I enjoyed a vertical of one of Australia’s most admired Verdelho table wines the other day. The variety was one of the earliest to be planted in Australia, initially imported from Madeira in 1825, although none of the original plant material has survived phylloxera as far as is known. It was all pulled out in the 1890s in Victoria when it was the country’s second most planted vine variety. James Halliday is very sniffy about Verdelho in general but I very much enjoyed this range and was impressed by the wine’s ability to develop in bottle – unusual for Australian...