Bodega Contador

Brand Description

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.

Location of Vineyard

The wines are sourced from sixty-two different plots which are organically farmed.

Winemaking Philosophy

The wineries 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-litre 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

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“Pretty intense nose with some tropical allures to the lemon zest and fresh apricots. Some fine lees and subtle cream, too. Medium to full body on the palate with a dry and fluid center-palate, showing creamy citrus fruit with fresh acidity. Drink now.”
— acclaim for 2020 Predicador Blanco from James Suckling, Sep 2022

“Concentrated and spicy, with hints of coffee to the black plums and blackberries on the nose. Full and dense with tannins that round off a juicy, fluid center-palate.”
— acclaim for 2020 Predicador Tinto from James Suckling, Sep 2022

“Lots of oak here, and it will need a few years to integrate. But luckily there is concentration to hold it up. Aromas of walnuts, coffee, cream, incense, spiced blackberries, warm stones and oyster shells, followed by a bold, full-bodied palate with lots of tannins. Ample, concentrated and muscular style with lots of extraction, but the tannin quality is quite impressive. Very long, vertical and broad-shouldered. Sophisticated winemaking here, even though it is a little hard to decipher any terroir indicators. Promising.”
— acclaim for 2020 Contador from James Suckling, Sep 2022

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BRAND MATERIALS

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