Syrah
Manly yet elegant — potent, exuberant reds of leather, smoke, roasted meat, and black pepper; the star grape of the northern Rhône.
About the grape
Syrah is manly yet elegant — a nineteenth-century writer called Rhône Hermitage (pure syrah) the 'manliest wine' he'd ever drunk. Its potent, exuberant aromas and flavors lean toward leather, smoke, roasted meats, bacon, game, coffee, spices, iron, black olive, and especially white and black pepper, and top examples have a kinetic mouthfeel with flavors that detonate on the palate like tiny grenades. The most dramatic syrahs come from the northern Rhône Valley (Hermitage, Côte-Rôtie, Cornas), while in the south it joins blends like Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Called shiraz in Australia, where it is the country's most famous red — a spellbinding, spicy blockbuster in the Barossa Valley and beyond.
Where it grows
Aconcagua Valley, Adelaide Hills, Barossa Valley, California, Clare Valley, Colchagua Valley, Coonawarra, Hawke's Bay, Hunter, McLaren Vale, Rhône Valley, South Australia, Victoria, Washington
