Jorge Ordonez

The Quadrum three liter Spanish boxed wines have just had a twenty percent price reduction.  (Yes, you heard me right.)  It was almost a year ago when we blogged about them, encouraging everyone to try them because after all, it was picnic season and the three types were way better than grocery store fare.  AND they're Jorge Ordonez wines, so you really ought to try 'em!

Jorge Ordonez Selections is a family-owned importer of Spanish wines produced on twenty-seven winery estates.  The company was established in 1987 when Spain was not regarded as anything special in the wine world.  Jorge fixed that.  Spain is actually the planet's largest viticultural region with a 2,700 year history of wine making, the oldest in Europe.  

Jorge grew up in a wine wholesaling family and understood early on that Spain had something special to offer the wine world.  Yet in 1987 it was the large corporate-run, profit-driven cooperatives that were shipping to America and that wine was often tainted by poor transportation and storage.  There was a lot of room for improvement.  They weren't even trying to make fine wine.

Having been raised in the wine industry, Jorge looked around at all of the historic family-owned vineyards and wineries and wondered why this honorable and honest approach to the industry wasn't valued for what it is.  He reached out to many of these owners beseeching them to maintain the traditional ways AND update their operations with whatever needed to be done to improve their product.  Cleanliness in the winery, limits on harvests, and organics in viticulture and winemaking were stressed.  After these improvements Jorge would have his work cut out for him.  He would insist on refrigerated trucks and warehouses wherever his wines were sold.  Then he had to challenge the international palate to try wines made from the indigenous grapes of Spain, something decidedly outside of the American comfort zone.

Spanish vineyards are traditionally dry farmed, meaning tap roots have to find water deep in the earth.  Trace elements of different minerals and nutrients would then find their way through the plant and ultimately into the wine creating a complexity of flavors.  Through Jorge's uncompromising efforts these new and unfamiliar flavors have found a market share in America's wine culture.