Syrah

It's known by a few fistfuls of names and is produced in wide variety of places all over the world. Today, we start a tour with the grape most commonly known as Syrah.

But, perhaps you don't know it by that name. There are many others. In Australia and often in South Africa and occasionally in other places, it's Shiraz. Some of the other more common names for the grape are Marsanne Noir, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, and St Joseph. 

They're all the same, at least genetically. But, considering that some of those names are restricted to smaller areas, the price may vary significantly. When it's called Hermitage, bring your wallet, your checkbook, and a few credit cards. When it's called Shiraz, it's often very budget-friendly, but not all the time.

Legend has it that the grape was first discovered in Persia, now Iran. The ancient capital there was Shiraz and therefore possibly the name. The French, of course, would have pronounced it a bit differently, and therefor Syrah.

Syrah is grown typically in warmer weather, but also in blazing hot, producing quite different expressions of the grape. In almost every place that it is grown successfully, however, the grwoing season is anywhere from somewhat dry to bone dry. The dense clusters of the grape do not accommodate significantly wet weather.

It's a fairly tannic grape, more so as the summer heat goes from moderate to extreme, and also more acidic than average. It has a wide variety of flavor expressions, depending on where it is grown.

Tomorrow, we'll start our travels back up. We're going to start in the Stellenbosch region of South Africa, travel from there to Margaret River near Perth Australia, go to the storied Barossa Valley in South Australia, home of some of the finest and more expensive Shiraz in the world. Then, we'll head to the eastern part of the state of Washington where the weather is typcially a bit cooler than that, go south to Sonoma Valley, and take a detour to Paso Robles, south to Santa Barbara, make a special stop in Ventura County, California where we will once again brink our checkbook. Then, we'll be off to Priorat and Montsant in Sapin before ending our Syrah adventures in the northern Rhone on a little hill near where the river winds far to the north.

Until then, have a glass or more for me.

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