Why it matters
The producer
In 2002, Luis Pérez left behind decades as technical director at Domecq and purchased Hacienda Vistahermosa, a hillside estate atop Cerro del Corchuelo, the highest point in the Jerez region. His intent was not to make another commercial Sherry but to recover something the industry had buried: unfortified, vintage-dated wines where the ripeness of the grapes and the character of the pago dictated the style rather than the addition of grape spirit.
Son Willy Pérez now leads winemaking and represents the bodega publicly. Willy spent time studying Shiraz production in McLaren Vale, Australia, drawn there by the valley's geographic and climatic similarities to Jerez. He came back with a working philosophy he applied to the Vistahermosa estate. His statement of intent is compact: less veil, more soil. The flor yeast that defines conventional biological-ageing Sherry becomes secondary to the pago and the vintage.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Hacienda Vistahermosa sits atop Cerro del Corchuelo, the highest elevation in the Jerez region, just northwest of Jerez de la Frontera. The elevation and position make the estate unusual in a region whose wine geography tends to be read through the albariza chalk flats rather than hillside altitude.
Beyond the home estate, the bodega works with grapes from the historic pagos that once gave Jerez its internal geography: Balbaína, Añina, Macharnudo, and Carrascal. These named single estates predate the industrial blending era and carry distinct soil and ripeness profiles. Bringing them back into individual bottlings is part of the project.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The bodega's vineyards include the Vistahermosa estate on Cerro del Corchuelo and parcels in the historic Jerez pagos of Balbaína, Añina, Macharnudo, and Carrascal. Palomino Fino is the primary white grape, farmed on albariza soils with the warm, dry conditions characteristic of the region. Merlot, Syrah, and Petit Verdot were planted at El Corchuelo following Willy's return from Australia.
In the cellar, the bodega does not fortify its Fino or Oloroso-style wines. The winemaking intention is to let biological and oxidative ageing develop their character without grape spirit raising the alcohol before fermentation concludes. For La Barajuela Cortado, the process is more specific: Palomino Fino grapes are hand harvested in mid-September, then sun-dried for 48 hours before being pressed by foot in a stone lagar and fermented in wooden barrels. The wine then ages for up to 48 months in used Sherry casks.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range covers two distinct tracks. One follows the unfortified Palomino path, making vintage-dated wines in oxidative and biological styles from the historic pagos. La Barajuela Cortado is the oxidative flagship: sun-dried Palomino Fino aged up to four years in used Sherry casks, dry and concentrated, with pronounced acidity. La Escribana is the biological-ageing counterpart, a vino de pasto style from Palomino Fino.
The second track uses the international varieties planted at El Corchuelo. Merlot, Syrah, and Petit Verdot appear as unfortified red wines, a category essentially absent from Jerez historically. The two tracks share the same founding logic: origin and vintage over commercial standardisation.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
La Barajuela Cortado is the right first bottle. Hand-harvested Palomino Fino, dried two days under the Jerez sun, pressed by foot, fermented in wood, and aged up to four years in old Sherry casks: the process is the argument in a bottle. The concentrated dried-fruit and nut notes arrive with pronounced acidity and a dry, long finish, showing a category of wine that the industrialisation of Jerez had eliminated. It is not a Sherry in the fortified sense, but it is not separable from the Sherry tradition either.