What is a Palo Cortado? Ah, the prospect of an answer would bring the professionals running in their long coats over the fields, copita in hand. Different things to different producers, ultimately. Oloroso casks but with free-run juice (Oloroso uses second-press juice) aged to achieve the romance of an Amontillado but maintaining the mouthfeel of an Oloroso. An Oloroso trying to be an Amontillado, then? Or maybe the other way around. Barbadillo makes three Palo Cortados: the 15-year-old Obispo Gascon and, as with the VORS Principe, the same wine aged for longer to achieve VORS status. And then the exceptionally rare Reliquias. That is not to say that the VORS is not rare; only 240 half bottles were made available by the saca of 2020. This one is number 24. An amber luster and exceptional aromatic of dried fruits; then figs, dates, peat, and incense...One almost describes a whisky, Islay without the medicine, Speyside with the driest of fruits, a burnof alcohol, something understood.