Pioneer of Spanish wine: Senor Jorge Ordonez

I thought I would give you a few more wines to check out. Jorge Ordonez is a stud. Period. The guy was a distributor in Spain in the early 80s. He moved to Boston in the late 80s, and needed a form of employment. At that time, NOBODY was talking about Spain. He began to import some of his producers, and lived "paycheck to paycheck" his first 7 years. In the mid-90s, Spain started hitting the wine scene hard. Robert Parker (Wine Advocate) was saying phenomenal things about the country. When Parker gets excited, most of the American wine drinking population does too! In the late-90s/early 2000s, we saw Spain explode onto the wine scene. Ordonez was integral in that movement. I could go on and on, but I figured I'd give you a few wines to check out:



Volver La Mancha (Tempranillo)
- This wine retails for around $12-$15, but I think it rocks. It's from the La Mancha region (refer to map below). As I said earlier, there are some tremendous values coming from this region. Check it out!







Bodegas Luzon Jumilla (Syrah/Monastrell)
- Another exciting region called Jumilla. Jumilla is know for the Monastrell grape, from which Mourvedre is name in France. This wine packs a ton of flavor, and the wine trade loves it! Tremendous value, which you can find for under $10. Ordonez has a few projects from this area, at a higher price, and they disappoint.


Paso a Paso Castile-La Mancha (Tempranillo)
- Surprise surprise...La Mancha. Can't stress it enough. If you're looking for a wine to enjoy on a weekday night, without breaking the bank, here's another from Jorge's portfolio to put into your cart. Again, we're looking at under $10.




Ultimately, when you're looking in the Spanish section, this is the logo you're looking for. It's Jorge's importing logo. 9 times out of 10, you can't go wrong. I should note that many of Ordonez's wines come off very New World (Fruitty over Dirty Earth). If you're looking to taste/smell "sweaty leather saddle", these won't be the wines for you. Also, check out Garnacha (also known as Grenache). This grape performs extremely well in many of the Spanish terriors.

Please feel free to share comments thoughts on these wines, or the producer!