Following on from the success of our Priorat offer on Tuesday, Simon has decided to send out a second Spanish offer, this time focusing on Benjamin Romeo’s impressive Rioja, the 2012 Cueva del Contador @ £250 per 6 bottle case in bond.
Benjamin Romeo, formerly the winemaking talent behind Bodegas y Vinedos Artadi, started his own personal winemaking project, ‘Bodegas Contador’ in 1995 when he acquired an age-old cellar in Rioja, essentially a cave that had been hewn into the rock below the Castillo de San Vicente de la Sonsierra. 1996 was the first vintage of his new project and since then it has gone from strength to strength. Benjamin gradually acquired various vineyard plots with different attributes ranging from soil type to exposure and altitude. Today, he has 80 different plots of old vines at his disposal from which he makes six different reds and two different whites, all of which are vinified to his exacting standards in his relatively new winery in San Vicente.
The Bodegas Contador style is considered to be a modern interpretation of Rioja, partly on account of the fact that none of the wines follow the pattern of Rioja classification by minimum ageing (i.e. Crianza, Reserva, Gran Reserva). Equally, the Contador wines show a more exuberant, brighter fruit and a more voluptuous mouthfeel than is typical of a more traditional Rioja. Previously, Benjamin had a hand in elevating the standing of Artadi during his tenure there, and he has rapidly established Bodegas Contador as one of Rioja’s finest estates. Indeed, to consider that he received a 100 point score from The Wine Advocate in two successive years within ten years of founding the estate says a great deal about the quality. To my mind, what the Contador wines have shown so clearly is that there are highly successful modern interpretations of Rioja as much as there are successful classic styles. I would add that I can cite disappointing producers in each camp so it is not a question of one approach being superior to the other.
We have focused on the Cueva del Contador rather than Contador itself as I believe that this is where the value lies for this estate. Funnily enough Luis Guitterez, the Spanish reviewer for Robert Parker’s website, concurs in his note below, stating that it is the wine he personally buys. At a third of the price of the Contador, Cueva is often not so far behind in terms of quality, routinely earning lofty scores from The Wine Advocate as well as other review sites.
2012 La Cueva del Contador Rioja Bodega Contador
£350 per six bottles in bond
The Cueva del Contador is a pure Tempranillo produced from six or seven different vineyard parcels. There is a terrific floral quality to this vintage which provides lift to the generous stone fruit. It seems that greater refinement has been harnessed in the more recent vintages. The impression of oak has eased back and the wines are all the better for it. This is a sleek, beautifully expressed Rioja, already accessible but will show more complexity if given time in bottle. I am certainly excited by the subtle shift in style here. These were always seriously impressive wines, yet now they seem to have developed a bit more sophistication and complexity.