La Cueva del Contador 2025

La Cueva del Contador is a Tempranillo red from Bodega Contador, the Rioja project of winemaker Benjamín Romeo, who founded the estate in 1995 and made the first vintages in a small cellar beneath the Castillo de San Vicente de la Sonsierra, the cave that gives the wine its name. The vineyards lie in the Sonsierra, on the cooler northern side of Rioja Alta, where altitude and a continental climate with wide day-to-night temperature swings slow ripening, holding acidity in a wine that nonetheless reaches 15.5 percent. Farming is sustainable. Tempranillo here is picked ripe and concentrated, then aged eighteen months in French oak, where slow oxygen exchange rounds the tannins and adds sweet spice, vanilla and a fine smoky edge. The colour is deep, dense ruby. The nose is intense, leading with ripe blackberry and blueberry over liquorice, toasted oak and pepper. The palate is full-bodied and powerful, with firm, ripe tannins, good freshness and a long, warming finish. Serve at 16 to 18 degrees and decant a young bottle generously. It is built for hearty red meat and game.