for later
4. Favourite wine region: burgundy
5. Red or white: white
6. His favourite champagne: Krug, for large producer, J. Lassalle for small producer
7. How many sommeliers are in the team at EMP: 10, including himself
8. Favourite part of the renovated wine cellar: all of it
9. Coolest thing to savour a bottle with: anything
10. The oldest bottle at EMP: 1937 d’Yquem (for sweet wine)
11. Dream bottle: 1945 Romanee-Conti