They would have liked to be able to name their wine La Horra, referring to the municipality in Burgos where their grapes come from, but that brand was already registered. The names of the vineyards were not worth it (El Alto, Barroso, La Espalda…), “among other reasons because the wine does not respond to just one of them, but to all of them”. Faced with the impossibility of giving the project and the wine a name related to the town of origin or the vineyards, they chose to relate it to their other passion: music, “which has so many similarities with wine”. Their favorite music being that of the German composer, musician, conductor, chapel teacher, singer and teacher Johann Sebastian Bach, they sought some way to pay homage to him.
Finally they opted for the first two words of the score of one of his masterpieces: the six sonatas and partitas for solo violin (Sei Solo a Violino senza Basso accompagnato…) In addition, they chose J. S. Bach’s own original writing for the label, that they were able to register as a wine brand.
Sei Solo is the personal project of one of the most important men in the history of the DO Ribera del Duero, Javier Zaccagnini, who was diagnosed with leukemia only 11 months earlier on January 8 of this year at the age of 69. Sei Solo is continued by his son Michael along with his wife María Gamboa. Today they make around 50,000 bottles a year with two references, around 10,000 of Sei Solo and around 40,000 of Preludio. They export 65% of their production. Switzerland, Belgium and Denmark are its main international markets.
Industrial engineer and director of a plastic injection company for automobiles, Javier Zaccagnini worked at the online wine store Vinoselección and was director of the Ribera del Duero Regulatory Council for 6 years (from 1992 to 1998). He was the first to design a wine tourism program in the region. His son Michael states that “he set out to visit all the wineries and put order in the chaos of the Regulatory Council.” His fondness for wine awoke during a sabbatical year, after participating in a tasting course. Until then he didn’t used to drink wine, and he never studied oenology. In 1998 he founded the prestigious AALTO winery together with other partners and Mariano García, after the latter’s departure from Tempos Vega Sicilia. According to his son, for Javier Zaccagini Mariano García “was God.”
Subsequently, this man with a surname of Italian origin founded the Segovian Bodegas Ossian, in the DO Rueda, in 2005, in which he had the technical advice of the Frenchman Pierre Millemann (who was also an adviser to wineries in Burgundy of the highest worldwide prestige, such as Domaine Dujac or Domaine De La Romanée-Conti). In 2007 he began testing what would become Sei Solo years later, looking for a different way of making Ribera del Duero Tempranillo “to enhance the fruit, finesse and elegance, even if this meant less tannic structure and less corpulence”. .
The first vintage was released on the market in 2011. To develop this personal project, he sold his shares in AALTO and Ossian and, together with his son Michael, settled in a warehouse that had been used as a garage for trucks with a fuel dispenser, in the industrial estate Roa de Duero, dedicating himself exclusively to Sei Solo since 2018, the achievement of a project that was truly his. As Michael explains, there is no question that they make “garage” wine. Today they are still in this rental ship that they renovated. He remembers his father as a winemaker “very loved and with a very good eye.” He also highlights his great ease in learning languages. He spoke French, English, German and even Catalan. He went so far as to affirm that he spoke better Catalan than some Catalans.
Javier Zaccagnini wrote that Sei Solo is “a project that I started in 2007, from four small plots of very old vineyards that I acquired in 2004 in my favorite town in the Ribera del Duero: La Horra.” Michael explains that “my father wanted to make Ribera del Duero wines, but with a more personal expression. He wanted wines with less power, extraction and wood. Wines that could express more finesse, fruit and elegance. Wood is always a secondary element in the bouquet”.
To find this style and production methodology, he carried out experimental tests from 2007 to 2010, until finally with the 2011 vintage he was satisfied with the result and launched the first wines on the market in 2013. Michael, who joined the project in 2015 , says that “this winery is his personal project, the result of his perseverance and work in the world of wine. He always looked for excellence in everything he did, and we worked very hard to continue that legacy.”
