Syrah/Shiraz

Let’s get one thing straight, Syrah and Shiraz are identical wines. The only difference is the pronunciation and, therefore, the spelling) Born in France, it’s been named Syrah. Later, when transported toAustralia, the local winemakers started calling it Shiraz, instead of its original French name. 

Now that we have that question out of the way, we can actually get to the wine description. Syrah is known to be one of the darkest and richest red wines on the market, even compared toCabernet Sauvignon. To prove the statement, try this. Hold a glass of Syrah wine up to a light and try looking through it towards the light. The chances are, you won’t be able to see much as that’s how dark it is.

There are many stories associated with the emergence of Syrah. One of them involves a Roman Emperor planting the grape inFranceover 1500 years ago. Another talks about a winemaker from Iran, who planted it in France 600 B.C. At this point, there is no way to find out the truth. The fact is thatFranceis the country that made Syrah truly famous! 

The wine became prominent in the 18th century, in the Northern Rhone, where winemakers decided to focus solely on creating wine from Syrah. Two centuries later and the town fetches the highest prices in the world. In fact, that’s one of the reasons Australian Shiraz has become more well-known in theUnited States. Due to large amounts of land devoted to the grape inAustralia, the wineries were able to cut their prices, making Syrah wine a lot more affordable on the market. As a result, it’s the most popularred wine in Australia! 

Full-bodied and full of tannins, it feels quite heavy in your mouth. The most notable flavours are berries, pepper and tobacco. Some Syrah wines may even give a slight note of smoked meat.

If you were to have it with food, don’t worry about what’s for dinner. The wine goes well with pretty much anything. Due to high levels of tannins present in the wine, Syrah also has one of the highest levels of antioxidants.