12 things French women over 50 never have in their closets: a look inside

The argument started, as good ones often do, over dinner. A friend was making boeuf bourguignon and I—helpfully, I thought—asked what wine she was using.
“Whatever’s open,” she said, splashing something vaguely red into the pot.
The sound made another guest wince.
“You can’t just use any wine,” he protested. “It has to be good wine. Julia Child said so.”
She rolled her eyes. “Julia also said use bacon rind. Times change.”

By dessert, no one could agree on what “good wine” actually meant. A $40 Burgundy? A mid-shelf Pinot Noir? Or simply not the half-finished bottle from last weekend’s party?

So I did what any mildly obsessive eater would do: I started asking chefs.

The Myth of the “Good Wine”

The idea that you should only cook with a wine you’d happily drink has been repeated so often it’s become gospel. You see it in cookbooks, food blogs, even in culinary school syllabi. But when I reached out to a few French and American chefs, I noticed a collective sigh before they answered.

“It’s true and false at the same time,” said chef Philippe Bertineau, formerly of Benoit in New York. “If you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it. But that doesn’t mean it must be expensive. It just means it shouldn’t be bad.”

What does bad mean in kitchen terms? “Anything oxidized, overly sweet, or sour from sitting open too long,” he said. “Those flavors don’t vanish with heat; they get worse.”

In other words, boeuf bourguignon is forgiving—but not a miracle worker.
No stew, however slow-cooked, can turn a bottle of vinegar into Burgundy.

What Actually Happens When You Cook With Wine

Let’s rewind to the pot for a second. When you pour wine into the pan—whether it’s to deglaze beef drippings or to simmer for hours with onions and herbs—the alcohol and much of the volatile aroma burn off. What remains are acids, tannins, and sugars that mix with fat and protein to build complexity.

So the question isn’t “Is the wine good?” so much as “Is the wine balanced?”

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, between 60% and 90% of alcohol in a dish can burn off depending on cooking time. What stays is flavor. Harsh, cheap wine with too much sugar or bitterness will linger; soft, balanced wine will mellow and deepen.

“Think of it like stock,” said chef Hélène Darroze of Michelin-starred Marsan in Paris. “You wouldn’t make chicken stock from burnt bones. You wouldn’t use sour wine for a dish that’s supposed to taste round.”

The French Shortcut

In France, boeuf bourguignon isn’t sacred. It’s comfort food—a Sunday slow-cooker dish that smells like a grandmother’s kitchen. Most home cooks don’t reach for a $60 bottle of Gevrey-Chambertin. They grab a modest vin rouge de table, often local and under €10, maybe even yesterday’s open bottle of Côtes du Rhône.

“Cooking wine” as Americans know it—salted, shelf-stable, vaguely grape-flavored—doesn’t exist in French grocery stores. But neither do they decant Premier Cru into a stew.

“It’s about logic,” laughed chef Alain Ducasse in an old France 24 interview. “The wine must be good enough that you’d drink a glass with the dish, but not so good that you cry to see it boil.”

There’s a cultural practicality there: the same bottle often serves both pot and cook.

When “Cheap” Works Just Fine

Let’s get specific. The best boeuf bourguignon wines are dry, medium-bodied reds with enough acidity to cut fat and enough fruit to stand up to slow-cooked meat. Pinot Noir, Merlot, Syrah, or even a decent Cabernet Franc work well.

Price? Usually between $12 and $20 in the U.S. market.

A sommelier at Le Bernardin once told me, “The biggest mistake people make isn’t using cheap wine—it’s using the wrong kind of cheap wine. Sweet blends, or heavy oak, ruin everything.”

He pointed me toward a few American-made options that mimic French balance: Oregon Pinot Noirs, Washington State Merlots, and midrange Côtes du Rhône-style blends.

“Basically,” he said, “you’re looking for a wine that tastes like you’d drink it with stew on a rainy night.”

Does Expensive Wine Ever Help?

Here’s where opinions split. Some chefs argue that fine wine adds subtlety—more nuanced fruit, cleaner finish, less harsh tannin. Others say you’re just boiling money.

“After two hours of simmering, even a $70 bottle loses its personality,” said chef Daniel Boulud. “You’d be better off saving it for the table.”

But he added a caveat: “If you’re making boeuf bourguignon for a special dinner, and you want every layer to shine, it doesn’t hurt to use a bottle that’s slightly better than usual. Not grand cru, but not the cheapest either.”

Translation: treat the wine as an ingredient worth respect, not reverence.

Testing the Theory

To settle it for myself, I cooked two pots side by side.

Pot A: a $14 Burgundy.
Pot B: a $40 Nuits-Saint-Georges.

Same beef, same mirepoix, same slow oven for three hours.

The result? Both were delicious. The cheaper one had a slightly brighter acidity, the pricier one, a rounder depth—but only when tasted back-to-back. No one at the table guessed which was which. They just asked for more bread.

The verdict: “good” wine matters less than good technique.
Brown the meat properly. Reduce the wine to concentrate flavor. Don’t rush the simmer. Those choices will outshine your price tag every time.

What the Chefs Actually Say

Chef	Restaurant	Wine Advice
Philippe Bertineau	Benoit, NYC	“Balanced, not expensive.”
Hélène Darroze	Marsan, Paris	“Use wine you’d sip with the dish.”
Daniel Boulud	Daniel, NYC	“Don’t waste a great bottle—use good, honest wine.”
Julia Child (historical quote)	Mastering the Art of French Cooking	“The best Burgundy you can afford.”

A Bit of Chemistry and Common Sense

Wine is acidic. It tenderizes beef and pulls flavor from onions and carrots. Too much acid, and your stew tastes sharp. Too little, and it turns flat. That’s why neutral, dry reds shine—they balance fat with freshness.

If you want to geek out, a study by the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that tannins in red wine bind to meat proteins, improving mouthfeel and depth of flavor. In short: a little chemistry is working for you—but only if the wine itself isn’t off.

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