The grapes for Sei Solo 2020 come exclusively from small plots of very old vineyards, between 60 and 100 years old, in La Horra, all planted in goblet and with very low yields (between 1,000 and 2,500 kg/h). His own vineyards are all small estates. In addition, they have rented other estates in the same town, as well as old vineyards in Gumiel de Izán and Moradillo de Roa. They harvested by hand in small boxes, inspecting all the bunches, one by one, on a selection table. They work with low pH, always below 3.7. They have 33 hectares of vineyards, 13 of which were planted more than 50 years ago, spread over 28 plots. Michael Zaccagnini bets on the old vines to offer grapes with a higher concentration in a natural way, since “they change their reproduction strategy to offer less quantity, but of higher quality”.
The winter of the 2020 vintage was not very rainy and not very cold. In April the rains began, the cold and frosts, which did not affect the plants because they had not yet sprouted. At the end of that month the temperatures rose and the vines sprouted. May was hot, reaching 30 degrees for many days. Flowering occurred in mid-June, on their usual dates. The plants developed evenly in summer and at the beginning of September they saw that some vines, especially the old ones, were already ready to be harvested. Their harvest began on September 10 and took place without incident until the 17th. The following day there were very intense rains that did not affect them, since the entire harvest in La Horra had finished.
Sei Solo Bodegas y Viñedos usually harvests as soon as possible, around 15 or 20 days before the others, looking for greater acidity and freshness. Michael Zaccagnini reveals that “as soon as the tannins are no longer green, I start harvesting, even if it means sacrificing full phenolic ripening.” This leads him to recognize that “we are at the edge of the precipice.” In the 2020 harvest, his main “obsession” was to eliminate green tannins as much as possible.
They do not correct their wines “for the sake of correcting” and use the sulfurous “with a head”. Michael Zaccagnini affirms that “the less you remove from the wine, the better”. The batches of Sei Solo 2020 grapes were vatted in small stainless steel tanks of different sizes to ferment each vineyard separately, always with native natural yeasts to “express more authenticity”. The pressing was smooth (with a maximum yield of 65%). Gentle pump-overs were carried out seeking to maintain the fruit and the freshness of the grape, “in pursuit of a fine and elegant tannic structure.” After alcoholic fermentation, the wines were transferred to two-year-old French barrels, where they underwent malolactic fermentation, without sowing, to obtain “a finesse and a very personal style.”
Subsequently, each batch was transferred to large barrels with a capacity of 600 liters, where they remained for 17 months. Only 15% of these foudres are new, in order to preserve the fruit and avoid an excess of wood that “would alter the aromatic and taste balance of the wine.” It was bottled in June 2022, without clarifying and with a slight filtering, only to eliminate small impurities. Afterwards, it remained for several months in optimal storage conditions in the cellar, rounding off and refining in the bottle before being sold.
Sei Solo 2020 is well covered, and has the color of picota cherries. The tears in the glass are tinted. It exhibits notes reminiscent of flowers, black and red fruit and licorice, framed in hints of vanilla and cedar and a lactic background. The wood is very well integrated. It is tasty and expresses itself with freshness. Its good sensation of acidity gives it depth. Its final passage through the mouth leaves slightly menthol nuances, and somewhat drying tannins are evident. Tension and freshness despite its 14.5º of alcohol. A little more time per bottle will do you good. The distributor Vila Viniteca affirms that “it can be drunk now or kept for more than ten years”.
Michael affirms that they look for “finess and elegance”. He adds that he wants to make subtle wines, and that he shies away from the “wow!” factor. In fact, he explains that “we want to make wines that invite you to drink, with salivating action.” He is especially interested in making his wines silky. He says that the 2021 vintage is the best wine he has made to date, when he debuted 600-liter barrels with 36 months of drying. He already exhibits a lot of harmony now, with balsamic and a special perfumed character. Michael Zaccagnini likes to harmonize this red with chocolate, strawberries and cream. He explains that “at the end of the meal is when the wine is best, since it has fully opened”. This leads him to state that he “marries very well with desserts, but also with fish”.
