How to drink a 1,280 sherry? Sparingly – there are only 30 bottles available worldwide – Telegraph.co.uk

Taking a sip of a 1,280 sherry is an unusual experience even in rarefied wine circles. The usual line on sherry is that its one of the wine worlds cheapest luxuries. And it is: I dont think theres any other wine in the world that delivers such a great experience for such a small outlay. But good value wines are not all that sherry has to offer. Hidden away in the dark, cool cellars around the town of Jerez in southern Spain there are some very serious treasures, some of which have been lying there, quietly maturing for decades or more.

One of them is Barbadillo Reliquia Amontillado, which I tasted this week. This wine is one of four Barbadillo Reliquias - the name is derived from the Spanish word for relic, or heirloom a series of incredibly old and very rare sherries. Their origins date back to the nineteenth century and they are produced and carefully husbanded by Bodegas Barbadillo who release them in minute quantities so as not to deplete their ancient stock.

I asked Tim Holt of Bodegas Barbadillo how many casks of the Reliquia Amontillado there are. His eyes moved upwards and to the left. I realized he was visualising the bodega so he could count them. Fiveyes, five. Thats five barrels in the whole solera: the system of fractional ageing in which sherry to be bottled is drawn out of the last barrel, which is filled up with liquid from the one before, which in turn is filled up from the one beforeand so on.

We can only take about 30 bottles out of it each year, Holt went on. Thats 30 to sell around the world allocations go to Hong Kong and Singapore as well as London. Any more and we wouldnt be able to maintain the age and the quality. The solera is fed by our 30 Year Old VORS Amontillado, which is actually about 50 years old, so the wine comes into the system with half a century on it already.

The main experience of tasting a sherry like this is one of intensity. Yes, theres a complex mosaic of roasted nut flavours if you want to go down that sort of tasting note route. But the most striking thing is the force and vibrancy of the wine in your mouth. And the fact that after you swallow or spit, in my case - it just goes on and on you can take the whole thing with you in the cab or on the tube, in my case home. Avid sherry fans love the Reliquia wines. I gather there is one bottle in Hedonism - 1,280. Either snap it up or wait for the next bottling.

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How to drink a 1,280 sherry? Sparingly - there are only 30 bottles available worldwide - Telegraph.co.uk