Sweet and sour Syrah
Sunday 31 January
One drop of rotundone is enough to make an Olympic size swimming pool smell peppery. One gram of this potent stuff could make the entire Australian Shiraz harvest smell peppery too. This compound was identified last year and was one of the more technical topics tackled at Hawke’s Bay’s Syrah symposium.
While there were a few tedious talks due to the bumbling nature of several speakers, it was an interesting day.
Tastings from around the world proved a point that New Zealand Syrah is pretty distinctive and can be picked from a line up of the rest of the world’s other Syrah producers. The Northern Rhone has its own unmistakeable style while South Africa can generally be picked for its burnt rubber/Stilton/gamey/call it what you will savoury notes. But New Zealand has its own New World version of the Rhone. It’s an elegant riper style with black pepper and ripe brambles, dusty firm tannins and a lovely freshness.
British speaker Tim Atkin MW published an article back in 2007 claiming ‘Syrah could save the day in Hawkes Bay’. He encouraged more planting of the variety three years ago but the call clearly fell on deaf ears as a mere 10 hectares have been planted across New Zealand since then! He stood up yesterday and told them the same story – to take Syrah more seriously.
If Sauvignon Blanc, which makes up more than 80% of New Zealand wine exports falls out of fashion in the same way that Australian Chardonnay did, New Zealand needs a plan B. Yes, it has other varieties planted but they’re a bit of a sideshow at the moment. New Zealand really has an opportunity to take the world by storm with Syrah. It could be as successful as its Pinot Noir. Let’s hope someone’s listening this time.
On another note, while I love some Australian Shirazes, there’s clearly a problem of over-acidifying. In a line-up of the top Shirazes in the country, the line-up was marred by sourness on the finish that I can only explain as overzealous acid additions. Think sucking on a lemon. Paringa Estate, Shaw & Smith and to some extent Clonakilla displayed this and they really need to rethink it.
The wines are clearly top quality with great concentration and texture but this sourness is not acceptable. Many New Zealand winemakers came up and agreed with me after I’d stuck my neck out at the seminar but I think it got some Australian backs up. What’s wrong with honesty?
Well it seems, honesty is a bad thing. I didn’t realize that this was a particularly sensitive issue in Australia at the moment after fellow English wine journo Andrew Jefford made a speech at the National Wine Centre in Adelaide in November about this and other things (click here to see the speech in full) He said “Misjudged acid addition is, for me, the defining fault of the Australian wine industry, and I regret the fact that it is rarely if ever viewed as a fault here. I’ve tasted hundreds of wines since my arrival here which I truly feel are defaced by acidity. Potentially fine wines which would, in other words, have been much, much better with much softer, less assertive levels of acidity. Lower acid levels would lead to flavour profiles of greater delicacy, expressivity and finesse, and a much subtler sensual appeal. One of the most frequent criticisms of Australian wine from both consumers and the international press is of homogeneity, and no single factor tends to reinforce this sense of sameiness more than acid adjustment as it’s currently practiced here.”
Guess I’m not alone.
Am enjoying your web-site. Lots of good stuff.
On Shiraz, I must say I tend to agree. We have been producing wines focused on flavour and mouth-feel and structure – and I think most of Victoria does this very well.
Excess acid obviously reduces mouth feel and I think many new world producers are still trying to make wines with extreme flavours, sometimes resulting in over-ripe or excessively extracted wines.
While the Barossa has done more than almost any other region to put Australian reds on the map, those of us in the Victorian Pyrenees consider it a relatively hot region and the wines reflect this. Acid additions are required to balance this.
Unfortunately many of the hundreds of small producers making elegant and complex Shiraz in Victoria are just not big enough to find a national let alone international audience.
Also while there are a number of really excellent wine writers, there are still many – and this apply to many wine buyers in the trade as well who still think bigger is better, and miss out on wines with layers of flavours and complexity that are just really good to drink. The problem with subtlety is it is just that - subtle.
- by Matthew Barry, director, Mount Avoca
Hi Matthew
Thanks for your comments. It’s good to hear that you agree with Mr Jefford and I on the acidity front.
I did vintage in 2006 at a ‘cool climate’ winery in Victoria (although I remember sweltering in 37 degree heat) and there was a formulaic add 3 grams of tartaric approach pre-ferment to all the reds. I worry that acid additions are made purely because that’s what winemakers have always done.
I hope that was just a bad experience but having tasted the wines at Syrah symposium, I am worried that it isn’t just the guys in McLaren Vale and the Barossa that feel the need to load on the acid. Sounds like you guys are going down the right track though.
- by Rebecca