Contador Benjamin Romeo Alma Rioja 2020

Contador Benjamin Romeo Alma Rioja 2020

97 Points Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate: “The new red blend 2020 Alma Contador is going to be sold mostly through the ngociants from Bordeaux. It was produced with grapes from three vineyards in San Vicente de la Sonsierra at different altitudes and is a blend of Tempranillo with 8% Garnacha with limited yields because of mildew. It matured in new French barriques for 20 months. He wanted a more classical image and perhaps a more classical profile of wine. It’s perfumed and floral, with notes of aromatic herbs, a little balsamic and quite showy, with very fine tannins and freshness, as he used more grapes from the higher-altitude zones. It’s powerful and elegant, and in a way it reminds me of the style of the initial vintages of La Cueva de Contador; it’s clean and elegant. It’s 14.5% alcohol with a pH of 3.55. It’s very young but still drinkable, as the quality of the tannins is very good. I think this is the one wine I’d buy from their portfolio if I could only buy one. It transported me to the wines from the early 2000s. 10,000 bottles produced.” 07/22

A Rioja like no other from Bodega Contador, 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.

Alma de Contador 2020, one of the latest Spanish additions at La Place de Bordeaux, is a red wine specially created for La Place and named after Benjamn Romeo’s daughter. He has come to understand that the “soul” of San Vicente de la Sonsierra, the village where he works and where his winery is located, lies in the ability to blend different plots in such a way as to capture the complexity of its soils and exposures.