Gonzalez Byass has bottled six rare vintages of Palo Cortado and Oloroso dating back 10 1967. The wines dating from 1967 to 1994. They will be available only at Selfridges for off-trade sales and at the Connaught hotel in Mayfair for on-trade.
Sherry is traditionally a blend through the continuous Solera process. However, Gonzalez Byass holds back a small amount of specially selected Sherry butts and ages them as individual vintages in American oak casks. The company currently has some 3,000 casks of vintage sherry dating back to 1834.
Antonio Flores, Gonzalez Byass, chief winemaker, closely monitors the development of the sherries and selected four vintages 1967, 1875, 1989 and 1994 to be bottled to join the current 1982 release. In addition Gonzalez Byass celebrated 1978 Palo Cortado is being re-released after its initial run in 2010 as Flores deemed it in perfect condition to bring back to the market. Only 30 bottles of each vintage released went on sale at Selfridges on Thursday 27th February at £115 for the Palo Cortado while the 1989 Oloroso has a retail tag of £ 155 and the very rare 1967 will sell at £240. A mixed case of six vintages will sell at £ 999.