Case of Loseco 2024 | $36.00 per bottle

$36.00 per bottle | $432.00 case of 12

Grape Varieties: 60% Viura, 40% Verdejo
Region: La Seca, Castilla y León, Spain
Producer: Barco del Corneta
Alcohol: 12.5%
pH: 3.27
Production: 6,000 bottles, filled March 2025
Drink: 2025–2031

The Origin: A village wine from La Seca — the limestone heart of Verdejo country, where almost everyone plants Verdejo and almost nobody bothers with Viura. Loseco inverts that. Viura leads at 60% precisely because it is the better messenger for the soil: it transmits the limestone almost unedited, where Verdejo tends to answer with fruit. The proportions move with the vintage as the estate hunts the balance between limestone character and ripeness.

The Profile: Fresh, agile and direct on the surface, with real depth underneath — and running through all of it a chalky, sapid minerality that is the point of the wine rather than a detail of it. The Viura carries the stone; the Verdejo softens its edges. 12.5% alcohol, a figure that tells you 2024 was a less warm year here, and a pH of 3.27 that keeps everything taut. 94 points from Luis Gutiérrez in The Wine Advocate, who finished his note: "I'm very impressed."

The Craft: Built on the Nat'Cool premise that Dirk Niepoort set out — wines that are fresh and approachable, agile and straightforward, but with complexity and depth. After years of trials the estate committed to bottling Loseco unfined and unfiltered, which is what makes it livelier, and which is why you may find a faint haze in the glass: signature, not fault. 6,000 bottles were filled in March 2025.

The Pairing: Serve at 8–10°C, and give it twenty minutes out of the fridge — it closes up when it's too cold. Oysters, clams and grilled white fish are the obvious road; the more interesting one is salt cod, jamón, a young sheep's or goat's cheese, or a roast chicken with lemon. The limestone handles salt better than almost anything else at this price. Drinking well now and through 2031.