Verdesse

Identity

Verdesse is a white from the Isère, and Savagnin turns up again.

According to genetic analysis conducted at Montpellier, it is directly related to it. That is the fifth time this Jura variety appears in a pedigree in this encyclopedia, after Chenin Blanc, Riesling, Petit Manseng and Duras — and, for Ondenc, as a probable relation.

A Jura grape behind a Loire white, a Rhine white, two Pyrenean whites, a red from the Tarn and a white from the Isère. Savagnin is one of the most fertile nodes in European ampelography, and this corpus meets its trace almost everywhere.

Note, though, exactly what the source says: "directly related", not "child of". The nature of the link is not specified, and this entry will not specify it further.

In the vineyard

Pl@ntGrape gives no word for vigour specific to Verdesse — so the field stays empty, as the original stub already noted explicitly. "Not established", never "medium".

Its bunches and berries are small to medium.

In the glass

Pl@ntGrape credits it with wines that are "generous and lively". Two words, pulling in opposite directions: generous calls for degree and substance, lively for acidity. Holding both is what is asked of a good mountain white, and it is rare.

The two descriptors on this entry — hawthorn and cut hay — are readings of that register, not quotations.

Where it is named

In Savoie, a principal variety for the whites of the Vin de Savoie AOC.

Its home, however, is the Isère, outside the Savoyard area. It is a configuration found elsewhere in this corpus — a grape whose protecting appellation is not the place it came from.

What this entry does not say

The exact nature of its link to Savagnin. Its phenology, absent from the data consulted. Its susceptibilities. And its planted area, for which no source opened here gives a figure.

It is a thin entry, and it is published because an appellation names it a principal variety — not because much is known about it.