Departures of note

Benjamín Romeo Hilera was a Spanish enologist, viticulturist, and winemaker born in 1963 in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, La Rioja, into a family with generations of ties to vine growing in the Rioja Alta. He trained at the Escuela de la Vid in Madrid, where the Casa de Campo enological station helped professionalize Spain's wine sector, and began his independent winemaking career in 1995 when he acquired an old cave beneath the castle of San Vicente de la Sonsierra.

In 2008 he inaugurated the definitive home of his project, Bodega Contador, designed with landscape integration and operational efficiency in mind. His winemaking philosophy emphasized meticulous vineyard work and the preservation of the genetic heritage of his historic vineyards through massal selection and in-situ grafting across the more than seventy parcels he managed in the region.

Romeo achieved international renown when his signature wine, Contador, received 100 points on Robert Parker's Wine Advocate scale in two consecutive vintages (2004 and 2005), a historic milestone. Contador became one of the first Rioja and Spanish labels to join La Place de Bordeaux, the centuries-old global distribution system reaching buyers in some 170 countries. He also created other recognized wines, including Predicador and Alma de Contador, which reflected the typicity and diversity of San Vicente de la Sonsierra.

He died of cancer on 17 August 2026 at the age of 63, prompting widespread recognition from the wine sector for his role in the renovation and international projection of Rioja wine.