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.
Reviews:
- Wine Advocate: There was no 2013 produced, so I tasted the current 2014 Contador, the vintage that follows the 2012. Tasting a new vintage of Contador is always a very intense moment. I had previewed the 2014 when I visited the winery in the summer of 2016, when the wine was very obviously young but showed very promising. All those promises seem to have made it intact into the bottle. It’s intense, pungent, ripe without excess, with aromas of spices, exotic woods, balsam, earth, wild flowers and berries. The palate is medium to full-bodied, with fine-grained tannins, a nice texture and pungent and persistent flavors. It has the balance and stuffing to develop nicely in bottle, and it will surely be better in a couple of years. 5,900 bottles were filled in May 2016.
- James Suckling: JS Simple bright raspberry and blackcurrant fruits with a violet-like floral edge. The palate has a neat, fine and crunchy feel. Juicy tannins. Nice and fresh.?
Producer Information
Bodega Contador is a modern wine producer in Rioja, Spain. Its flagship wine, Contador, is one of Spain’s most consistently high-priced wines, on par with Pingus and Vega Sicilia. Made predominantly from Tempranillo and aged in French oak, Contador is known for being full-bodied, fruit-driven and rich. The estate was established in 1995 when Artadi winemaker Benjamin Romeo purchased a cellar under the Castle of San Vicente de la Sonsierra in Rioja, some 35km (21 miles) northwest of Logroño. Romeo began to buy vineyards in the area, making the wines in his parents’ garage and aging his wines in barrel in the cellar. Romeo’s production initially began with the La Cueva del Contador label in 1996, and the first vintage of Contador was in 1999. The 2004 and 2005 vintages of the latter went on to receive 100-point scores from Robert Parker, cementing the wine’s in-demand status.
