For those of you who have followed this newsletter over the past two years, you may have picked up on my fascination with Syrah. With its inky colour, vibrant acidity, fine-grained texture and savoury character, it is a variety that has the potential to make absolutely world-class wines that can stand the test of time. Naturally, as I currently have 525 vines growing in a nursery, to be planted on my plot in Greece next spring, I cannot claim to be entirely objective in my praise for the variety. That said, in an effort to better understand this grape, and by extension what must be done to cultivate a fine example of it, I do spend a fair amount of time and energy thinking about the qualities that make Syrah so exciting.
With this aim in mind, I have over the past year made a conscious effort to seek out as many serious examples of varietal Syrah as possible, and despite a few disappointments, I have had the pleasure of trying several wines that I would call truly excellent. These are not wines that simply glide across your palate and deliver a brief, fruity highlight, but rather wines that envelop your senses and linger pleasantly, both on the finish and in your memory, long after the bottle is empty.
Each of the bottles that have made my shortlist, three of which I want to discuss in the article that follows, have provided a different perspective on what Syrah can be. These are wines that have helped me shape my ideas about the style of wine I hope to produce from the limestone soils on my plot in Greece.
I’ve covered some of the history and defining qualities of Syrah in a previous article which I will link to below. Rather than repeat that discussion or simply review these wines, I want to consider what they share, in the hope of discovering what makes certain Syrahs linger in the memory, while others, regardless of how well made they may be, do not.
The Wines
Coming from different parts of the world, the following wines reflect quite different stylistic expressions of Syrah, in part driven by their individual terroir as well as differing winemaking choices. Some are restrained and almost Burgundian, exuding finesse and elegance, while others possess more breadth and power. Despite obvious differences however, there are recurring themes that have made these wines stand out in my memory. In fact, it is that ability to leave an unusually long lasting impression that was the main criterion for their inclusion in this article.
Vincent Ruiz, Yseult Mon Amour, 2023
It was a stroke of luck that this lovely Syrah from the Ardèche ended up in my glass. I recently visited a small wine bar called Bonne Route near Harringay in London and despite being initially in the mood for an orange wine, I asked what Syrahs they had available. This was more out of habit at this point than anything else, hoping to learn what Syrahs are out there, even if I don’t plan on having some that night. However, with its interesting label and with our host Scott delivering a convincing brief on the qualities of the winemaker behind it, I was sold. Having worked for the well renowned Cornas producer Franck Balthazar for several years, Vincent Ruiz now runs Domaine du Gringet in the alpine regions of France’s Arve valley, where he and his business partners carry on the legacy of Dominique Belluard, championing the rare alpine variety Gringet. Vincent however also produces wineunder his personal label, with organic grapes sourced from a friend’s plot near Gras, and this 2023 Yseult Mon Amour is one of those.
Grown at around 450 meters above sea level on clay-limestone soils, this is about as hands off and low intervention as you can get with a wine and still produce exceptional quality. With 100% whole cluster and a 21 day maceration, the wines are fermented using ambient yeast with no punch downs or pump overs. After being pressed in a vertical press, the wine is aged for 8-10 months on fine lees in stainless steel, depending on the vintage. While this 2023 saw a small amount of SO2 added after vinification, the 2024 vintage made do without any at all.
Moderately pronounced on the nose, it had notes of violet and blueberries alongside hints of smoke and bacon fat, cracked white pepper and olive tapenade. On the palate, the slightly saline quality I associate with tapenade bounces off the primary fruit, making for a super moreish experience. The wine is dominated by an ultra-fine tannin structure and a finish long enough to keep you engaged until it is time to take another sip.
Errazuriz, Las Pizarras Syrah, 2021
This wine, from Chile’s Aconcagua Costa, a cool coastal region on the western end of the Aconcagua valley which lies to the north of Santiago, represents a completely different take on Syrah than Vincent Ruiz’s efforts. With the cooling influence of the southern Pacific ocean, this is most definitely a cool climate wine. While the Aconcagua valley is perhaps best known for producing high quality examples of Burgundian varieties, as well as some quality Sauvignon Blanc, this Syrah is exceptional. While light bodied and worthy of typical cool climate adjectives like elegant and perfumed, this example retains a rather fleshy texture and broad mid palate brimming with black pepper, dark fruit, black cherries and a touch of chocolate. Though those descriptors aren’t normally associated with lightness, that usually going hand in hand with descriptors like red fruit, currants and raspberries, the acid profile of this Syrah gives the wine tremendous lift.
