Wine Arcana

Grape

Verdelet

Also known as Seibel 9110

Verdelet is a white French-American hybrid grape also known as Seibel 9110. Its history includes both fresh-fruit and wine uses. Contemporary Finger Lakes winemaking gives it another context, including blends shaped by skin contact and separate maturation of their components.

An older variety and a vineyard tradeoff

Cornell's 1979 New York guide identifies Verdelet as a yellow-gold dessert and wine grape. It describes a tendency to carry excessive fruit and susceptibility to winter injury, explaining why it had become less frequently planted in the period covered by that bulletin.1. Pool and colleagues, Grape varieties for New York State, 1979, Verdelet entry; its assessment of planting frequency is historical.

Those observations describe two separate constraints. Managing crop load helps match fruit demand to the vine's capacity; choosing a site with suitable winter conditions addresses survival of the permanent plant. Hybrid ancestry covers varieties with markedly different combinations of those traits.

Skin contact in the Finger Lakes

Usonia's 2024 ’Member When? pairs Verdelet with Geneva White #2, in roughly equal proportions. The producer describes foot-crushing the Verdelet and giving it three days of maceration before ageing it in a 500-litre cask. Geneva White #2 received a different treatment: a week of carbonic maceration, followed by maturation in a polymer tank. The wines were blended after about eight months.2. Usonia, “’Member When? 2024,” composition and cellar account.

The example makes skin-contact white wine a useful companion to the grape's name. Contact with skins changes texture and extraction, while separate vessels let the winemaker develop each component before blending.

Sources