Verdelho

Verdelho is a white wine grape with two very different lives. On the Portuguese island of Madeira it is a "noble" variety that names one of the great fortified wine's classic styles — a medium-dry Madeira, tangy and smoky. In Australia, transplanted long ago, it has become a much-loved dry table white in its own right, especially in the Hunter Valley and Western Australia, where it makes a fruit-driven, full-flavoured wine bursting with tropical fruit, lime and honeysuckle. Usually unoaked, dry and generous, with fresh but not searing acidity and moderate alcohol, Australian Verdelho is an easy-drinking, food-friendly white that shines with spicy Asian dishes, seafood and roast chicken.