100% Verdejo from two vineyard sites with clay-banded sandy soils. A perfect expression of the balancing tension of Ismael Gozalo's Verdejos. Ismael's approach to preserving freshness and expressing the full character for Verdejo is to harvest in two separate passes, one early and one much later. The first and smaller pass is done to preserve the bright acidity and minerality of early harvested Verdejo, while the second, larger harvest is intended to showcase the fruit and length that comes from fully ripened grapes. There is fantastic energy and freshness to this wine, with a hint of sandy grit on the palate. 

Microbio

Ismael Gozalo is a fifth generation winegrower and winemaker from Nieva, a village in the province of Segovia. This is Verdejo country and Ismael is colloquially known as ‘the wizard of Verdejo’.

His family is custodian to some of the oldest vines of Verdejo in Spain, with holdings across 27.5 hectares. Ismael chooses the first selection of fruit for MicroBio and sells the remaining 60-70%, to other producers including Marquis de Riscal and Ossian. There are years of exception though, and 2017 saw heavy frosts and a loss of close to 90% of fruit, needless to say he kept all the fruit for MicroBio.

This is Verdejo unlike anything else produced. Ultimately It comes down to this: Pre phylloxera, un-grafted old vines between 100 to 260 years of age, deep sandy soils and an elevation of 800-900 meters above sea level. These are vines that have never seen chemical treatments. 

Also planted is a small amount of Tempranillo, Syrah and Merlot and he works with Rufete sourced from a single vineyard in the hills surrounding Salamanca. In 2018 Ismael planted Savagnin, Ganevat rootstock gifted to him by Anne. 

Picking occurs across the whole harvest, some early to yield more acidity, some later when the grapes are incredibly ripe. When it comes to the pressing of fruit he uses either a basket press or pneumatic press depending on the desired result and level of oxidation he wants to get during the press. In the cellar Ismael uses a wide variety of vessels: amphora, demijohn, stainless steel, barrels and foudres. There is now between 12-15 different expression of Verdejo produced covering a broad spectrum, inclusive of skin contact, oxidative aging, wines under flor. 

His cellar is meticulous and Ismael is a little obsessive when it comes to producing clean and pristine wines. The quality of the fruit, natural acidity he achieves, and PH levels are most certainly the primary contributors to the stability of these wines. Only indigenous yeasts are used, there is no filtering or fining and no additions throughout the winemaking process.

All wines are sold as Vino de Espana as Isamel has no interest in working to DO Rueda specifications and manipulative winemaking techniques.