WHAT’S IN A NAME?

STEPHEN WONG, MW, unravels what shiraz means today and uncovers a bewildering diversity of styles from across Australia.

FIRST UP, LET’S ADDRESS the elephant in the room – yes, shiraz is the same grape cultivar as syrah, and yes, it is a French variety with indigenous roots.

It is also true that the same James Busby who brought the first syrah vines to New Zealand in 1833 also brought those vines to Australia earlier that year (with some records suggesting that some shiraz vines arrived before him in 1817). Some of these early plantings are still alive and producing wine today – Langmeil (1834) and Turkey Flat (1847) in the Barossa and Tahbilk (1860) in Nagambie Lakes, Victoria. These are highly likely to be the oldest continuously producing syrah/shiraz vines in the world.

So how did it come to be called shiraz, and why don’t they call it syrah if we know it’s the same grape? The former is likely to have come from Syracuse, one of the common names of syrah at the time of the import, and sometimes spelled as Scyras and Schiras (the other common name being Hermitage, which is what many of the shiraz-based wines in Australia were called in the early days). The latter question comes down to a sense of place, a strong national identity (plus a bit of myth and misspelling) and a very recognisable style of wine – after all, Australia produces more shiraz than any other grape variety. Shiraz is almost synonymous with being Australian, though that was not always the case – at the end of the 1990s, some South African and even New Zealand producers were calling their wines shiraz to signal a stylistic alignment. But there was really never any question – no one has so far managed to out-shiraz Australia.

So, what does shiraz taste like? Well, that’s the conundrum really, because the styles of shiraz have changed several times over the decades. It has gone from firm, elegant, structured and long-lived to soft, plush, super-ripe and ultra-opulent, back to elegant, structured and relatively restrained, with some newer producers preferring a perfumed, more delicate, lighter and ethereal style. Along the way, some have changed with the winds of fashion, while others have settled into their style and remained, resulting in a bewildering diversity of shiraz across Australia. Perhaps the name itself no longer matters as much stylistically as it does in conveying that sense of place. And there’s nothing wrong with carving out your own place in this world – shiraz and syrah are the same but different; live with it and learn to love them both!

TASTING RESULTS

★★★★★ outstanding 5

★★★★ excellent 1

★★★★ very good 12

★★★ good 35

No award 31

TOTAL 84