Couched comfortably in the luxury of the stunning new Ocean Prime restaurant, I recently sat down with famed Spanish wine importer and merchant Jorge Ordonez. He's a very influential man in the wine world and here's why: He single-handedly reintroduced Spanish wines to the U.S.In the 1980's, Spanish vino tasted little better than low quality plonk, and wineries and winery co-ops had little motivation to better their wares. Beginning in 1987, Ordonez helped change all that. With his tenacity and palpable confidence, he rediscovered varietals like garnacha, muscatel and verdejo in formerly backwater but now fashionable wine regions like Jumilla, Campo de Borja and Calatayud.
This article appears in Apr 8-14, 2009.