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Grape Profile Verdil: A Highly Misunderstood Indigenous Grape of Valencia

Started by Ryan Opaz · 9 months ago

Editor’s Note: If you remember, a little while back, Ryan reviewed the book “Valencia, Land of Wine“, written by Joan C. Martin and translated and edited by John Maher. While, in Valencia, we asked John how he felt about writing the occasional pie ... Continue reading »

3 comments

  • RichardA

    11 months ago

    I had not heard of Verdil before this article so I was glad to read about it. I am not sure that we can absolutely say that any grape is worthless in making wine. In the right hands, under the right conditions, there exists the possibility that someone could transform such a grape into an excellent wine. Time and experimentation might lead to a revelation about the grape. Maybe it would be best as a blending grape. to me, we should preserve any and all indigenous grapes, and promote people to experiment with them, to try to develop good wine.
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  • allaboutalavesa

    11 months ago

    John, Thanks for the interesting and entertaining article, I was wondering if you had Miss Verdil's phone number, I'm in need of a cheap date! All joking aside, I feel it's very important to focus on obscure and indigenous varieties such as Verdil for the simple reason that we are constantly searching for new and different ways to enjoy wine. Should these varieties start to vanish, the wine world will stop expanding. If we only have a limited number of varieties to work with, everything will eventually become boring once we have explored, tasted, and exhausted all options. This is where indigenous varieties come into play, helping to create new and exciting wines. Good or bad, depending on your opinion and/or palate, these help the progression of the wine world.
    reply
  • John Maher

    11 months ago

    Thanks for your comment, RichardA. It makes me think I didn't say enough good things about the wine and the particular winemaker from Bodegas Enguera, Chema García de la Cuadra. A year or more ago Chema refused to let me try a wine he'd made from another forgotten local grape, Embolicaire, because he wasn't satisfied with the results. So it's more than just making wine from any local grape as a curiosity. His enthusiasm for Verdil has taken a further twist with the production of a Verdil "vi de gel" or icewine - quite an undertaking in those hot highlands.
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