Wine with Leslie: Some top Syrahs cost hundreds — but here are some affordable ones
Syrah grapes: a valuable proposition
It’s all about Syrah this week, a warming, complex, and richly flavoured grape that in its finest expressions can sell for hundreds of Euro. Most people probably know it better by its Aussie name, Shiraz, and it is arguable that without the fame brought to it by Australia it would be even less well known.
The grape originates in France and its parents are Mondeuse Blanche and Dureza, little known grapes from the Savoie and the Ardèche. The crossing was likely spontaneous as a result of the two parent grapes being planted in the same vineyard — probably in the Rhône-Alpes region. There was a pleasing notion that it originated in the wine regions near the city of Shiraz, Iran’s most romantic city famed for its gardens, literature and wine. The 300 or so wineries prior to the revolution are sadly no more but at least we still have the wine and love poetry of Hafez and others.
