2010 La Cueva del Contador

Tempranillo. Benjamín Romeo is a great wine personality and has helped enormously to raise the quality and image of Rioja abroad, his wines are always at the top in the region and since 1996, the year of creation of his own project, has injected a buzz in Rioja. For this wine Benjamin uses vineyards from San Vicente, Labastida and Ábalos combining Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa, they are situated between 450 and 600 m and date back the to the 1960s. Low yields (3,500 kg/ha). Two days of cold maceration, 12 days of fermentation and skin maceration. 18 months in new French oak. No fining or filtering. Rioja Integrated Style. Very well-made wine, clean nose, great potential still to be softened by ageing. Very concentrated, ripe black fruit, muscular and well-placed oak. The winemaking is great. The palate is long, consistent and concentrated, but still very pleasant. I can see the wine evolving very well for a decade. (FC)

(all tempranillo; aged for 18 months in new French oak): Brilliant ruby. Deep, powerfully scented bouquet of blackberry and boysenberry preserves, cola, licorice and vanilla. Lush and creamy, offering sweet dark berry preserve and cherry-cola flavors, with hints of rose pastille and mocha adding complexity. Velvety tannins shape the powerful fruit and carry through a long, oak-spiced finish.

The 2010 La Cueva de Contador was cropped between the October 8 and 11 from six parcels (mainly “La Canoca,” which constitutes 46% of the blend). It has a vibrant bouquet of blueberries and blackberry leaf, tinged with a saline/brine scent. The palate is medium-bodied with silky smooth tannins, plush dark cherry and cassis fruit over-layered by sensual creamy oak that lends an alluring silkiness to the finish, which glides across the mouth. In a word – sexy. Drink 2015-2025. One of the most memorable days in Rioja was spending an afternoon in the company of the inimitable Benjamin Romeo, the tour de force behind Bodega Contador. We flitted from one patch of twisted ancient vines to another, mainly around the medieval village of San Vincente, Romeo again and again propounding his mantra that terroir creates great wine. This involved one perilous drive through vegetation as thick as the Amazon until the 4x4 exited into a parcel of century-old, gnarly Tempranillo vines (upon which he mentioned that they were far more accessible on foot). Since leaving Artadi in 2000, he has gradually acquired around 80 parcels of old vine material, vinifying the fruit in a simple, modern, efficient winery, inaugurated in 2007, a facility that places functionality over aesthetic charms. Benjamin himself comes across as an intense, passionate, uncompromising winemaker, a little distant and apprehensive at first, but warming to someone who is patently interested in terroir. Bodega Contador is certainly a slick operation, fastidious down to the last detail, resulting in a set of sumptuous, silky smooth, curvaceous Rioja wines that are seductive, yet deserve considerable cellaring. Moving on to the 2010s, readers should note that these were bottled a week prior to my tasting them. Although Romeo’s name is synonymous with “modern” Rioja, he told me that he wished to make a classical wine for his mother, whom he described as a “classical woman” and fancied a “change of scene.” Importer: Eric Solomon, European Cellars, Charlotte, NC; tel. (704) 358-1565