Winemaker Notes
#45 Vinous Top 100 of 2025
The Ordóñez family produces Vatan Tinta de Toro from estate vineyards of 125 year old ungrafted Tempranillo – the wine displays rich aromas of ripe red fruit, bittersweet dark chocolate, graphite, and mineral.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2021 Vatan Tinta de Toro opens with aromas of violets, lavender, fresh plum and raspberry, framed by subtle oak and a touch of cedar. Intense and creamy, the palate is broad and flavorful, with velvety, finely textured tannins. The finish is long, delivering depth and nuance. This is a balanced and elegant Tempranillo with a measured profile. Tannins show gentle grip, bringing tension that complements the wine’s volume and richness. A superb vintage that lends this wine exceptional depth.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Vatan is from a region of rustic wineries that has since come into its own due to the tremendous potential of the old, ungrafted vineyards, like Finca los Quemados, the source here, planted in 1900 on original rootstock. This full-bodied wine is concentrated in dark berry fruit, black licorice, and a lightness of baking spice and cedar, the sultry layers surrounded by sweet, velvety tannins.
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James Suckling
Violets, roasted spices, Sprite and lush blackberries. Quite rich and full-bodied with svelte tannins that manage to grow. There is a generous, almost glycerol-like sweetness to the palate, giving it a round mouthfeel. Long and dusty in the finish.
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Wine Spectator
Fragrant on the nose, with violet and rooibos tea notes. The palate offers a pure beam of cassis and black raspberry fruit, with rich flavors of espresso, milled pepper and smoked paprika. A well-tailored version, integrating sculpted, limber tannins and a mineral-laced underpinning that echoes on the finish. Drink now through 2036.
Verdejo is one of Spain’s most historic white grapes, as it has been in production since the Roman times, several thousand years ago. After over fifteen years as the lead producer of quality Verdejo in Spain, Ordóñez chose Puras, Valladolid, as the best appellation within Rueda for growing Verdejo. This isolated corner of the D.O. is home to sandy soils intermixed with river stones that were deposited tens of thousands of years ago when the Duero river was several hundred miles wide. Due to the sandy soils, this sub-appellation of Rueda, shaped like Italy’s boot, resisted the phylloxera. Bodegas Ordóñez takes advantage of this unique terroir to produce wine from its ungrafted vineyards, the oldest of which was planted in 1885. Jorge’s philosophy is to age all of their wines sur lie and barrel fermented in both stainless steel and large format, mostly used French oak.
Notoriously food-friendly, long-lasting and Spain’s most widely planted grape, Tempranillo is the star variety of red wines from Rioja and Ribera del Duero. The Rioja terms Joven, Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva indicate both barrel and bottle time before release. Traditionally blended in Rioja with Garnacha, plus a bit of Mazuelo (Carignan) and Graciano, the Tempranillo in Ribera del Duero typically stands alone. Somm Secret—Tempranillo claims many different names depending on location. In Penedès, it is called Ull de Llebre and in Valdepeñas, goes by Cencibel. Known as Tinta Roriz in Portugal, Tempranillo plays an important role in Port wine.
Spain's remote, high elevation Spanish wine zone between the regions of Bierzo and Ribera del Duero produces intense, full-bodied reds made from Tempranillo, locally called Tinta de Toro. This local variant has adapted to the region’s climatic extremes and recognizing its potential, top producers from Ribera del Duero and Rioja have invested heavily in its vineyards.