One of the oldest wines from the winery and on earth, the NV 1905 Amontillado Solera Fundacional is a non-vintage wine, and the year on the label refers to when the solera was initiated. Having said that, the average age of the wine is extremely high as the saca of wine from those soleras (saca means to take out, and is the word used for when some wine is taken from the solera and bottled) is extremely rare. The wine is believed to average 80 years of age, which means an extreme concentration of aromas, flavors and all other components. Dark amber color with a piercing, intense nose of noble wood, sea breeze, iodine, and hazelnuts, it is very detailed, pure, focused, sharp, salty, and on the verge of being painfully intense. With lively acidity, great concentration, and an eternal aftertaste, this is as unique and as good as Amontillado gets. Drink 2013-2030. Perez Barquero was established in 1905 and still have some soleras from that time, the foundational soleras, from which very small quantities of extremely old and concentrated wines are withdrawn and bottled from time to time. In 1985 it was purchased by Rafael Cordoba who owns other three wineries in Montilla, Bodegas Gracia (from which I tasted one wine here), Vinicola del Sur and Tomas Garcia, and the four make up the Perez Barquero Group. They own 100 hectares of vineyards in some of the best locations in the appellation, in Sierra de Montilla and in Moriles Alto, planted with a majority of Pedro Ximenez, and control a further 400 hectares of vineyards belonging to other grape growers. With this they produce an impressive array of both dry and sweet wines (plus brandy and vinegar), whose main characteristic is balance, elegance and finesse. They stock 10,000 500- to 600-liter American oak barrels, the famous botas where they age their wines following the soleras and criaderas system. They produce an average of three million bottles of wine per year. Perez Barquero represents the quality summit of Montilla-Moriles. Their Finos usually have a lot number, whose first two digits seem to be the bottling year. All the Finos tasted had a lot starting with 13. The oldest wines, the ones labeled 1905, which is the year their soleras were created, were only bottled once in 2002, around 1,000 bottles of each, so the bottles should be decanted in advance to give the wines the chance to breath. Imported by A. Hardy’s USA, www.ahardyusa.com