There is no denying this wine comes from a substantial producer with a large portfolio of wines and 100 hectares of vines at their disposal. Even so, this wine comes from a very specific terroir, dominated by the cooling ocean influence and a well draining soil profile with an unusual laminar rock profile which both give the wine its name and is depicted on the label.
This wine saw 30% whole cluster, with between 8 and 20 days on the skins. After vinification it sees 12 months on 15% French oak, of which only 7% is new oak. The remaining 85% of the wine is aged in Stockinger foudres, which is a good indication that little expense has been spared in making this wine. For context, these foudres are produced by Austrian cooper Fassbinderei Stockinger, who are well renowned for their craftsmanship.
Winery Sixteen 600, Dos Limones Syrah, 2022
Few names are as closely connected with organic and biodynamic farming practices in California as Phil Coturri. The Dos Limones vineyard, situated about a third of the way up Sonoma Mountain, at 500 feet elevation and with an eastern exposure, was the first vineyard Phil farmed organically, starting back in 1978. With spreckles loam soils of clay and gravel, a volcanic formation, this vineyard benefits from the morning sun and the early shade and cool evenings provided by the remainder of Sonoma Mountain, which rises to the west of the plot. The site, situated in an area where Meyer Lemons was once a dominant crop gets its name from two volunteer lemon trees that were found on the plot when Phil and his crew from Enterprise Vineyards first began managing the site.
If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter you will have noticed I am quite partial to the wines made by Winery Sixteen 600, spearheaded by Phil’s son, Sam Coturri, who makes a range of seriously delicious wines focusing on Rhone varieties grown in Sonoma. This particular example, receives a three day cold soak before native yeast are allowed to take over and ferment the wine. It is co-fermented, as a nod to the Northern Rhône, on Viognier skins, which in addition to adding a little aromatic lift to the wine, has been reported to help stabilise its colour.
Though not from a cool climate as such, there are enough moderating features and a sufficiently high diurnal range to give this wine some serious lift and finesse. Nevertheless it is a riper expression than the Errazuriz, and more structured than the Yseult Mon Amour. With a combination of raspberry and dark fruit sitting alongside savoury characters like black pepper, smoke and bacon fat, it is a dense, powerful expression of what this grape can produce, without ever going over the top.
For me, the standout feature of this wine, aside from the gorgeous aromas that leap out of the glass, is its texture. As with the Yseult Mon Amour example mentioned above, the tannin structure of this wine is superbly fine-grained, and with ample acidity to back it up the result is simply mouthwateringly delicious, and leads into a long and pleasant finish.
Black Pepper, Tapenade and Terroir
Now I could of course continue to wax lyrical about these wines, and several other honourable mentions that for the sake of brevity did not make the above list. The key takeaway from these descriptions however is that despite coming from three completely different corners of the world, these wines share a very similar language, with undertones of red and black fruit, supported by floral notes of violet and lavender. This is complimented by a range of savoury flavours from briny black olive tapenade and pepper corns, to smoke and fatty meat. This points to an incredibly strong varietal personality that stays true to itself regardless of the terroir it is interpreted through. Anecdotally, I've heard winemakers say that if you include more than 10% of Syrah in your blend, you might as well make a varietal Syrah, and with such a strong personality there seems to be something to that.
Nevertheless, where it is grown matters tremendously. All three of the above examples are from comparatively cool climates, and do not possess the overpowering stewed fruit characteristics that can easily be found in examples from Australia’s Barossa valley, the southern Rhône and hotter parts of California. That said, it appears to require some heat to produce the general style showcased in these three examples. Though Syrah from the Gimlet Gravels in New Zealand have a tremendous reputation, some examples I've had from other parts of the country simply do not have the requisite ripeness. The same high acid potential that allows Syrah to stay fresh despite warmer exposures, can if the climate is too cold result in unbalanced and acid forward wines that, at least in my book, aren’t very good.
If you read my piece a year ago about Syrah, you will know that the black pepper character that Syrah is so famous for is a result of relatively high concentrations of a compound called rotundone. This chemical is a very potent sesquiterpene and humans generally have a very low detection threshold for it. That said, around 20% of the population is estimated to have a selective anosmia for it, meaning they simply cannot detect it, even though there is nothing wrong with their olfactory senses. One question however that I have seen less discussion about is the origin of the briny, olive tapenade aromas and flavours that I personally love in Syrah.
