Ossian Vides y Vinos

The Free Bacchus Story

Ossian began in 2005, when Ismael Gozalo, a grower from Nieva, and Javier Zaccagnini, former head of the Ribera del Duero regulatory board, set out to see what Segovia’s ancient Verdejo vines could do. The Ruiz Aragoneses family, owners of Pago de Carraovejas, bought in from 2013 and took it over outright in 2016. José María Ruiz, whose Segovia restaurant carries his name, was unsure white wine had a long future. His son Pedro was sure of it.

Verdejo is Rueda’s white grape, and most of it is picked at night and made taut, dry and young, with a bitter-almond turn at the end. Ossian’s vines sit inside the Rueda appellation, but the wine is sold as Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y León and made another way, fermented with wild yeasts and aged about nine months in oak on its lees, the spent yeast. That gives a rounder, deeper white built to age, smelling less of exotic fruit than most Verdejo and more of white fruit and herbs.

The vines grow in sand, where phylloxera, the root pest that wiped out Europe’s vineyards in the late 19th century, cannot thrive, so many were never grafted. Some are close to 200 years old. At around 900 metres winters drop to minus fifteen, and spring frost took as much as 90 per cent of the 2024 crop. Javi Blasco, the technical director, has herbal sprays carried on backpacks rather than by tractor, and in the frost of May 2026 the team set out candles among the oldest plots.

Ossian has farmed organically from the outset, and both registers now carry it. CAECYL, Castilla y León’s organic council, certifies the grapes and the winemaking. Demeter lists Ossian as a biodynamic producer and processor, meaning the vineyards and the winery, and 2025 was set to be the first certified vintage. The grapes and the wine are certified organic and biodynamic.