Syrah with aaaah, shiraz with pizazz

What’s in a name? Drinks Editor Yvonne Lorkin explains that a shiraz by the name syrah maybe doesn’t taste quite so sweet...

Waaaay back in the early 2000s, I’d freshly graduated from one of the world’s most prestigious wine marketing programmes and was working as the wine consultant for Hastings City New World. At the time, they had the most exciting and extensive supermarket wine department in the country, and I’d blagged my way into a job running it. We had daily in-store tastings, with actual wine glasses, a wine club boasting thousands of members, and wine education and enjoyment were a huge part of the store’s vibe. That wine aisle had good feng shui and positive chi, except for one Saturday when I almost had an altercation with a customer.

She wanted a good, cheap shiraz. Simple enough. So I found her a few tasty Aussie examples. “No. I want one from New Zealand,” she said. “Ok,” I said. “So you’d like a syrah?” “No! I want a shiraz,” she urged. “Ah, righto. Well, the grape is called syrah here in New Zealand, and it’s called shiraz in Australia, but even though it’s the same grape, the wines taste very different,” I explained with a smile and what I thought was a cute shrug. “Did you not hear?” she flapped. “I asked for a New Zealand shiraz! Do your job and find me one!”

Breathing to stay zen, I gently repeated, “Syrah and shiraz are the same grape. Australians call it shiraz. We call it syrah, like the French. Yet they taste like different wines because the grape is extremely sensitive to where it’s grown. Australia is hotter, so their shiraz tends to be riper, sweeter and heavier than our cool-climate syrah, which tends to be earthier and elegant. I can find examples of both for you to try.” She went dark. “You, girl. Have NO idea. They are NOT the same! I like shiraz. I want a New Zealand shiraz so I’m taking my business elsewhere. I’ll also be speaking to your boss, and YOU should go and do a course!” Then she tore off to the chippie aisle faster than I could mumble “I have textbooks that prove...”

Name game
Some say Aussies call it shiraz because back in 1832, pioneering viticulturist James Busby imported French grape cuttings into Australia, and one of his cuttings was listed as “Hermitage. Fine black; supposed the Schiraz”. Hermitage in France’s Rhône Valley grows the world’s most famous syrah, and legend has it that its original vines came from Persia, where ‘Shiraz’ is a major city. To complicate things further, until recently, the name ‘Hermitage’ was widely used in Australia as an alternative name for shiraz.

Modern DNA analysis has proved syrah/shiraz is actually the offspring of dureza and mondeuse blanche grapes, both native to the Rhône. So there’s no genetic connection between Persian grapes and syrah/shiraz whatsoever. Busby’s diaries prove he knew of the Hermitage/Persia legend, but it’s more likely his syrah’s name was simply misspelt as ‘schiraz’. Busby was Scottish, so dictating labels in his thick accent could’ve contributed.

And here’s more history. Thanks to the phylloxera mite destroying over 40 percent of all France’s vineyards in the 1860s, Australia now has the oldest continuously producing syrah/shiraz vines in the world, with vines at Langmeil in the Barossa, dating back to 1843. Each year, just one tonne of fruit is harvested to make their “The Freedom 1843 Shiraz”. Half a century later, it’s believed Italian viticulturist Romeo Bragato imported some syrah/shiraz vines from Australia into New Zealand where they were ignored until the 1970s, when those vines became part of a virus-elimination research programme at Te Kauwhata. Once finished, the research station had no use for those vines, and they were set to be bulldozed when a young employee, Dr Alan Limmer, snatched 100 cuttings and planted a single row at his Stonecroft vineyard in Hawke’s Bay in 1984. Today, that single row contains New Zealand’s oldest producing syrah vines and is responsible for originating all of New Zealand’s modern syrah vineyards. After DNA work, Dr Limmer believes his cuttings are genetically the same as much of Australia’s old-vine shiraz, and that’s the connecting thread between our two countries right there. Bonza, rippa, corka, cracka, pearla, grouse.

“Syrah and shiraz are the same grape. Australians call it shiraz. We call it syrah, like the French. Yet they taste like different wines because the grape is extremely sensitive to where it’s grown”

Location. Location. Location.
Shiraz grows in every wine region of Australia, including as far north as Queensland and as far south as Kangaroo Island and Tasmania, yet it’s a dominant force in South Australia’s Barossa Valley (big, bold, ripe, berries and chocolate), McLaren Vale (elegant yet powerful berries, liquorice, dried herbs), and the Eden Valley (cooler, elegant, peppery, aromatic), the Hunter Valley (NSW) (lighter-bodied, earthy), the Yarra Valley (VIC) (cooler, medium-bodied, peppery floral) and Margaret River (WA) (elegantly spice-driven).

Interestingly, many boutique wineries in cooler regions like WA, Victoria and Adelaide Hills now label their bottles as ‘syrah’ to distinguish their styles from the ‘big, bold, boozy’ shiraz stereotype.

New Zealand’s top examples are concentrated in warmer areas such as the sun-baked, rocky riverbed we know as the Gimblett Gravels, or heat-soaked Waiheke Island and pockets of Matakana. However, it’s also grown in the Wairarapa, Nelson, Marlborough and as far south as Canterbury and Central Otago.

ANZAC Icons
If your wallet allowed you to start a cellar with the most iconic syrahs and shiraz on the market right now, make sure these wines are on your list:
Craggy Range Le Sol Gimblett Gravels Syrah $200.00
Trinity Hill Homage Gimblett Gravels Syrah $150.00
Bilancia La Collina Hawke’s Bay Syrah $170.00
Church Road TOM Syrah $220.00
Mudbrick Oscar Waiheke Island $170.00
Penfolds Grange Bin 95 $800.00–$1000.00+
Langmeil The Freedom 1843 Barossa Shiraz $165.00
Henschke Hill of Grace Eden Valley Shiraz $1000.00+
Torbreck RunRig Barossa Shiraz $400.00
Brokenwood Graveyard Hunter Valley Shiraz $360.00

Affordable Excellence
Church Road McDonald Series Syrah $25.00
Earthworks Barossa Shiraz $18.00
Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz $22.00
Ash Ridge Estate Syrah $26.00
Brookfields Back Block Syrah $23.00