REMOVED - Monarch Wine Bar & Shop
Old Town, Prague 1

Monarch is one of the foremost centres of Czech wine in Prague. Their cavernous stone cellar houses an extensive selection of wines for visitors to either taste in their bar area or to take away.

The focus is on good quality Czech wines. And their aim is to display the full range of grape varieties and production techniques on offer throughout the country.

There is also a limited selection of bottles from other European and New World wine producing countries.

The wine bar area of Monarch has a warm, convivial atmosphere. As is the case with city centre wine bars, there is an air of sophistication, although it is none-the-less unpretentious and relaxed.

The wine is well-priced for the quality. You can order by the bottle or the glass. And Monarch makes life a little easier by chalking up a list of wines you can sample by the glass, all for one set price (currently 50 CZK for 0.125l).

To accompany the wine Monarch has plates of cheese, Parma ham, salamis and sometimes a more adventurous cheese fondue - the smell of which does tend to drift round the wine bar, so if you don't like the smell of cheese, you might want to go elsewhere.

Monarch is frequented more by Czechs than tourists, so if you are a visitor to the city and searching for a fine bottle to take home with you, that tells you it is worth checking out what they have in store.

Overall though, Monarch is simply a nice spot to pop in to for a relaxed afternoon or evening drink. You may find it stretches on longer than you intend.