I first tasted the wines from Jorge Ordoñez close to ten years ago, while I was writing for The Rhône Report. Even then, I remember hating the extra layer of reflective wrapping each shipper arrived in as it took close to 10 minutes to cut off. Nevertheless, Jorge explained that this resulted in a more stable temperature during shipping. This passion and obsessive attention to detail are present in everything Jorge does. I would also wager it is responsible for his incredible success in resurrecting and rediscovering regions such as Rais Baixas, Toro, Jumilla, Campo de Borja, Navarra, Bilbao, and Málaga, among others.
Jorge Ordóñez
Growing up managing his family’s wine wholesale business in Málaga, Jorge Ordoñez arrived in the United State in 1987 with a personal crusade to highlight Spain’s incredible winemaking and grape growing history, as well as its wealth of very old vine vineyards. He’s worked tirelessly to overcome a negative stereotype of Spanish wines, which he attributed to poor storage and transportation conditions. He insisted estates he worked with clean up their wineries, use temperature controlled shippers at every stage of transit, and was the first wine broker in the United States to have a refrigerated warehouse in Spain. He’s also a perfectionist at tastings and for this report, we routinely went through multiple bottles of the same wine until Jorge was satisfied we had a representative bottle.
Today, Ordoñez has built an incredible portfolio of both benchmark and value-priced wines. This report, which was tasted at Ordoñez’s office in Boston as well as from samples here in Colorado, takes a broad look at his key estates and includes wines from throughout Spain, at all price points. There’s something for everyone here, from crisp, refreshing whites, fruit forward, inexpensive yet high-quality quaffers, to world-class, age-worthy wines that will stand up with the best in the world. I hope this report shows that Ordoñez is unquestionably one of the reference point importers for Spain and that these wines more than merit your attention.
Happy hunting and as always, thanks for reading!
Jeb Dunnuck
Jorge Ordoñez Selections: www.jorgeordonezselections.com