https://winefolly.com/tips/start-planning-now-wine-harvest-season/
Source: International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV)
As we have discussed in many of these wine club newsletters, Vitus vinifera grows best within a global latitudinal “wine belt” at roughly 30 degrees latitude to 50 degrees latitude, both north and south of the equator. Western Europe is in the heart of the belt, and the Roman Empire, in tandem with their military conquest (in fact, it was the actual Roman military that established vineyards and trade), spread viticulture throughout Europe to every conceivable corner where it could be grown. Yet even within the geographical heart of viticulture, there are varied terrain and climates, hence the thousands of different varietal types that have emerged to adopt to them. And of course, humans helped this diversity along with their own intervention breeding and planting vines in other locations outside of Europe within the wine belts. Enter the grape varietal of focus for our wine club: Syrah. A 1998 study by the Department of Viticulture and Enology at University of California, Davis used DNA typing and historical records to deduce that the Syrah varietal was the offspring of two obscure grape varietals that are native to the northern part of the Rhone Valley region in France: Dureza (father) and Mondeuse blanche (mother). On their own these varietals still exist, albeit with tiny footprints, in the Northern Rhone Valley region. To lend some perspective on how long humans have been involved in manipulating grape varietals, in 77 AD the Roman philosopher and statesman Pliny the Elder was already referencing Syrah in his Naturalis Historia about the wines of Vienne (which today is the Côte-Rôtie region of the Rhone Valley in France), which had not existed 50 years earlier when his predecessor Virgil wrote about wine in the area. Syrah makes some of the darkest red wines in the world due to its skin color and is a remarkably hardy varietal that can be depended on for volume when grown in temperate climates. It is a staple in the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre (GSM) blend in Southern Rhone and tends to stand alone in wines made in its native Northern Rhone. It is also allowed as a minor blending partner in many appellations in Italy. In the 1980s, when grape varietals first began to be measured by the area of vineyards farmed, Syrah accounted for 10,000 hectares of vineyards worldwide. By the mid-2000s, according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, it was the sixth most planted Vitus vinifera varietal in the world, with 190,000 hectares planted. For this wine club, we chose one wine from the varietal’s native land, one in a much hotter, drier climate, and one in Australia, where it has gained so much fame that some people mistakenly believe it is native to the island continent, which is not helped by the fact that it often goes by a different name: Shiraz.
Four generations on their land
(left to right) Sebastien, Dimitri, Joel, Gaston, and a fifth generation
Featured March Amaro Wine Club Syrah wine: Domaine Arsac l'Ardeche Syrah Aoutres (2023)VARIETALS: SyrahThe Syrah grapes of Les Aoutres are handpicked, sorted into bunches and fermented with native yeasts in cement tanks, and the wine is bottled with a minimum dose of sulfur for stability, but without fining or filtering. The idea is as little cellar intervention as possible to highlight the character of the Syrah as well as the unique soils in which it is planted.FOOD PAIRINGS: char-grilled steak, peppercorn-crusted tuna, assorted grilled vegetables, e.g., eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes
In 1968, the French-born (Malo, France) Hugues Bernard de la Gatinais, and his Sicilian wife, Gigi Guarrasi, inherited the latter’s family estate after it was destroyed by an earthquake. They rebuilt the winery and replanted the vineyards to include indigenous varieties, but also French varietals that the Count thought could thrive in this different climate than his native France. Rapitalà was one of the first five producers on the island to offer estate bottled wines, starting with the 1976 vintage. The estate now has over 550 contiguous acres, divided into 180 unique vineyard parcels, each managed, harvested and vinified separately. Gigi’s and the Hugues’s son Laurent is now at the helm and is moving the estate towards more sustainable practices and new technologies to make the health of the terrain paramount to the separate expressions of the parcels and varietals.
Hugues, Gigi, and Laurent
Tenuta Rapitalà
Featured March Amaro Wine Club Syrah wine: Rapitalà Nadir Syrah Sicilia IGT (2022)VARIETALS: Syrah
To get to a rich, fruit-forward expression of Syrah in the hot, dry Sicilian climate, the Syrah parcels are Guyot-trained at 985 and 1,310 feet above sea level planted at a density of 2,300 plants per acre. After a September harvest, the grapes are put through a cold, pre-maceration for three days before being allowed to ferment. About 20 percent then undergoes a malolactic fermentation for four months in medium-toast French Allier barriques. Afterward, the two fermentations are blended and aged in barriques for 12 months. FOOD PAIRINGS: grilled, roasted or braised pork, wild game, roast beef, couscous and Middle Eastern cuisine
Whilst most of Australia consists of arid deserts and dense bushland, the oceanic coasts to the south of the country have a terrain and climate ideal for Vitus vinifera, but since the vine is not native to the island continent, it took several decades of failed attempts in the latter 18th century to find varietals that could produce quality wine. Today, wine production makes up for a considerable part of the Australian economy. The greatest success has been with the Syrah grape varietal, which is known locally as Shiraz, but the expression of the wine is significantly different than what European producers make.Ben Haines is a boutique winemaker who doesn’t concern himself with an estate as much with the science and art of viticulture, sourcing grapes from different origins year-to-year and season-to-season. Ben’s base is the Yarra Valley region in Victoria, where he formerly worked as winemaker for Yering Station before moving to the Grampians region, also in Victoria, to be head winemaker at the Mt Langi Ghiran winery. He pays close attention to what’s happening in each vineyard throughout the growing season. Since 2003, he has been making single-varietal and single vineyard wines, and often not for commercial use but out of a fascination for experimenting with how terrain affects winemaking.
Source: https://winefolly.com/wine-regions/australia/
Ben Haines
Featured March Amaro Wine Club Syrah wine: Ben Haines Syrah Grampians (2022)
VARIETALS: Syrah
Haines hand-harvested the Syrah for this wine from two vineyards, Andrew Toomey’s Miners Ridge vineyard and the Sugarloaf Creek Vineyard in Grampians, which were both planted in the 1990s. He ferments the grapes from each vineyard individually. The first was 100 percent whole cluster bunch with seven days semi-carbonic maceration followed by gentle extraction and then a post-fermentation maceration for a further seven days prior to pressing to barrel. The second was destemmed and left undisturbed in their whole berries for the first half of fermentation to allow for a gentle infusion, and then for four weeks it is macerated on the skins before pressing to barrel. Both parcels were matured on gross lees for eight months prior to racking, and then they are blended and bottled unfined and unfiltered.FOOD PAIRINGS: venison, braised beef, barbecue, hard cheeses, e.g., Gouda, roast leg of lamb, hamburgers
