Monvinic wine bar - The Wandering Palate

Sommelier Isabelle Brunet is our 100th Sommelier’s Palate interview, which is most fitting as she is the sister of Christophe Brunet, the first Sommelier featured to launch this column. Isabelle is a highly respected Sommelier at the top of her game having spent the last 10 years at the legendary Monvinic wine bar in Barcelona as Sommelier and Wine Buyer and has just been nominated in the “Premios Nacionales de Gastronomia” in the category ‘Mejor Sumiller’. She recently left Monvinic to embark on an exciting new project of her on.

The Sommelier’s Palate continues to grow in popularity and many readers have commented on how valuable the restaurant and wine bar recommendations are, as well as the excellent wine insights. So, onwards and forwards…to our next target 200 Sommelier’s Palate. Read More >

The Sommelier's Palate | Related to: Barcelona, Monvinic wine bar, The Sommelier's Palate |

From a lost play by Eubulos, (c.405 BC - c.335 BC)
‘For sensible men I prepare only three kraters (large vase used to mix wine): one for health (which they drink first), the second for love and pleasure, and the third for sleep. After the third one is drained, wise men go home.

The fourth krater is not mine any more - it belongs to bad behaviour; the fifth is for shouting; the sixth is for rudeness and insults; the seventh is for fights; the eighth is for breaking the furniture; the ninth is for depression; the tenth is for madness and unconsciousness.’

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read.

But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defence of the new.”

As uttered by the vitriolic restaurant critic Anton Ego, in the film “Ratatouille”, after his epiphany.