Rafael Sandoval News · Awards
Three brothers, three National Awards: how Rafael Sandoval completed Coque's full set
In June 2018 the Royal Academy of Gastronomy presented Rafael Sandoval with the National Award for Best Sommelier for 2017. With that award, the Sandovals became the only Spanish family to hold all three awards for the three disciplines of a restaurant: kitchen, dining room and wine cellar.
A sommelier who came to the cellar through an absence
Rafael Sandoval (1964) did not start out among bottles. From his grandfather Coque he inherited a love of bullfighting and devoted his early years to it. It was his father's sudden death that brought him back to the family restaurant and put him in charge of the wine cellar: a succession that was not written and that ended up producing, three decades later, the discipline's national recognition.
What is in Coque's wine cellar
The list Rafael maintains and expands brings together more than 3,000 labels of wines and spirits from five continents, with particular attention to Spanish appellations and to the balance of quality and price that sustains a long list without making it inaccessible. The cellar is not a storeroom: it is one of the stops on the journey guests make before sitting down at the table, along with the cocktail bar and the kitchen itself.
Spanish National Gastronomy Awards
The full set, year by year
The National Awards of the Royal Academy of Gastronomy recognise the three functions of a restaurant separately. At Coque, all three went to three brothers within four years.
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2013Kitchen
Mario Sandoval
Spanish National Gastronomy Award for Best Head Chef
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2016Dining room
Diego Sandoval
Spanish National Gastronomy Award for Best Dining Room Director
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2017Wine cellar
Rafael Sandoval
Spanish National Gastronomy Award for Best Sommelier, presented in June 2018
Spanish National Gastronomy Awards, Royal Academy of Gastronomy.
2018
The two awards of 2018
Recognition came twice in one year. In February 2018, the International Academy of Gastronomy gave him the Prix au Sommelier. In June, the Royal Academy of Gastronomy presented him with the Spanish National Gastronomy Award for Best Sommelier for 2017.
That same year he was also named Sommelier of the Year by Gastronomía & Cía.
Why the full set matters
The Spanish National Gastronomy Awards separately recognise the three functions that sustain a restaurant: the person who cooks, the person who runs the dining room and the person who builds the cellar. That all three should go to three brothers from the same house, within four years, was without precedent in Spain. It is the translation into awards of something Coque upholds as a method: the experience is not signed by one chef; it is signed by three crafts at once.
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Coque's sommelier?
- Rafael Sandoval (Madrid, 1964) runs the wine cellar at Coque, the Sandoval brothers' restaurant in Madrid. He received the 2017 Spanish National Gastronomy Award for Best Sommelier and the 2018 Prix au Sommelier from the International Academy of Gastronomy.
- How many labels does Coque's wine cellar hold?
- More than 3,000 wines and spirits from five continents, with particular attention to Spanish appellations.
- What awards do the Sandoval brothers hold?
- Mario Sandoval won the 2013 Spanish National Gastronomy Award for Best Head Chef, Diego Sandoval the 2016 award for Best Dining Room Director and Rafael Sandoval the 2017 award for Best Sommelier: all three awards for the three disciplines of a restaurant, in one family.
- How many Michelin stars does Coque have?
- Coque holds two Michelin stars and three Repsol Suns, and occupies a 1,100 m² space in Madrid.
Sources
- Rafael Sandoval, Premio Nacional de Gastronomía 2017 al Mejor Sumiller, Grup GSR, (in Spanish).
- Los hermanos Sandoval hacen historia gracias a los Premios Nacionales de Gastronomía, DiegoCoquillat.com, (in Spanish).
- Rafael Sandoval, premio al «Sumiller del año», Vinetur, (in Spanish).
- Rafael Sandoval, sommelier at Coque Restaurant, Coque Restaurant.
More about the team: Rafael Sandoval, sommelier · Mario Sandoval, chef · Diego Sandoval, maître d' · The Madrid Menu, glass by glass
