Happy Shiraz Day!!!
Syrah and Shiraz refer to the same grape; Syrah is how the variety was originally referred to while Shiraz is how it became known in Australia, with the term then being adopted elsewhere for wines that share Australian Shiraz’s style. So, in short, each term is now associated with different styles of wines made from the same variety.
Syrah wines come from all around the world. In the top 10 list of the world’s most planted grapes, it ranks 6th, with around 470 000 acres (190,000 hectares) of vines. That’s about five times the plantings in 1990, making the grape one of the fastest expanding varietals as well.
Historically, Shiraz refers to the wine produced around the city of Shiraz in the south of Iran. In the 9th Century, the region was known for producing the finest wine in the world, where a healthy export of wine has been documented during the earlier part of the 20th Century.
DNA profiling has shown that Shiraz is a cross between two minor Rhône varieties: Dureza (a black-skinned grape) and Mondeuse Blanche (a white grape), neither of which today are prolifically planted. This proves the varieties Rhône origins, although there are several stories about how its name came about. The earliest Australian documents mentioning the grape refer to it as ‘Scyras’, and Shiraz is likely a corruption of that word rather than a homage to the city in Iran.
Australia’s history with the grape dates back well to the mid-19th Century. A number of these pioneering wine properties remain, and in Barossa in particular many parcels of vines of well over 100 years of age are still farmed today.
These low yielding, gnarled veterans supply small, intense berries for some of Australia and the world’s greatest red wines. No other region, including Hermitage and Côte Rôtie, has such a concentration of very old vines.
France is the most important country in terms of Syrah planting. French vintners use the grape for making many great varietal wines but also for fantastic blends. The most noteworthy are GSM blends (Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre) such as Châteauneuf du Pape wines.
You wanna try some????? Well, we got Shiraz, we got Syrah! We got it from France, we got it from Australia, we got it from New Zealand, we got from South Africa, we got from Lebanon, we got it from Spain, we got it in a blend, we got it by itself and we even got it as a sparkling wine as well!
Whether it’s from the Rhone, Barossa, Stellenbosch or Hawkes Bay – we got a Syrah/Shiraz that’s perfect for you!
Have you got it?!? Do you want it?!? Just click onto our online shop to find out more!
From the team at Guest Wines
