Verdelho
A high-acid Savagnin-lineage grape, Verdelho is a classic medium-dry Madeira and a fresh dry white in Australia.
About Verdelho
Verdelho leads a double life. On the Atlantic island of Madeira it is one of the four noble fortified grapes, giving a medium-dry style that sits between the drier Sercial and richer Bual, packed with dried apricot, smoke, orange peel and toasted nuts yet kept vibrant by racing acidity after years of gentle heating and oxidative ageing. Half a world away in Australia's warm Hunter and Swan valleys, the same variety is vinified dry and unoaked into a generous, fruit-forward still white of lime, guava and honeydew with a waxy weight. Naturally high in acid and heat-tolerant, Verdelho thrives where lesser grapes would flab out. Whether fortified and near-immortal or fresh and early-drinking, it is a chameleon that repays curiosity.
Variety profile
Editorial notes
Distinguish the Madeira grape from Spain's Verdejo (Rueda), which is unrelated. Madeira Verdelho is extraordinarily long-lived; Australian versions are for early drinking.