For the 2024 vintage of Nisia Old Vine Verdejo from Rueda, the professional critical response has been consistently strong:
| Critic |
Score |
Review summary |
| Jeb Dunnuck |
92/100 |
Creamy texture with peach and apricot fruit, refined oak integration, lively acidity, and a long finish. |
| Vinous |
92/100 |
Aromas of butter, lees, pastry, and green apple; creamy, fresh palate with white fruit and impressive concentration. |
| James Suckling |
90/100 |
Typical Verdejo character with fennel, kiwi, and white almond notes; crisp acidity and a slightly creamy finish. |
| Wine Spectator |
89/100 |
Honeyed floral aromas with melon, lime peel, peach skin, ginger, and a mineral finish. |
Overall assessment
The 2024 Nisia Old Vine Verdejo is widely regarded as an excellent example of premium barrel-fermented Verdejo, earning scores between 89 and 92 points from major critics. The consensus highlights:
- Richer, more textured style than typical stainless-steel Verdejo
- Old-vine concentration
- Creamy mouthfeel from lees aging
- Bright acidity balancing ripe stone fruit
- Good aging potential for several years
If you're considering buying the standard Nisia 2024, it represents very good value for a premium Spanish white, especially if you enjoy fuller-bodied, oak-influenced Verdejo rather than the lighter, stainless-steel style.
Traditional dry farmed viticulture. Organic goblet trained vines (vaso system). Cultivated completely by hand. All of the vines used for Nisia are ungrafted, as this part of D.O Rueda is phylloxera resistant, due to the extremely sandy soils.
Hand-harvested and stored in small baskets. Fermentation in third use to neutral French oak puncheons and demi-muids (500-600L barrels, respectively). Aged 12 months sur lie with battonage.
Bodegas Ordóñez works with exclusively ungrafted vineyards of Verdejo planted in the southeastern subzone of D.O. Rueda, the only part of the appellation that completely resisted phylloxera due to the sandy quality of the soils. The philosophy of the winery is to produce authentic Verdejo the old-fashioned way, by working with traditional vineyard sites and using old school winemaking techniques.
