Ossian Winery – Spain

Posted by Katarina Maloney on Dec 3, 2009 in Features

I was only in Spain for a week and I wanted to take things easy for my last days in Europe. While I was planning on passing the time by checking out the Spanish queso scene and filling up on tapas, my host Amy suggested that I check out a nearby winery named Ossian. They are one of the leading organic wineries in Spain, only produce white wine made with the indigenous Verdejo grape and are doing some very cool stuff with compost. Sounds great! I’m there. After two buses, and one giant pastry for breakfast, I arrived at Ossian, located outside the tiny village of Nieva in the Rueda DO. 

Ossian is owned by Javier Zaccagnini and Ismael Gozalo, whose family has been making wine in the area for generations. In fact, winemaking in Nieva dates back to the 11th century when monks used to make wine in the monastery – Ossian still uses the church’s old bodega to house barrels. Even though winemaking is nothing new for small village, Ossian is definitely a unique and unconventional project all of its own. The small winery of 33 hectares is only five years old but its Ossian 2007 has already been awarded 97 points by Spanish Wine Guides Penin and Andres Proensa and the award of “Best Wine in Spain,” the first time this has gone to a white wine.

Here are some other unique qualities of Ossian: 

White Winemaking: Indigenous Spanish Verdejo grapes grow on pre-Phylloxera bush vines in sandy soil. Only yellow grapes, not green, are picked at peak ripeness with 2-3% dried raisins for concentrated sugar and complex flavors. Grapes are then pressed in whole bunches (similar to Champagne) and receive cold maturation for just a few hours to bring out fruit flavors. The pH is also very low usually ranging from 2.8 – 3.1, which results in a slow maturation rate that will help develop fruit flavors and conserve quality over the time.

Unfiltered White Wine: Yes, Ossian filters its wine, however filtering occurs only 10 tens days before bottling for as much complex flavor development as possible. Though in the perfect Ossian wine world, their wine wouldn’t be filtered at all. According to Ismael, when wine is filtered, the lees (proteins) that are removed also in effect, remove the “life” in the wine. So, the more time lees has contact with the wine, there is more opportunity for a slow evolution in flavor development and also the possibility of a longer shelf life. 

A Bottle For Each Crop: Spain makes it difficult for a bodega to have more than two or three wines (usually separated into categories of white and red or low and high price point). However, Ismael believes that each of his 38 parcels of vineyards are so unique that he would love to make a separate wine for each, creating the ultimate representation of Ossian’s terroir. 

Biostatics: The Ossian vineyards are certified organic, so when I asked Ismael about his thoughts on biodynamics, his answer was, “To be honest, I don’t understand biodynamics at all. So, I’m in the works of creating my own version of working with agriculture naturally. It’s called Biostatics. Say wha? Biostatics was originally created by Ismael’s partner Javier. Unfortunately I didn’t get the full scope on Biostatics but keep a look out for it as the next thing in natural agriculture.

Visit Ossian online at www.ossian.es.