I Think, Therefore I Drink Cool-Climate Syrah

As a semi-pro philosopher, I frequently plumb life’s mysteries. I ponder questions like: What is mankind’s place in the universe? Consciousness: true or false? And how does one get that last gherkin out of the pickle jar?

On a recent, clear and crisp winter’s afternoon, I took on a particularly intractable conundrum: What is a cool-climate syrah?

The question seems pretty simple at the surface. That is until you deconstruct and call into question the very existence of syrahs from cool climates.

Perhaps if we turn the question upside down: What is a warm-climate syrah? The answer here seems much simpler: Australian shiraz and the other alcoholic, overly jammy, fruit-bomb wines that taste like them.

So we can then say that while shiraz and syrah share the exact same genetic make up, shiraz from Australia is not a cool-climate syrah, right?

Not so fast, Socrates, says Jan Stuebing Smyth, wine industry analyst and former director of Wine Australia USA, a New York-based trade organization. “You cannot generalize about the climates of Australia. Margaret River, Adelaide Hills and the Grampians in Victoria are cooler than Southern France.”

The understandably ruffled Steubing makes a good point. Many big, jammy shiraz—a style enjoyed by millions of wine lovers—do hail from Down Under. But just because a bottle has the word “shiraz” on it does not mean the wine possesses those characteristics. And I have empirical evidence of this truth.

In my quest to understand cool-climate syrah, I tasted 27 wines and found that some of my favorites did not have the word “syrah” on the label. They were indeed labeled “shiraz” from Australia. Yering Station, Cliff Edge and Cape Mentelle were remarkably UN-big and UN-jammy.

As I fell further through the looking glass, I felt compelled to search for some clue to help me recognize a cool-climate syrah when I saw one. So naturally, I turned to Google. According to the 67,500 articles on cool-climate syrahs, these types of wines have their origins in France’s northern Rhône valley. Syrah exists in the southern portion of the valley, but it is not the star and is always blended with a number of other grapes.

Syrah is the V.I.G. (very important grape) of the north and it, too, gets help from another variety, but in miniscule proportions and from an unlikely source. Viognier, a white grape, often comprises one to five percent of the blend of northern Rhône syrahs.

Do syrah practitioners around the world follow this template of cutting their wines with a little viognier because it’s necessary or because wine makers think it’s cool? Randall Grahm, winemaker for California’s Bonny Doon Vineyards and a long-time proponent of Rhône grape varieties, believes it is a little of both.

“[In the northern Rhône], viognier is added to a.) augment the alcoholic degree of the syrah (before global warming, syrah had to really struggle to ripen), b.) stabilize the color of syrah through the phenomenon of co-pigmentation—there are colorless anthocyanins in syrah that apparently shift into the range of colored with the addition of viognier, c.) intensify and add complexity to the fragrance of syrah, d.) the winemakers kind of like what it does to the wine and it’s become a stylistic norm.”

Grahm adds viognier to his syrahs but not because he wants to be like the cool winemakers. “I really do believe that something very sexy can happen through the addition of viognier—something that brings out the earthy, truffled aspect of syrah.”

OK, so if a syrah (or shiraz) wine lists a little viognier on the label, maybe you are holding a bottle made in the light of syrahs from the northern Rhône Valley.

Then question struck me: Why should we bother searching for cool-climate syrahs in the first place? I wanted to ask the omniscient 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, but he was busy. I got the next best thing, someone close to President Obama (geographically speaking), Washington Post wine columnist, Dave McIntyre. “Well, they are delicious,” the straightforward McIntyre said. “They are some of the most food-friendly wines in the world. A good cool-climate syrah combines the depth and intensity of syrah and the lightness and elegance of a pinot noir. I always imagine flavors of ripe, tart blueberries with touches of raspberry, earthiness and smoked meats.”

Am I any closer to understanding the true nature of cool-climate syrah? Maybe. But as I travel the confusing and sometimes contradictory road of wine, I find it is the search for knowledge that can be the most delicious dialogue of all.

2006 Yering Station, Reserve, Shiraz-Viognier,
Yarra Valley, Australia

• $45

• Two Thumbs Way Up

• Amazing aromas of tart smelling blueberry, violets, minerals and licorice.

Quite subtle but lots of flavorful facets such as blueberry, raspberry, lightly smoked meat. Great balance.

2005 Greenpoint, Reserve, Shiraz,
Yarra Valley, Australia

• $27

• Two Thumbs Way Up

• Nice bright aromas of blueberry, smoke and minerals. It has gobs of fruit flavor, but it is held up by great acidity. Flavors suggested red raspberry, blueberry, minerals, black cherry and light smoked bacon.

2006 Cadaretta Syrah, Columbia Valley, Wash.

• $33

• Two Thumbs Up

• Rich smoky aromas with notes of black cherry, violets. Complex and full-bodied but light on its feet. Lots of rich flavors of ripe, dark berry fruit, plum but with enough acidity to counterbalance.

2004 Cape Mentelle Shiraz, Margaret River, Australia

• $25

• Two Thumbs Way Up

• Bright aromas of violets, blueberry and lots of minerals. Flavors of blueberry so tart it makes your mouth water. But also it has a complex earthy, black licorice quality.

2004 Bridlewood Estate Winery, Santa Ynez, Calif.

• $40

• Two Thumbs Way Up

• Simply gorgeous aromas of black cherry, ripe plum, leather and cola. Lots of flavors of dark cherry and with light touches of smoked meat.

2005 Gordon Brothers Family Vineyards,
Columbia Valley, Wash.

• $20

• Two Thumbs Way Up

• Aromas of bright red fruit with a steely mineral quality. It has flavors of tart red cherry and dense, complex qualities of smoke, leather and cola.