Ossian 2023

2023 / 94+ puntos

The 2023 Ossian was produced with Verdejo grapes from old, organically farmed vines on sandy and rocky soils around the village of Nieva in the province of Segovia—Nava de la Asunción, Moraleja de Coca, Santiuste de San Juan Bautista, Bernuy de Coca, Villagonzalo de Coca, Aldeanueva del Codonal, Aldehuela del Codonal, Codorniz, Melque de Cercos and Ochando—a zone where phylloxera didn't reach. They have small plots of very old vines in different villages, all 80 hectares planted ungrafted. The plots were vinified separately in 228- to 600-liter oak barrels with indigenous yeasts and the full lees from the pressing of the full clusters. The wines matured in those barrels with the lees for around 10 months. Starting this year, the blending of the different plots is gradual: they blend the lesser villages first and then blend the important villages, and at the end, they do the final blend, which gives them a better understanding and improves the integration and texture of the wine. This also allows them to bottle three separate plots from three separate villages this year.

The wine is pale and bright, with a complex nose of spice, smoke and toast and a core of white fruit and flowers, hints of aniseed and fennel and a sense of complexity. The palate is medium-bodied, fine-boned, fresh and balanced with 13% alcohol and a vibrant and tickling, mineral, rocky sensation. It's fresher than the 2022; it shows a step up in precision and transparency. 82,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in the summer of 2023.