" We don't sell the wine without touching the vine "
Benjamin Romeo Predicador Tinto 2014
No longer available.
| Country: | Spain |
| Region: | Rioja |
| Winery: | Contador |
| Grape Type: | Tempranillo |
| Vintage: | 2014 |
| Bottle Size: | 750 ml |
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Benjamin Romeo Predicador Tinto is made from 96 percent Tempranillo, 2 percent Garnacha, 1 percent Graciano and 1 percent Mazuelo.
Predicador, or “Preacher,” named after Clint Eastwood’s everyman character in the 1985 film Pale Rider, is composed of 96 percent Tempranillo, 2 percent Garnacha, 1 percent Graciano and 1 percent Mazuelo. The grapes are sourced from 15 different plots within San Vicente and Briones in Rioja Alta which on average yield less than 2 kg per vine. The wine is fermented in oak and stainless steel with a two-day cold maceration and aged for sixteen months in new French oak. The wine was filtered but not fined. This vintage some La Cueva del Contador, Contador and La Vina de Andres were added for concentration and balance.
The aromatics open up with crushed red cherries, balsamic notes and the sweet baking spices of cinnamon and clove. The fruity and spicy characteristics found in the nose follow through on the palate, along with dried cranberry, black cherry and elegant fine-grained tannin supporting the tart red fruit and adding to its length and depth.
Review:
The red 2021 Predicador has notes of ripe black fruit and dark spices and is a little earthy, powerful, concentrated and generously oaked but balanced and integrated. A modern, powerful red Rioja produced with Tempranillo and complemented with 3% each Graciano and Mazuelo and 2% Garnacha, it has a juicy palate with plenty of power and abundant, fine-grained tannins. It's ripe without excess at 14.7% alcohol. 90,000 bottles produced. It was bottled after spending 19 months in used French oak barrels.
-Robert Parker 93 Points
Colour ,cherry, purple rim. Aroma ,fruit expression, floral, spicy, red berry notes, black fruit, complex. Flavour ,flavourful, fruity, good acidity, long.
-Guia Penin 93 Points
Benjamin Romeo La Cueva del Contador is made from 91% Tempranillo, 9% Garnacha.
Named after the centuries-old caves or “cuevas” carved out of the hillside below the castle of San Vicente in Sonsierra north of the Ebro, this wine is composed of 91 percent Tempranillo and 9 percent Garnacha. The fruit is sourced from eight different plots that yield about 1.2 kg per vine. Fermentation begins after a three-day cold maceration and the wine is aged for nineteen months in 100 percent new French oak and bottled without fining or filtration.
The palate offers flavors of blackberry coulis, Damson plums, Rosemary and well-integrated tannins; this wine is well balanced and youthful with a long powerful finish. Both red and black fruit are pronounced in the nose, but there are also mineral and herbal notes of gravel and lavender.
Review:
I found cleaner aromas and a fresher quality and finer tannins in the 2019 La Cueva del Contador, a quite complete wine with elegance and finesse combined with power and concentration. The oak is still noticeable after 18 months in new barriques, and I'd wait a little longer before pulling the cork. It has the perfume of La Cueva in the background. It should resurface with a little more time in bottle. 10,000 bottles produced.
-Wine Advocate 95 Points
Pazo de Senorans Seleccion de Anada Albarino is made from 100 percent Albarino.
Straw yellow with greenish tints, vivid and brilliant. High intensity and very expressive. Profusion of aromas with traces of mineral. Great volume and ample body leaving a lasting impression from beginning to end.
Reviews:
I think the 2014 Albariño Selección de Añada could be the finest vintage of this characterful long-aging Albariño, from a year with a more moderate 13% alcohol and very high acidity (and low pH) that make the wine fresher and more vibrant. It is developing very slowly and showing quite young after it spent over 30 months with lees in 1,500- and 3,000-liter stainless steel tanks. It has a pale color and an elegant nose with notes of freshly cut grass, white flowers and wet granite. The palate is vibrant with effervescent acidity, and it has a long, dry and tasty finish with an austere sensation, far away from the tropical notes of some past vintages. This is superb and should continue developing nicely in bottle. Bravo! It wasn't bottled until April 2023, and 14,000 bottles were produced.
-Wine Advocate 96 Points
Tech:
ALCOHOLIC STRENGTH:
13 % proof
PRODUCTION:
16,000 bottles
TYPE OF WINE:
Aged on lees
FERMENTATION:
Stainless steel
PERIOD OF AGING IN VAT:
More than 30 month on lees
ORIGINAL VINEYARD:
Los Bancales
TYPE OF PLANTATION:
Pergola system (vines)
AVERAGE AGE OF VINEYARDS:
More than 45 years
HARVESTING METHOD:
Manual
DATE OF HARVESTING:
September
YIELD PER HECTAR:
5.000 kg/ha
MACERATION:
Pellicular (in presses)
ALCOHOLIC FERMENTATION:
Controlled at 18º
MALOLACTIC FERMENTATION:
No
OPTIMAL PERIOD OF CONSUMPTION:
5 years
All older vintage wines have been purchased from a single collectors cellar. Pictures can be requested before shipment.
