Find a syrah to sip, plus the latest in drinks news.
MERMAIDMARY celebrates our nuanced syrah
While syrah has its spiritual home in the Rhone region of France, the grape is grown all over the world to make syrah wine – with one notable exception. Across the ditch in Australia, syrah is grown to make shiraz. If you’re wondering if syrah and shiraz are the same thing, the answer is yes, but no, but yes.
The easiest way to understand the difference is to think of shiraz and syrah as the same wine, made in two different styles. Shiraz tends to be bigger, bolder and more alcoholic due to the hot climate in which the grapes are grown.
Syrah grapes from France and New Zealand are grown in what is known as a cool climate environment which produces wines that are medium to full-bodied, with nuanced pepper and perfume characteristics.
Syrah is relatively easy to grow but it needs the right temperature in which to thrive. While syrah growing is not unheard of in the more southerly wine regions of New Zealand, for the most part you will find it in our warmest wine regions
– Auckland, Northland and Hawke’s Bay.
Hawke’s Bay is renowned for the varietal and a massive 70 percent of New Zealand’s total syrah grows there. In particular, the small but hallowed 800ha area known as the Gimblett Gravels wine-growing district is revered for its quality and wine excellence.
Auckland’s Waiheke Island is known for its boutique offering of rich, full-bodied syrah and Northland, I predict, is the one to watch as the next big region for New Zealand syrah.
While the offering is currently small in volume, recent investment into winemaking facilities in Northland is ensuring that the quality improves, vintage after vintage. It’s not as easy to find as syrah from other regions, but I recommend trying.
But what to serve it with? Syrah is great with game and most red meats, but you can’t go past the combination of syrah and lamb – syrah even works well when paired with mint sauce.
Fresh, young and full of life – the first release of new wine label Vita (the Italian word for life), from up-and-coming winemaker Will Bowman, aims to bottle the vitality of the vineyards the grapes come from in their most pure form. Using BioGro-certified organic fruit, including from Black Estate where Will works, Vita’s range includes a herbaceous pinot noir riesling blend, a juicy citrusy riesling and a gently spirited pinot noir. Buy from everydaywines.co.nz.