Verdelho
Botanical description of the Verdelho grape, once common throughout Madeira, producing one of the island's finest dry wines.
Leaves medium-sized, rounded, wavy, glabrous or bearing a few hairs on the upper surface, downy on the lower, but with the indumentum sparse and irregularly distributed, sometimes almost absent over the whole blade or part of it; lobes very shallow or barely outlined, with obtuse or acute teeth; petiolar sinus usually very closed; bunches small or medium-sized (15–22 cm), generally winged and dense, cylindrical or cylindrical-conical; berries 15–20 millimetres, very sweet, firm or fairly firm, elliptical or oblong, greenish-yellow, generally golden when ripe. The stock is tall and very vigorous; canes greyish-brown or reddish greyish-brown, with short internodes. – It occurs in Funchal, in Câmara de Lobos and in Estreito de Nossa Senhora da Graça; it was once very common in both the north and the south of Madeira. It is also grown on Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’). The rather strong grapes are very good for eating and produce a dry wine of pleasant flavour that is considered one of the finest in Madeira. The Madeiran Verdelho appears to be identical in its botanical characters to the gouveio of the Alto Douro.
In this article
Place
Places mentioned · 05
Abroad
- Alto Douro
Portugal. Its Gouveio grape appears botanically identical to Verdelho.
Its Gouveio grape appears botanically identical to Verdelho.
- Câmara de Lobos
Area where Verdelho is grown.
Parish west of Funchal. The Elucidário traces its name to Zarco's discovery voyage and describes its churches, chapels and collegiate chapter, early settlers, fishing community and renowned vineyards. It also records the parish's localities, boundaries, levadas and population.
- Estreito de Câmara de Lobos
Câmara de Lobos. Area where Verdelho is grown.
Estreito de Câmara de Lobos is a parish in the municipality of Câmara de Lobos, Madeira, created in the early sixteenth century around the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Graça. It was the main centre of rye-straw hat weaving and cheese-making, grows Sercial, Verdelho, Tinta and Bastardo, and became a julgado of the Funchal comarca in 1927.
- Funchal
Area where Verdelho is grown.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Porto Santo
Verdelho is also cultivated there.
An island of the archipelago, settled alongside Madeira and forming one of the three captaincies. It has always constituted a single parish, dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Piedade, whose church was repeatedly sacked. The Elucidário records the Moorish pirate raid of 1617, its own Misericórdia and a rainwater channel built on this drought-prone island.