You say syrah, I say shiraz

Tesco Finest Colchagua Shiraz, Colchagua, Chile 2022 (£9, Tesco)

Which do you like better, shiraz or syrah? Ok, that is on the face of it a trick question, since they are essentially one and the same, shiraz being the name given to the red grape variety known as syrah in France by most Australian and South African, and many South American, wine producers. Still, the question isn’t quite as silly as that makes it sound. Syrah and shiraz have come to stand as shorthand for quite different styles, with wines labelled as shiraz supposedly being bold, rich and full like the famous Australian iterations, and the syrahs supposedly taking their cue from the lighter, but still sinewy, cracked black pepper-seasoned example set by winemakers in France’s northern Rhône Valley. I’ve found that rule of thumb increasingly unreliable, however, and when autumn gets going and my craving for the variety intensifies in tandem with the shortening days, the question of whether the subtle smoky-savouriness and slick of darkly alluring fruit in Tesco’s Chilean example is more syrah or shiraz just seems pedantic.

Carinus Family Vineyards Syrah, Stellenbosch, South Africa 2022 (£14, The Wine Society)

Even when they’re labelling their wine as shiraz, most winemakers in Chile these days are looking to make wines that are more in keeping with what they see as the French “syrah” blueprint – or at least, they’ve come to make wines that are much less sweet, rich and forceful, and with much less obvious oak and lower alcohol, than a decade ago. That’s certainly evident in a wine such as Undurraga TH Syrah 2022 (from £16, The Wine Society; Strictly Wine), from the coastal vineyards of the Leyda Valley, which is so fresh and beautifully perfumed in classic “syrah” style with fresh blackberries, violets, black pepper and hillside herbs. South African winemakers, too, have gone through a similar process, and the grape variety has become one of the country’s biggest strengths. At £7.49 a bottle, Aldi’s Specially Selected Stellenbosch Shiraz 2024 is super value for a brightly berried and aromatic and super-succulent take on the grape; Carinus Family Vineyards’ bottling, from the same region, meanwhile, is plumply delicious in a “shiraz” kind of way, while retaining plenty of life and darkly spicy syrah energy.

M&S Kopraas SMV, Swartland, South Africa 2024 (£10, Marks & Spencer)

Given that the country became synonymous with chunky, monster-sized shiraz, it’s hard not to see Australian wines labelled “syrah” as a statement on the part of the winemaker. And I can quite understand why the eponymous winemaker behind Luke Lambert Syrah 2023 (£30.10, The Sourcing Table) would want to distance his ethereally fragrant bottling from the cool Yarra Valley from the medicinal punch of a16% abv bruiser that is Mollydooker The Boxer 2023 (£30, or £22.50 as part of a mixed case of six bottles, Majestic) from South Australia’s McLaren Vale. But the stylistic continuum of Australian shiraz/syrah has always been much broader than stereotype suggests. The practice of blending a little of the lushly fragrant white grape viognier with the shiraz, as in the justly celebrated Clonakilla Shiraz/Viognier from the Canberra District, is an open tribute to the syrah/viogniers of Côte Rôtie in the Northern Rhône, for example – and it’s practice adopted with some skill by top Cape winemakers Duncan Savage and Thys Louw in their smoky-spicy-brambly, 84% syrah, SMV.