Nisia Old-Vine Verdejo Rueda 2025

I’ve been paying attention to what Jorge Ordonez has been doing in Rueda for a while now. The guy is one of the most respected winemakers in Spain and he never compromises. Ordonez doesn’t make this into some trendy, fruity Verdejo. He ferments and ages it on the lees in oak…old-school winemaking.

Here’s the thing: most people don’t realize what makes this wine so special. It comes from pre-phylloxera vines – ungrafted originals planted in the sandy southeast corner of Rueda. This is literally the only part of the appellation that completely resisted phylloxera because of those sandy soils. So you’re drinking from vineyard sites that survived what destroyed European viticulture over a century ago.