Wine

Australia is the Wizard of Shiraz

By Christopher Cook

At a lunch in Ann Arbor in 1996, winemaker Chuck Ortman, known as “Mr. Chardonnay” for his pioneering of Burgundy-style chardonnay making in California, was showing off a new red wine made of 100-percent syrah grape.
Syrah, Ortman predicted, would soon slide into the seat that merlot had held for several years, and eventually replace it altogether. Part of that discussion turned around the difficulty of making or finding reliable merlot, despite its great popularity. Merlot became the red wine of choice in the 1990s, and was particularly popular among women, who found it to be easygoing and a good entry point to reds.
For several years, the American merlot market had been awash in a lot of insipid wine, and Ortman signaled that, overall, he found the variety rather disappointing. That eventually began to change, and the quality did improve.
As Ortman had predicted, syrah did indeed take off, and today it seems to be in one of those growth phases that merlot also passed through. Syrah is still the new kid on the block in the United States, where it’s particularly embraced in California. It has become the regional signature for Paso Robles wines, which makes a wide range and style of syrah, and has come to be viewed as the syrah capital. Syrah is also made elsewhere in America, and much of it mimics the early efforts at merlot. In my opinion, it comes across as overly ripe, simplistic, slightly sweet tasting, and too alcoholic.
The disclaimer is that, yes, there are lots of good American syrahs on store shelves. But, to me, the greatest success is still Australia, where it’s known as shiraz and long has been long been the backbone grape of the entire wine industry.
Nobody understands and knows how to handle and make a shiraz more successfully than the Australians. No, not even the French. The sheer range and quality in what the Australians do with shiraz is breathtaking.
Some Australian shirazes have elegance, nuance, depth, and complexity, with a range of flavors and styles, and differing textures than their counterparts in other countries.
Here are three superb choices:

2002 Forefathers Shiraz McLaren Vale ($25):
Soft, restrained floral aromas. Spicy and unctuous in the mouth with plum-prune notes, a burst of pepper, and fabulous structure, complexity, balance, and long finish. From Nick Goldschmidt, who makes wine on three continents.
2003 Peter Lehmann Southern Flinders Shiraz ($25):
Consistently one of the best values in quality wine, this somewhat intense and sinewy wine has deep, dense cocoa-coffee notes, firm fruit with black-cherry flavors, good acidity, and texture. A very polished shiraz.
2003 St. Hallett Old Block Shiraz ($57):
Concentrated fruit in the mouth, it also has coffee, mocha, and earthy notes, solid acidity, layered fruit notes of raspberry and cherry, a supple mid-mouth, and elegant finish.