Aug 18 2009
Shiraz Wine Guide
Out of all the wines produced in Australia, Shiraz may be the most famous. It’s the wine that gave Australia the recognition it has today.
At Paris’s Exhibition of 1878, a Shiraz produced in Victoria was compared by judges to the reknowned Chateau Maraux, and referred to as perfection. This was the first time that one of Australian’s wines had attained this kind of recognition, and only a few years later, a Shiraz won the 1882 gold medal in the first class category of the Bordeaux International Exhbition. Another gold was obtained at the Paris International Exhibition of 1889.
As of 2005, Chardonnay and Shiraz were the most extensively planted varieties of wine grapes in the country. Chardonnay plantings made up over two thousand hectares, and were greater than the fifteen hundred hectares of Shiraz grapes. However, Shiraz has been the most popular wine variety in Australia throughout most of its history, and this planting ratio has not always been the same. Only a few years before, in 2001, there were three times as many Shiraz plantings as there were Chardonnay.
Shiraz is probably the most popular of Australia’s red wines, making up about two thirds of the total red wine grape plantings in 2005. There are other varieties planted, as well, but none even come close to matching the volume of Shiraz grapes produced.
It’s not only Australia that loves Shiraz, though. These grapes are used commonly in Californian and South African wines, as well as in some of the wines produced in France’s northern Rhone Valleny, including Cote-Rotie and Hermitage.
Some confusion may be caused by the fact that Shiraz is not the only name for this wine. It is also sometimes referred to as Syrah, after the Iranian city of flowers and poetry where it is thought to have originated, or Hermitage, the name it went by in the late 1980s in Australia.
Australian wine producers add a hint of apricot flavor to their Shiraz with up to four percent Viognier. This is such a small amount that producers have not traditionally mentioned it on their labels, but this is changing as consumer acceptance increases. More Australian wine producers are now choosing to label their wine as Shiraz Viognier.
Most of Australia’s best Shiraz or Shiraz based wines have been cellar aged for at least ten years. In addition to traditional Shiraz wines, there are also some variations available in Australia. These include sparkling Shiraz, an uncommon sparkling red, a sparkling dry Shiraz, which is bubbly but full bodied, and a rose wine with a Shiraz base.
The greatest advantage of this wine is the ease of growing the grapes and the rich and distinct flavors the wine has to offer - reminiscent of the flavors of dark fruits. If you’re a red wine drinker, but Cabernet Sauvignon is a little astringent for you, you’ll enjoy Shiraz’s deep, distinctive taste and peppery aroma.
This is a wine that goes best with hearty foods with a lot of flavor and spice, and blends well with a remarkable number of other wine varieties, including Cabernet and Grenache, as well as Mourvedre.
