Why is Shiraz sometimes called Syrah?

Why is Shiraz sometimes called Syrah?

In New World wine countries (Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Peru, Chile and United States of America and New Zealand) the very popular Shiraz red wine is sometimes called Syrah.

This confusing state of affairs had its origin in Australia. James Bushby, the father of the Australian wine industry, traveled through Spain and France to collect plant material. Near the town of Hermitage in France, he harvested some vine cuttings of the local red wine grapes. He introduced cuttings of vines which were labeled “Hermitage”, “Burgundy” and even “Claret”.

He was also misled by a wonderful urban legend tale which went something like this:

Ancient “fake news”

“A long, long time ago, a Crusader by the name of Guy de Sterimberg, brought cutting of vines from a town called Shiraz in ancient Persia (Persia is now known as Iran). He settled in France. He became a hermit and developed a vineyard on a steep hill where he lived in the Rhône Valley, which became known as Hermitage.”

Syrah in France

The vine cuttings collected in France and planted in Australia turned out to be Syrah. Syrah is the queen grape of the northern Rhône where it makes the muscular, deep-coloured, age-worthy, savory and peppery wines of Hermitage. In Côte-Rôtie it makes more perfumed, slightly floral and refined wines, mainly when co-fermented with a small percentage of Viognier.

Shiraz in Australia

Meanwhile, back in Australia, they continued to call the Syrah grapes by their storybook name, Shiraz.

Shiraz, Australia’s stable red grape variety, makes the most popular red wine and is at the core of the country’s incredible export success. The most widely planted wine grape in the country, Shiraz continues to dominate the Australian wine scene with its bold, ripe flavors and easy-drinking nature. The country has some of the oldest Syrah/Shiraz’s plantings in the world and some of the very few that survived phylloxera.

The country makes a range of styles, the most recognizable of which might be distinctively rich, ripe styles from both traditional (Barossa Valley), and newer (Heathcote) regions. Barossa Valley is considered by many to be the ‘spiritual home’ of Australian Shiraz.

Science steps in

Science solved the confusion in 1998 when DNA profiling established that the variety’s parents are in fact Mondeuse blanche and Dureza, believed to be local to the Rhône-Alpes region of France. Some studies also show that, with great probability, Pinot Noir is a great-grandparent of Syrah, and both Viognier and Mondeuse Noire seem to be closely related too.

So, no Persia but lots of Rhône!