Jorge Ordoñez On Spanish Wines

Many of you have asked La Tienda for guidance in selecting the best of Spanish wine in America. You and I know and enjoy many of the most well-known wines, but we suspect that there are many other ones not found in the local market which are unknown treasures, made by small independent family bodegas. How can we identify these wonderful wines?

May we introduce you to Jorge Ordoñez, the human dynamo who imports Spain's biggest, deepest wine portfolio to America? We have asked him to provide La Tienda a balanced spectrum of what he believes to be the best of Spanish wine available in America across all price ranges. He draws from an astonishing portfolio - 13O wines from 4O wineries.

More than a decade after the death of Franco in 1975, Spanish wine, once proud, had fallen to a regrettable state. However, the country's vineyards were like secret gardens, overflowing with old vines that could make superb wines, if only someone would care for them, separate the good from the bad, and not mix the grapes with indifferent ones to make mediocre wine.

Who would awaken the sleeping giant? Jorge Ordonez. Through the force of his personality and his practically limitless energy, Ordonez, just 45, has changed the Spanish wine world, and especially the American view of Spanish wines. He's an importer and merchant, dedicated to bringing the best of Spanish wine to America.

For Jorge it has been an uphill struggle from 1987 obscurity to the position he is in today. "When nobody cared about Spanish wines," he claims proudly, "I was there."  The world’s most influential wine critic Robert Parker has twice named Señor Ordoñez Wine Personality of the Year, and called him one of the most influential wine personalities of the past twenty years.