Suelos y Pueblos Trilogy: Three Perspectives on the Origins of Ossian
In northern Segovia, among pine forests and small villages surrounded by historic vineyards, grow the vines that give life to Ossian. This exceptional viticultural heritage has been preserved for generations, its survival through phylloxera made possible by the region’s sandy soils. Beneath that sand, the geological nuances of each area and the distinctive features of the landscape reveal a diversity we continue to explore with every vintage.
That understanding inspired the Suelos y Pueblos Trilogy: a collection of three single-vineyard wines from the 2023 vintage, originating in Nieva, Santiuste de San Juan Bautista, and Aldeanueva del Codonal. These three wines are typically components of the blend for Ossian, one of our winery’s three wines. In this collection, they are presented individually, revealing the nuances each origin contributes to its character.
A Heritage to Preserve, a Landscape to Understand
Ossian was founded in 2005. In 2013, Alma Carraovejas took on the privilege and responsibility of preserving and carrying forward a unique historical, viticultural, and cultural legacy. Since then, our work has centered on caring for the vineyards and developing a detailed understanding of the small plots that make them up.
To craft Ossian, we blend wines from more than 130 plots of pre-phylloxera Verdejo across twelve villages in northwestern Segovia. Each holds its own history: the age of its vines, the genetic diversity they preserve, the composition of its soils, and its relationship with an extreme climate of cold winters and hot summers.
Understanding these differences requires observing, tending, and working with each vineyard over time. From harvest through final blending, we work with more than 150 separately managed lots, allowing us to preserve and understand the distinctive character of each origin. Vinifying each parcel separately helps us explore its nuances and understand its contribution to the whole. Ossian brings all these expressions together.
Three Villages, Three Vineyards, One Vintage
In 2023, after ten years of work, learning, and discovery since joining Alma Carraovejas, we wanted to share this diversity through a special collection. We selected one particularly representative vineyard from each of three villages where we grow our vines: El Cuerno in Nieva, Alto Sanchón in Santiuste de San Juan Bautista, and Sendero de San Andrés in Aldeanueva del Codonal.
The wines from each vineyard remained separate throughout winemaking and bottling. The result was the Suelos y Pueblos Trilogy: an invitation to taste the wines side by side and discover how the same grape variety and vintage can yield such distinct expressions in places so close to one another.
Nieva: El Cuerno
Planted before 1900, El Cuerno covers just 0.88 hectares at an elevation of 860 meters. Sand and gravel, together with a mantle of windblown sand, define the soils of this historic vineyard, whose vines preserve the genetic richness of Verdejo in this distinctive landscape.
Nieva 2023 offers a closer look at the identity of this small vineyard, its characteristic soils, and its place within the mosaic of Ossian.
Santiuste de San Juan Bautista: Alto Sanchón
Alto Sanchón is a 0.53-hectare vineyard planted before the 20th century at an elevation of 820 meters. Its soils date back to the Miocene and contain silty, sandy, and marly materials, with small, localized pockets of green clay.
This geology reveals the diversity beneath the shared sandy mantle. In the wine, a delicate salinity lends a distinctive nuance to this expression of Verdejo from Santiuste de San Juan Bautista.
Aldeanueva del Codonal: Sendero de San Andrés
At just 0.24 hectares, Sendero de San Andrés is the smallest of the three vineyards. Its vines, planted in the 1930s, grow at an elevation of 860 meters on a Quaternary alluvial terrace.
Sand, clay, and fine quartz and quartzite gravel make up the soils of this vineyard, whose wine completes the collection’s three perspectives on the landscape.
Ossian Nieva Bottle
Ossian Santiuste de San Juan Bautista Bottle
Ossian Aldeanueva del Codonal Bottle
Winemaking That Honors Each Vineyard’s Character
All three wines share an approach designed to respect their origins. The grapes were harvested in small crates and gently pressed before the juice was transferred to wooden vats and barrels ranging from 228 to 600 liters.
Fermentation took place spontaneously with native yeasts. After approximately nine months of aging on their lees, the wines were bottled in the summer of 2024 and continued to develop in bottle until their release.
This shared approach allows us to explore the nuances of each vineyard and better understand its contribution to Ossian.
El Cuerno Plot in Nieva
Barrel Fermentation
Ossian Winery and the Village of Nieva
The Landscape, Reflected in the Labels
The identity of Suelos y Pueblos is also expressed through its presentation. Each label brings an aerial view of the landscape to the bottle: the village’s street layout, vineyard plots highlighted in white, and, among them, the vineyard behind the wine, picked out in gold with a subtly raised finish.
Against the dark background, contrasting colors and textures invite a closer look, helping locate each wine’s origin. The design reveals the relationship between the village, its vineyards, and the selected plot, bringing the same attention to detail to the label that guides our work in the vineyard.
Sealed with black wax, the bottles are presented together in a wooden case. Inside, a map of the twelve villages where we tend our vineyards and all the plots that give life to Ossian extends the journey. Printed on premium paper with a substantial weight and distinctive texture, it is designed to accompany the tasting and to be kept or displayed as a print: another way to continue exploring the landscape behind Ossian.
Ossian Nieva Label
Ossian Santiuste de San Juan Bautista Label
Ossian Aldeanueva del Codonal Label
A Special Collection to Discover Ossian
The Suelos y Pueblos Trilogy is a limited edition of 1,350 cases, released alongside the new vintage of Ossian. Each case contains one bottle each of Nieva 2023, Santiuste de San Juan Bautista 2023, and Aldeanueva del Codonal 2023, along with the vineyard map.
Three expressions of Verdejo rooted in the same land. An opportunity to discover the identity of each place individually and return to Ossian with a deeper understanding of its origins.
Ossian’s Suelos y Pueblos Trilogy is available in limited quantities through the Alma Carraovejas online store. For more information, please contact our team.
