McLaren Vale & Langhorne Creek, South Australia, Australia
Alcohol: 15%
Available in government stores ($19.96) and private stores
Shiraz (or Syrah as it is known in France) is currently one of the most popular red wine grapes. You only have to wander the aisles of any shop selling wine for the proof. You’ll find examples of Shiraz/Syrah (including blends) from around the world: Australia, France, South Africa, California, Chile, and even the Okanagan. In fact, more than 200 Shirazes and Shiraz blends from Australia alone are available through the government liquor stores today!
(As an aside, the success of Shiraz has resulted in many mediocre, overly fruity, sweet tasting wines that lack character. You can often spot these by the “cute” and colourful animals on the labels, leading to the pejorative term “critter wines”. I hasten to add, however, that not all wines with cute, colourful animals on their labels are necessarily bad or lack value.)
The ancestral home of Shiraz/Syrah is the Rhône Valley in France. Syrah is normally part of a blend in this region, usually with other red wines (e.g., Grenache), but sometimes with white wines. That’s what they do in the famed Côte-Rôtie and with this wine, a blend of the robust red Shiraz (95%) with a bit of the perfumey and delicious white Viognier (5%).
This is a dark and densely coloured wine, with aromas of black currents and plums, and hints of flowers (violets) and sweet stone fruit. The fruit follows onto the palate, where plenty of dense, ripe, dark fruit is tempered by medium acid. The tannins are soft, the body full, and the Viognier adds an overall lovely spicy floral note. This wine is lovely drinking on its own, or well-matched with robust foods, such as grilled meats, stews, or even chicken in a spicy tomato sauce. This is a wine meant to be drunk young; ageing is not likely to improve it.
(Proving an earlier post, I first tasted the wine after it had been in the fridge only a short time at the end of a hot day. The fruit dominated the palate and – while not unpleasant – it lacked the complexity and structure that came out after a while longer in the fridge.)
Wine Matters! 