Vatan Bodegas

 

The legendary Duero River plays a very important role in the history of D.O. Toro. The Duero deposited Toro’s characteristic sandy soils in this region thousands of years ago. These sandy soils allowed D.O. Toro to completely resist the phylloxera plague, and as a result, Toro was the only Spanish region that completely resisted the phylloxera, and is home to the highest concentration of ungrafted vines in Spain.

 

Jorge Ordónez is Toro’s most important modern pioneer. When Jorge first travelled to Toro in 1991 he discovered no more than five cooperative wineries. He also found acres of incredible pre-phylloxera vineyards, planted on their original rootstock. In 1995, Jorge first travelled to Toro with the Eguren family of Rioja, in hopes of founding a winery with them. In 1997, Bodegas Numanthia was founded by Jorge and the Eguren family, and become an icon for this historic region and the production of world class wines from authentic vineyards. By the time Jorge and his associates sold Numanthia to LVMH in 2007, there were 85 other wineries in D.O. Toro attempting to emulate the success of Numanthia.

 

After the sale of Numanthia, Jorge founded Bodegas Ordónez, his personal project in D.O. Toro. One of the wines produced by Bodegas Ordónez, Triton, is considered by many to be Toro’s finest value. As Ordónez himself says, it is an honor and privilege to produce wines from the oldest clones of Tempranillo, planted and cared for with the most traditional methods of viticulture. Bodegas Ordónez has now been renamed Bodegas Vatan, where Jorge pioneers and champions D.O. Toro as one of the world’s finest red wine regions.

 

Toro is a special region for Jorge and the rest of Jorge Ordónez Selections, because it is the perhaps the region that best embodies the Ordónez philosophy – producing wine from the oldest clones of Spain’s indigenous varieties. The local indigenous grape, Tinta de Toro, is Spain’s oldest and most original clone of Tempranillo. It produces the deepest, most intense expression of Tempranillo in Spain, and it is a grape with a noble history that should be heralded. Bodegas Vatan produces wine from ungrafted, head trained, and dry farmed vineyards of Tinta de Toro planted in 1900, 1916, 1946, and 1962.