mon vínic and me

R

Rahsaan

Rahsaan
After being in Barcelona for a couple of days, today I decided to eat at mon vínic and then promptly kicked myself for not going sooner.

The food was delightful, artful, and reasonably priced. I especially enjoyed a mushroom salad adorned with edible flowers and a generous portion of chanterelles and morels. No complaints.

I figured I should go for Spanish wine but given my tastes and the limitations of the by-the-glass menu it was not the easiest course. Still, I managed to lubricate my palate with pleasure.

1992 LdH Tondonia Reserva Bianco was a very fine way to start. I don’t know much about the vintage and from the price (5euros per glass) am assuming it wasn’t a blockbuster. But it was pretty darn elegant and mineral nice. Great start.

Finding a red wine was more challenging but the 2009 Brunet & Massard Priorat Humilitat was very nice. French winemakers in Spain, doing fruity wine with all the depth that is probably natural in this region plus a touch of light elegance. I preferred it to the 2008 Bernabeleva Vinos de Madrid Navaherreros Garnacha which was a touch volatile for my tastes. But also done with a light touch and I understand this producer is quite popular among folks with my tastes.

All in all, time and money very well spent. I will try to return.
 
The place is great, I was a regular when I lived in Barcelona. The prices are good, the food is traditional seasonal Calatan dishes from locally sourced produce and the ambiance are very relaxing.

The staff is very nice and helpful too. I really enjoyed the 30 wines by the glass every night and the beautiful glassware. I did have some issues with some of the design elements but overall the place is worth spending a fair amount of the time spent in Barcelona.

I don't know if they fixed the interactive wine menu but it did have some bugs that needed to be ironed out. It's worth browsing it thoroughly as there are some gems in their cellars at irresistible prices.

It will be the first place I visit when I go back in October.
 
Yes, there were still some bugs in the wine menu. It wouldn't show the details for some of the non-Spanish wines. But it wasn't a huge issue because I was focusing on the Spanish stuff.

And I agree that the some of the design elements were cute yet not functional. Perhaps I'm slow but I couldn't even figure out how to get inside the restaurant at first!

Overall, as you said, it's well worth visiting. Tonight's my last night in town and I will try to return.
 
I Thought they had fixed the door issue. It happened to me too the first time I went, since there's no clear sign of where it opens it takes a moment to figure it out.
 
I went back and the only disappointment was their early closing time!

We had a delightful bottle of the 92 LdH Tondonia Bianco, a ripe heady forgettable bottle of 2008 Trio Infernal Priorat Riu (which is apparently a combined project of Laurent Combier, Jean-Michel Gerin and Peter Fisher. Why the need for all this meddling!

The most exciting wine of the evening was a 2007 Quinta da Muradella Monterrei Gorvia Mencia, such elegance, such fragrance, my kind of wine.

The food was on point. Once again, time well spent.
 
Vilaviniteca is always a good place. They have a small tapas bar on the deli side with wines by the glass or any bottle from the store at store prices.

There's a very active restaurant scene in the city and you can find out what's worth visiting in: http://observaciongastronomica.blogspot.com/ (spanish)
http://brillat-savarin.blogspot.com/ (Spanish)

Wine shops worth visiting: l'Anima del Vi http://www.lanimadelvi.com/

La Part dels Angels: http://www.lapartdelsangels.com/

Vilaviniteca: http://www.vilaviniteca.es/
 
Rahsaan: glad you got to go to Mon Vinic. It's definitely worth a night or two of your stay and the folks there are great.

Dave: It's not in Barna, but El Celler de Can Roca is worth a trip out of town to Girona.

Mark Lipton
 
In Barcelona as in Madrid, looking for places with a strong wine connection will always lead you, not only to good wine, of course, but also to good food with no excess of technological chichi. Monvìnic (whose owner, Sergi Ferrer-Salat, also owns the Ferrer Bobet estate in Priorat and is a total wine freak with a lot of money to boot) is of course the ideal place, and I don't think there's anything quite like it anywhere in the world. You can even (or could, recently) have a bottle of early 19th century Madeira for a tolerable price...

As already mentioned, the La Teca gourmet shop run by Vila Viniteca, Barcelona's top wine shop at carrer Agullers 9, next door to the wine shop itself, is a great place for simple but high-quality tapas: Ibérico ham, great Spanish canned fish, tomato salad, artisan cheeses. You can make a meal out of it, and drink any of their wines at shop prices. Quim Vila is not only the distributor in Catalonia of many of Spain's top wines (Alvaro Palacios most notably - the Priorat pioneer has transformed himself stylistically since 2008 and is now the epitome of terroir, elegance and un-oakiness), he's also a notable importer (Bollinger, Graillot, Robertson, Columella, Billaud-Simon, Château Fuissé, Stallmann, Schloss Gobelsburg, Bott-Geyl, Zind-Humbrecht...)

Quim's main competitor is Joan València of Cuvée 3000, co-owner of Els Tres Porquets (yes, the three little pigs), a modest wine bar-restaurant in a blah modern area of Barcelona which offers great, traditional, highly seasonal cuisine and Joan's wines, which include FX Pichler, Knoll, Armand Rousseau, Blain-Gagnard, Billecart-Salmon, Delesvaux, Pibarnon, Combier, Lelièvre, Gauby, Mouscaïllo, Matassa, Alvaro Castro, Quinta do Infantado, and also some of Spain's younger, vineyard-oriented producers: Do Ferreiro, Dominio del Bendito, Casa Castillo, Joan d'Anguera, El Sequé, Gutiérrez de la Vega, Escoda-Sanahuja, Meritxell Pallejá, Castell d'Encús, Venta d'Aubert, Tanajara, Viñátigo, Marañones (this is the leader in the rebirth of central Spain's grenache and albillo vineyards - much better than Bernabeleva!)
 
originally posted by VS:
(Alvaro Palacios most notably - the Priorat pioneer has transformed himself stylistically since 2008 and is now the epitome of terroir, elegance and un-oakiness)
Click to expand...
Really? No kidding.
 
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