Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Benjamín Romeo was winemaker at Artadi for years before setting up on his own. He has a high-scoring, rockstar reputation, but is dedicated to old-vine Tempranillo and Tempranillo Peludo (meaning ‘hairy’). Contador, the top wine, is 86% Tempranillo and 14% Garnacha, aged for 18 months in new French oak. Unexpectedly elegant, with a superbly complex palate of black fruit, sweet spice and espresso.
Hailed as the star red variety in Spain’s most celebrated wine region, Tempranillo from Rioja, or simply labeled, “Rioja,” produces elegant wines with complex notes of red and black fruit, crushed rock, leather, toast and tobacco, whose best examples are fully capable of decades of improvement in the cellar.
Rioja wines are typically a blend of fruit from its three sub-regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental, although specific sub-region (zonas), village (municipios) and vineyard (viñedo singular) wines can now be labeled. Rioja Alta and Alavesa, at the highest elevations, are considered to be the source of the brightest, most elegant fruit, while grapes from the warmer and drier, Rioja Oriental, produce wines with deep color, great body and richness.