Manuel Maldonado's product isn't due out until Christmas 2008, but some Spaniards are already lining up to pay a bundle for it. His limited-edition item costs $2,100 US a shot, and you've got to put a $250 deposit on it.

What could be this precious? A limited edition wine, perhaps? A rare stone? In fact, it's the very rare, very high-end 2006 Alba Quercus Reserve.

In other words, ham.

Spanish gourmands with big appetites and deep pockets are already excited about this highbrow ham that undergoes years of preparation. The free-range pigs are exclusively acorn-fed, an essential criteria for first-rate ham in Spain. Once slaughtered, it takes longer than two years to prepare the ham — more than twice as long as his competitors.

The first batch was due out this year, but fell short of Maldonado's exacting standards.

He has yet to set a price for the six-kilogram hams, but the food site Ibergour.com has a dozen for sale at $2,100 US each. He says he'll produce just 80 to 100 legs.

"It is the most important ham in Spain," adds Pedro Soley, a Barcelona connoisseur who's already got his bid in to purchase the pricey pig meat, although only time — and several thousand dollars — will tell.

With files from the Associated Press