The world’s top tipples

QUESTION What are the most expensive alcoholic beverages in the world?

SEVERAL drinks are eligible for that distinction, but this is based more on the bottles they come in than the content.

Ley .925 Pasion Azteca Ultra Premium Anejo, a seven-year-old 100 per cent agave tequila distilled by Hacienda La Capilla, is claimed to be the most expensive drink. But the real value is in the bottle: crafted out of platinum and studded with 4,000 diamonds (a total of 328 carats), it costs around £2 million.

Henri IV Dudognon Heritage Cognac Grande Champagne is a fine cognac aged for 100 years — but the bottle, dipped in 24-carat gold and sterling platinum, and studded with 6,500 diamonds, bumps the price up to £1.2 million.

Better candidates for drinks valued for themselves are Dalmore 62, the world’s most expensive Scotch whisky, with only 12 bottles produced. In 2011, the last bottle was sold to a Chinese businessman for £120,000.

Chateau d’Yquem produces the finest Sauternes in the world and its wines are characterised by their complexity, concentration and sweetness cut with acidity. An 1811 bottle sold for £75,000 in July 2011. Gerry Marsh, Wolverhampton.

QUESTION When and why did Cliff Richard and the Drifters change their name to Cliff Richard and the Shadows?

THE Drifters made their debut backing Cliff Richard at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, in January 1959.

The group consisted of Hank Marvin ( lead guitar), Bruce Welch ( rhythm guitar), Jet Harris (bass guitar) and Tony Meehan (drums).

With the support of Cliff and producer/ arranger Norrie Paramor, they signed a record deal with EMI in February and released their debut record without Cliff on the Columbia label. It was a vocal called Feelin’ Fine/Don’t Be A Fool (With Love). It was also released in the U.S. on the Capitol label, but it failed to chart on either side of the Atlantic.

However the U.S. release came to the attention of manager George Treadwell who, unbeknown to Cliff and The Drifters, and presumably EMI management, had several years earlier copyrighted the Drifters name in the U.S. as he handled a successful singing group by that name.

Treadwell took out an injunction, and this first release by the British Drifters was withdrawn from sale in the U.S.

For their follow-up single in June 1959, the British group recorded two instrumentals, Jet Black and Driftin’ but, aware of the problem in the U.S., they hurriedly rechristened themselves The Four Jets for the U.S. issue of the record. This also flopped chart-wise, although it is now a valued collectors’ item.

In October 1959, Hank and Jet were having a drink in the Six Bells in Ruislip, Middlesex, and having decided the group had to change its name to avoid future difficulties, Jet suggested The Shadows.

Bruce and Tony agreed immediately, unaware that U.S. singer Bobby Vee had a backing group called The Shadows, though Vee soon became a solo artist.

Their third record release, now under the name of The Shadows, was another two vocals entitled Saturday Dance, with Lonesome Fella on the B-side. But again this failed to chart.

Their first record backing Cliff when they were credited as ‘The Shadows’ was Travellin’ Light, released in October 1959 (the follow-up to his fifth release and first No 1 Living Doll). Tony Dobson, Bexley, Kent. Tequila glamour: a diamond-studded bottle of Ley .925 agave is the priciest drink at £2 million

QUESTION Have any production motorcycles had a reverse gear?

FURTHER to the earlier answer, Reliant three- wheelers were classified as motorcycles, not cars.

In the Fifties and Sixties many riders who wanted more space or protection from the elements chose Reliants to avoid taking a car test.

So when necessary — if the buyer only had a motorcycle licence — Reliant provided a blanking plate to be fitted around the gear-shift lever to prevent the reverse gear being engaged.

The reason was that a car driving test included reversing around a corner — a feature not included in the motorcycle test. But it meant Reliants had to be pushed manually if reversing was needed. Geoff Barley, Birmingham. I WAS once the proud owner of a Czechoslovakian CZ 250 twin motorcycle that had a two-stroke engine.

Occasionally, when kick-starting it, the piston would ‘bounce’ at the top of the stroke, and the engine would start backwards — and I then had four reverse gears, but no forward ones!

The remedy was to stop the engine and restart it. Although this ability of two- stroke engines to run backwards was normally unwanted, it was, however, usefully employed in the Messerschmitt KR 200 bubble car.

Its engine had two sets of contact breaker points, and the driver would push the ignition key further into the switch if he wanted to select backward engine rotation. Trefor Hazlewood- Jones, Higham Ferrers, Northants.

IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London, W8 5TT; fax them to 01952 780111 or email them to charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.