These days the venue for buying and consuming wine is often just as important as the wine: look how many South African wine estates have award-winning and recognized restaurants and tasting rooms. With this in mind, I was interested to read an article in The Wall Street Journal about the Monvínic “worldy wine bar” in Barcelona. Here are extracts from the article:
“There are three distinct parts to Monvínic: the restaurant, the wine bar and the library. There’s a fourth if you count the large glassed-in cellar and a fifth if you include FastVínic, the upscale fast-food restaurant next door that features salads and sandwiches sourced from the same local purveyors as Monvínic’s ingredients, as well as a selection of reasonably-priced wines dispensed by an Enomatic machine…
“We secured a table in the bar facing the library, where Monvínic patrons can browse a large selection of wine books, many written in English. Monvínic’s wine list (iPad version), with over 3,000 selections from all over the world, offers plenty of browsing material as well, including extensive producer profiles and tasting notes.
“In addition to Monvínic’s “regular” list, there are 50 featured wines by the glass that change every two weeks, according to Isabelle Brunet, one of six black-leather-apron clad sommeliers and a veteran of top restaurants in England, Australia and Spain. Ms. Brunet, like her compatriots, is knowledgeable, yet approachable and good humored.”
The picture above is of the wine cellar of Monvinic.