Barco del Corneta 'Loseco' 2024

Thirty or forty years ago, the wineries of La Seca poured a blend of Viura and Verdejo as their everyday wine. The two grapes grew side by side in the same vineyards and they worked together. Then the blend fell out of use as the region went all in on Verdejo alone. Loseco is that village wine brought back, from fruit grown in La Seca itself.

Viura carries the minerality and the weight across the mouth. Verdejo brings the acidity and the length. Fresh and direct, with a line of salt and citrus pith running through. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, so a faint haze in the glass is signature rather than fault. The Verdejo was fermented and aged in stainless steel. So was most of the Viura, except for eight or nine barrels of it that went into oak. Enough to add a little texture, not enough to turn it into something else entirely.

This is the kind of white that reminds you why blends exist. Not because one grape isn't good enough on its own, but because sometimes two grapes know something together that they don't know separately.