Syrah vs Shiraz

[Olivier Collin]

From outside, there are many differences bewteen typical Rhône Valley syrah and Australian shiraz (I realize this is a bit too general here, but that's the point of my question below).

Do you know of regions in Australia, or perhaps producers, who have produced wines with more of a Côte-Rôtie aromatic profile: smoke, bacon fat, etc. I know, for example, that this hardly occurs in the Barossa valley. But perhaps elsewhere?

[Red Bigot]

I'm not really that familiar with good Côte-Rôtie wines, but there are plenty of wineries producing shiraz-viognier blends, most of them resulting in horrid wines with overt apricot characters.

One of the best examples of the attempts at the Rhone style though is the Canberra region Clonakilla Shiraz-Viognier and there are probably a few from Victoria (Yarra Valley, Beechworth etc) that are reasonable attempts as well. There were plenty of wines with a bit of smoke from the bushfire-affected 2003 vintage in central Victoria.

I think some of the Hunter fans can probably list some they think fit the bill, but none of the ones I have tasted ring any of my bells.

[Nigel Bruce]

This is being touted - by Tim Atkin? - -in the Observer as the next big NZ red varietal. Seems the Stonecroft Syrah has Cote-Rotie 'white pepper' qualities, and was contrasted with Oz's heavier style. Seems many winemakers there are regretting investing so heavily in Bordeaux varietals.

[Ian S]

This is being touted - by Tim Atkin? - -in the Observer as the next big NZ red varietal. Seems the Stonecroft Syrah has Cote-Rotie 'white pepper' qualities, and was contrasted with Oz's heavier style. Seems many winemakers there are regretting investing so heavily in Bordeaux varietals.

Nigel
He may be touting it now, but he's a year or two behind this and Bert's forum and IIRC Craig in particular. Easy to catch a bus that someone else is driving...

[SueNZ]

This is being touted - by Tim Atkin? - -in the Observer as the next big NZ red varietal. Seems the Stonecroft Syrah has Cote-Rotie 'white pepper' qualities, and was contrasted with Oz's heavier style. Seems many winemakers there are regretting investing so heavily in Bordeaux varietals.

Nigel
He may be touting it now, but he's a year or two behind this and Bert's forum and IIRC Craig in particular. Easy to catch a bus that someone else is driving...

Yeh but Atkin and a whole host of other international media were bought here for Hawkes Bay Syrah Symposium, so they finally got to taste the glorious Hawkes Bay Syrahs for themselves. Unfortunately, there was only one Syrah that was not from Hawkes Bay that was shown to the delegates, and that was one that Craig and I have been raving about, the Passage Rock from Waiheke (my Syrah of the year last year), and at least one person has rated this as equal top from the Hawkes Bay event (see Geoff Kelly's comprehensive review of this event on www.geoffkellywinereviews.co.nz)

What the interntional media did not see, however, were the other startling Syrahs that are coming out of other regions, e.g. the Fromm Syrahs from Marlborough, Muddy Water from Waipara and the host of fantastic Syrahs that are coming out of Northland from the likes of Marsden Estate, Te Puna, Karikari Estate, Okahu Estate, Coxhead Creek and some other wineries that are just a blip on the radar at the moment (e.g.Fat Pig).

It's very very exciting.

Cheers,
Sue

[SueNZ]

From outside, there are many differences between typical Rhône Valley syrah and Australian shiraz (I realize this is a bit too general here, but that's the point of my question below).

Do you know of regions in Australia, or perhaps producers, who have produced wines with more of a Côte-Rôtie aromatic profile: smoke, bacon fat, etc. I know, for example, that this hardly occurs in the Barossa valley. But perhaps elsewhere?

Yarra Valley? Geoff Kelly (mentioned above) describes 2005 Yering Station Shiraz Viognier Reserve as "a glorious example of modern Australian shiraz presented more as syrah. " and after tasting a flight of Yarra Valley wines said that "Yarra Valley shiraz is not representative of Australian shiraz, it at best being much more in a syrah mould".

Tom Carson (Yering Station) also presented a session at the Hawkes Bay Syrah Symposium - "Syrah and Climate from the Victorian perspective" and stated that the climate in Healesville is spot on for Syrah.

Cheers,
Sue

[smithy]

If YV is so good for Shiraz why does it need to be filled out with Viogner.
For Victoria :Give me a heathcote or big Noreaster any day

[Craig(NZ)]

Go Passage Rock! Go Unison!