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WINES OF SPAIN
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Bodega Contador
/Boh-Deg-Gah Con-Tah-Door/
DOCa Rioja (La Rioja), Spain
Bodega Contador began in 1995 when Benjamin Romeo, winemaker and grower, acquired a centuries-
old cave carved into the rock beneath the Castle of San Vicente de la Sonsierra, located at the foot of
the Sierra Cantabria mountain range in La Rioja Alta, west of Rioja Álava. In 1996, Benjamin made the
first vintage of his “La Cueva del Contador” wine and started to buy vineyards for his plan to become a
“bodeguero”—a wine producer. Benjamin was the winemaker at Aratadi from 1985 to 2000, where he was
able to apply his skill and continue to hone his craft. In 1999, he made the first vintage of “Contador” from
vineyards he acquired.
In 2000, after seeing these first wines favorably received by the market and press, Benjamin dedicated
himself full time to his personal project. Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate awarded 100 points to the 2004
and 2005 vintages of Contador made in his parents’ garage.
In collaboration with the architect Hector Herrera, Benjamin designed and opened a new winery in June
2008, to coincide with the summer solstice. The three floors or terraces mirror the original slopes of the
site where it is located, enabling both fruit and wine to be moved by gravity.
The wines are sourced from sixty-two different plots which are organically farmed. The winery carries
out green harvesting in May and June, and harvest in September by hand with grapes carefully placed
in 14-16 kilo bins. The maximum amount of time the fruit sits in the bins is half an hour. Fermentation is
temperature controlled in 10,000-liter truncated conical French oak vessels, and racking of the wine is
done during a waning moon when the gravitational pull keeps the heavier particles at the bottom of the
barrel allowing for greater clarity in the wine.
There is a holistic approach to the vine, so the winery uses fertilizers only in certain years with organic
material composed by Bodega Contador viticulturists themselves from sheep manure. They apply herbal
treatments that create an ambient environment for the vines to thrive, and treat the vines with copper
sulfate when needed.
Benjamin oversees every aspect from vine to wine, including traveling to France to select the best oak
trees for barrels and choosing the best-quality Spanish corks from high altitude mountain regions in
Castellon, Toledo, and Gerona. As the son, grandson and great-grandson of winemakers, Benjamin uses
rigorous attention to detail to produce wines of great and noble character.
Predicador Blanco
Predicador, or “Preacher,” named after Clint Eastwood’s everyman character in the 1985 film Pale Rider, is
a wine composed of 49 percent Viura, 40 percent Garnacha Blanca and 11 percent Malvasia. The grapes
are sourced from ten different plots within San Vicente and Briones in Rioja Alta, which on average yield
less than 3 lbs per vine: El Sauco, Burdarán, Ariasabal, La Nava, El Rayo, San Francisco, La Rad, La Canoca,
Leza, San Juan, Revilla and Sisabal. The maceration lasted three days, and after barrel fermentation the
wine was aged for eight months in 30 percent new and 70 percent conditioned barrels. The cold soak and
short-oak contact yield floral notes of Acacia and dried orange peel. They commingle with melon in the
aromatics and flavors of green apple, ripe pear, vanilla, honeycomb and hay on the palate.
2013:
90 WA, 91 V |
2010:
90 WA |
2008:
92 WA