Sweet Smell of Shiraz

Bill
Hardy, scion of the eponymic family of the Hardy Wine
Company, visited Massachusetts recently, bearing samples of
Hardy’s way with Shiraz, the Australian term for Syrah.
We’ll get into those specifics after consideration of the
genre.

Syrah is the
great black grape of the northern Rhone, most notably Cote
Rotie, Hermitage, Cornas, St. Joseph, et al. Its origin has
been a matter of debate, no doubt largely engendered by its
name in Oz. Shiraz is an ancient city in southeastern Iran,
an area once known for its wine production, also the home
town of Omar Khayyam. One theory had the vine, native to
Shiraz, brought to Marseille by Greek inhabitants of coastal
western Asia Minor, thence up the Rhone River. Hardy
believes that “shiraz” comes from an Australian slurring of
one of the old synonyms of syrah, perhaps scyras. A second
story had the vine’s origin in Egypt, and its carrier the
Romans, by way of Siracusa. Syrah was already well
established in the Rhone Valley by Roman times.

Romantically
satisfying though these classically flavored legends may be,
it is currently believed that the syrah originated right in
the northern Rhone Valley, possibly evolving from a vine
called allobrogica cultivated by a Gallic tribe, the
Allobroges, and selected from wild vines for its quality,
unusual tarry flavor, and putative medicinal powers. DNA
“fingerprinting” at UC Davis has suggested that syrah’s
parents could be dureza and mondeuse blanche.

After something
of an up-and-down career, syrah has spread exuberantly
throughout the red wine-growing world. In southern France,
it is blended with Grenache, Mourvedre, Cinsault, and, more
recently, Cabernet Sauvignon; in California, with Petite
Sirah and Zinfandel; elsewhere, with locally grown red
wines. Even in its native northern Rhone, a drop of Marsanne
and Roussanne may be slipped into Hemitage and Viognier into
Cote Rotie. Syrah is often known as Balsamia in Argentina,
where it may be blended with Malbec. Of course, Syrah’s most
notorious metastasis was the 19th century practice of fancy
Bordeaux chateaux’ adding Hermitage to strengthen, say, an
effete Lafite.

Syrah’s emerging
global popularity is easily explained. It is productive and
disease resistant, although it is sensitive to coulure. Late
budding avoids spring frost damage, yet ripening is not too
late. Its wine marries well with oak, lives long, and, if
not overcropped or picked too early or too late, is noble
and complex.

Syrah, which
we’d best now start to call shiraz, is not a recent
immigrant to Australia. With other varieties, it was brought
from France in 1832 by James Busby, often called the father
of winegrowing in Australia and New Zealand. It is now grown
all over Australia, covering a quarter of the continent’s
16O,OOO hectares of vineyards and is not always respected.
The grape and wine were once termed “Hermitage” in the
Hunter Valley. Much like zinfandel in California, shiraz in
Australia is used to make wine at every price level, of
every style – sparkling red aperitif, fluff, world class dry
reds, even respectable ringers for Port. Like the Bordelais
of a bygone era, Australians like to blend Shiraz with
Cabernet Sauvignon. Shiraz will reflect its terroir.
Particularly distinctive growing regions include the Hunter
Valley, Barossa Valley, Claire Valley, Eden Valley, McLaren
Vale, Coonawarra, Padthaway, and cooler areas of
Victoria.

Hardy’s, one of
the major established Australian producers, was founded by
Thomas Hardy in 1853. He emigrated as a 2O-year-old from
England’s Devon to South Australia, which had been settled
in 1836. He is not known to have been related to Thomas
Hardy, the eminent novelist and poet from Dorset. The Hardy
family owned the company until 1992, when, as BRL Hardy, it
became a public corporation. In 2OO3, the Hardy Wine Company
became a division of Constellation, the drinks giant. Along
the way, Hardy’s partnered with or acquired several other
brands, usually maintaining their individual labels and
characters, as we shall see when we taste the
Shirazes.