Head Sommelier
Rodrigo Briseño
Head Sommelier, Disfrutar
- Discipline
- Head Sommelier
- Based in
- Barcelona, Spain
i. Biography
Before the title of Mexican Head Sommelier at Disfrutar in Barcelona, the dining-room craft had already given Rodrigo Briseño a working frame for gastronomy. Food and wine functioned as tools for reading place, season, appetite, gesture, and memory. In service, those tools became professional: bottle knowledge, room awareness, recall, timing, and the patience required to understand a floor before taking responsibility for it. Hospitality at this level is built by accumulation. The mise en place before service, the temperature of a bottle, the timing of a pour, and the ability to read a table before it asks are not decorative skills; they are the work. Briseño’s progression places that work inside one of Barcelona’s closely watched dining rooms, but the base remains formation, repetition, and a sharpened instinct for guests.
The Ascent
Dining-room training at Escuela Superior de Hostelería de Barcelona (ESHOB) gave Rodrigo Briseño the structure for a career built on precision, polish, and hospitality. The school translated an existing interest in gastronomy into service practice: technical attention, professional bearing, and the discipline required on the floor. From 2014, sommelier and restaurant dining-room work in Spain placed Briseño inside the daily mechanics of service. That period meant arrivals, pacing, kitchen-floor coordination, and the diplomacy of guiding guests through wine without taking control of the table’s experience. The sommelier assistant role at Disfrutar in Barcelona (2018–2020) required technical command inside a highly considered dining format. For Briseño, the work demanded composure, clarity, and close listening: to the menu, to the guest, and to the tone of the evening. Since 2020, the Head Sommelier role at Disfrutar has carried that Barcelona-honed discipline into full responsibility for the wine side of service.
Today
The palate described in Briseño’s work favors freshness, texture, restraint, and emotion. Aromatic and fresh profiles, including riesling and sauvignon blanc, offer lift and clarity. White wines with richness and volume, such as chardonnay and Rhône whites, supply a different register: weight, depth, and breadth in the glass. On the red side, the preference moves toward lighter, vegetal profiles, with sangiovese, xinomavro, and nebbiolo among the varieties Briseño gravitates toward. These choices privilege tension and nuance over sheer volume. New World wines are also part of the field, as are fortified wines, particularly those from the sherry region, where history, salinity, complexity, and texture are central to the category. The selection logic is not fashion. Typicity, character, and the ability to evoke emotion are the stated measures. In practice, that makes wine service less about proving knowledge and more about locating the bottle that gives a dish, a table, or a moment its correct pressure. On Gabriel-Glas, he has said, “I love the versatility of this universal glass, it helps to enhance the experience of having high quality wines in a resistant and elegant glass shape.”
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Rodrigo
What does Rodrigo Briseño do now?
Rodrigo Briseño is Head Sommelier.
Where did Rodrigo Briseño train or study?
Rodrigo Briseño trained at Escuela Superior de Hostelería de Barcelona (ESHOB).
What is Rodrigo Briseño known for?
Alcohol-free wine.
Explore
In the same rooms
Similar Head Sommeliers
