SYRAH VS SHIRAZ: 30 GREAT BUYS FROM SOUTH AFRICA
Consider how frustrating it must be as a winemaker to have the terroir to produce light, fresh, fragrant Syrah but being forced to call it Shiraz on the label. Sure, it’s the same grape, but the stylistic difference it implies is immense. Andre Van Rensburg was the first South African winemaker to apply to use this synonym for his iconic Stellenzicht, Syrah 1994; prior to that, calling it Shiraz was the only option. Since then, more and more South African winemakers have been producing wines in a classic, Rhône-like Syrah style, as opposed to a traditional Australian Shiraz style. Today, the quality is so convincing that you’d be mad to ignore them.
Of the 78 premium South African Syrah and Shiraz wines I tasted, the most exciting wines were almost all labelled Syrah. They tended to have a fresher, more drinkable, more savoury expression, and ultimately it was this stylistic difference that directed my final choice of just 30 wines.
Richard Kelley MW of UK importer Dreyfus Ashby has 25 years’ experience of working with South African wineries, and says that among Cape winemakers ‘no one really looks at Australia as a Shiraz benchmark anymore’. The new generation of winemakers have a lighter touch in the cellar that gives these wines more precise aromatic detail and a stronger sense of place.
‘There’s something of a stylistic split between the new wave of producers and the old guard,’ says Christian Eedes, editor of Winemag.co.za. ‘The former favour early picking, whole-bunch fermentation and minimal intervention, and the latter opt more for fruit power, heavier extraction and more obvious oak. Both camps have their followers.’
Rather than a diversification in style, I suspect that what we’re witnessing here is an important evolution: it’s hard to imagine any producers of contemporary South African Syrah going back to making traditional Shiraz.