Aalto P.S. Pagos Seleccionados Tinto is made from 100 percent Tempranillo.
Climatic conditions
The farming year began with a mild autumn and little precipitation. A very dry winter started with -9ºC reaching at the end higher temperatures than normal for that time of the year. Spring and summer characterized by little rain, only some rain showers in July and late August avoided the hydric stress of the vines. The vegetative cycle of the vine developed with big variations of temperatures, alternating warm and atypical low temperatures of 4ºC for mid-June. The ripening of the grapes happened under very good conditions and the harvest started on 24th September 2019.
Grape origin
100% Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) primarily from very old vines – 60 to 90 years old – from selected plots in La Horra and La Aguilera. The harvest was done by hand, in small boxes of 15 kilos that are thoroughly inspected, bunch by bunch, on the selection table.
Tasting notes
Purple red color. On the nose we perceive good dark fruit intensity and elegant spicy hints. On the palate it is fresh and dense with enveloping tannins. AALTO PS 2019 is a long, intense and full of nuances wine that will benefit from a time in the bottle.
Average oak ageing
Aged for 21 months in new French oak barrels.
Review:
Color: dark cherry, Aroma: toasty, spicy, fine cocoa, black fruit, Mouth: tasty, toasty, fine bitterness, ripe tannins
Guia Penin 94 Points
Aalto P.S. Pagos Seleccionados Tinto is made from 100 percent Tempranillo.
Climatic conditions
The farming year began with a mild autumn and little precipitation. A very dry winter started with -9ºC reaching at the end higher temperatures than normal for that time of the year. Spring and summer characterized by little rain, only some rain showers in July and late August avoided the hydric stress of the vines. The vegetative cycle of the vine developed with big variations of temperatures, alternating warm and atypical low temperatures of 4ºC for mid-June. The ripening of the grapes happened under very good conditions and the harvest started on 24th September 2019.
Grape origin
100% Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) primarily from very old vines – 60 to 90 years old – from selected plots in La Horra and La Aguilera. The harvest was done by hand, in small boxes of 15 kilos that are thoroughly inspected, bunch by bunch, on the selection table.
Tasting notes
Purple red color. On the nose we perceive good dark fruit intensity and elegant spicy hints. On the palate it is fresh and dense with enveloping tannins. AALTO PS is a long, intense and full of nuances wine that will benefit from a time in the bottle.
Average oak ageing
Aged for 21 months in new French oak barrels.
Review:
Lots of depth here, with ripe blackberries and some nicely baked black cherries, roasted herbs, incense, dark spices, mussels and a balsamic tinge. An admirably fine dollop of tannins on the palate, which are immaculate and juicy, as they thoroughly dunk into the black fruit, melting into a persistent finish that lasts for over a minute. Very impressive. Drink or hold.
-James Suckling 96 Points
Product Description
Benjamin Romeo Predicador Tinto is made from 96 percent Tempranillo, 2 percent Garnacha, 1 percent Graciano and 1 percent Mazuelo.
Predicador, or “Preacher,” named after Clint Eastwood’s everyman character in the 1985 film Pale Rider, is composed of 96 percent Tempranillo, 2 percent Garnacha, 1 percent Graciano and 1 percent Mazuelo. The grapes are sourced from 15 different plots within San Vicente and Briones in Rioja Alta which on average yield less than 2 kg per vine. The wine is fermented in oak and stainless steel with a two-day cold maceration and aged for sixteen months in new French oak. The wine was filtered but not fined. This vintage some La Cueva del Contador, Contador and La Vina de Andres were added for concentration and balance.
The aromatics open up with crushed red cherries, balsamic notes and the sweet baking spices of cinnamon and clove. The fruity and spicy characteristics found in the nose follow through on the palate, along with dried cranberry, black cherry and elegant fine-grained tannin supporting the tart red fruit and adding to its length and depth.
Review:
Predicador was a wine that was born as a minor wine at a very specific moment in time, and many people (including yours truly) had not quite realized it has grown into an adult, proper Rioja red. The 2014 Predicador I tasted had only been bottled for two weeks and was a little dizzy. But if you wait or can read between the lines, it's terribly perfumed and intoxicating, with penetrating aromas of macerated cherries and very decayed violets, a little decadent. The palate is silky, with superb tannins and great balance. This is among the best vintages ever released since the initial 2004.
- Wine Advocate 92 Points
Winery: Contador
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 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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