Verdelho and friends

Only yesterday I was reminded by an Australian that I had publically expressed great enthusiasm for Australia's full-bodied dry white table wines made from the grape called Verdelho there.

One of the great vine-cutting trade routes was from Portugal to Australia in the early days of the colony and there is currently much interest in establishing the exact relationship between various Australian and Portuguese grape varieties.

Hans-Jörg Böhm reports from a Grapevine Symposium held recently in Lisbon attended by Australian viticulturist Richard Smart et al and in particular on his detailed work analysing the following grape varieties (using ampelography rather...