Where the peppery character in Syrah can be traced to a single compound, the notes of olive tapenade is a composite aroma spearheaded by dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and supported by rotundone, dark fruit esters and thiols and other low-level sulphur compounds. Note however that this should not be read as there being a defined “tapenade” formula. DMS is a reduced volatile sulphur compound and belongs generally speaking in the chemical family of “reductive” wine aromas. However it behaves quite differently from the compounds generally associated with reductive aromas. These are hydrogen sulphide, which famously produces a rotten egg aroma, and methanethiol, which can produce unpleasant aromas of cabbage, drains and rubber.
During vine and berry metabolism, a compound called S-methylmethionine (SMM) is formed. SMM, which itself is essentially odourless survives into the must and the final wine, and becomes part of what might be called the wine’s potential DMS. Over time, SMM breaks down, and in the process it releases free, aromatic DMS, giving the wine black olive, truffle, dark fruit and savoury complexity. This slow release over time explains why some wines may develop a stronger black olive, truffle or tapenade character after several years in the bottle, despite the young wine not being particularly reductive.
The concentration of DMS in a wine depends, as with any precursors, on the vine material and the terroir. The vine nitrogen status in particular can increase the concentration of amino acids and SMM precursors, as does its water status and ripening conditions. I’ve been unable to find out whether there is any particular association with water stress however.
It’s All About the Midpalate
One of the terms I have found to be very helpful when thinking about the sensory impression of Syrah is the midpalate. Loosely defined as the second stage of the wine tasting, or rather drinking process, the term describes the sensations, flavours and textures experienced while the liquid is held and swirled in the mouth. It separates the initial impression as the wine enters the mouth, and the finish, which occurs after the wine has been spat or swallowed. Wines that lack a significant midpalate often feel short or hollow, going straight from the initial impression to whatever finish the wine may have. Some call these donut wines, but I quite like donuts, and prefer to say that these wines are lacking. What drives the midpalate is primarily textural, with the interaction of alcohol, glycerol, tannins and acid, which define the structure of the wine and how it is experienced.
Each of the wines detailed above have a beautiful midpalate. This is characterised by a sensation of depth and dimension, which makes the wine feel three-dimensional. That is not to say that there is anything wrong with more linear styles of wine, but I believe it is the combination of dense fruit and savoury aromatics intersecting with the fine grained and generous texture that makes Syrah such a standout variety.
I often find it easier to remember textures in food and drink than particular flavours and aromas. The crackle of the surface of a creme brûlée and the creamy texture that lies beneath is far more impactful to me than the concentration of vanilla used. Similarly, I often find it difficult to mentally recreate the aromas of a wine, but can, as I am typing this, almost feel the mouthwatering structure of these three Syrahs. This is of course highly subjective, but I think that it is this quality that makes these particular wines, and others like them, so memorable.
Final Thoughts
That Syrah is often less about fruit than texture, is perhaps why it has struggled to capture the attention of those looking for easy going, fruit forward wines. While there is plenty of fruit and floral aromas present in a quality Syrah, it is that structure and texture that sets it apart from most of the well known international varieties.
This makes it, from what I hear, a tough wine to place in the broader market, explaining why it repeatedly has struggled to take off in popularity in California, despite the superlative quality of many of their Syrahs. It does however perform exceptionally well when presented to the right audience, and producers like Winery Sixteen 600, Pax and Bedrock have a solid fanbase. Further north, in Oregon, you can also find Cayuse and Horsepower Vineyards which no doubt do very well with their respective Syrahs.
In the context of my plot in Greece, it will be very interesting to see what can be done. On the face of it, it shares many similarities with the Dos Limones plot, in as much as it is on an east facing slope at 800 feet elevation, that shades it from the worst of the afternoon heat, though perhaps not as much as the rest of Sonoma Mountain would. It also has the northern tip of Mount Pangeon in front of it, which during certain parts of the year delays the arrival of the morning sun. The proximity to the mountain also gives the site a high diurnal range. While no doubt a warm site, temperatures can drop significantly overnight, and even in the current heatwave that is washing over Europe, the diurnal swing can be as high as 17-18 degrees Celsius, which bodes well for acid retention.
While it is difficult to speculate on what the character of my wine will be, the wines we have discussed above set out some very clear parameters that can be targeted through vineyard design, viticultural practices, picking time and winemaking protocols. I’ll be looking for a level of freshness while avoiding under-ripeness, possibly including a certain amount of whole cluster. I’ll also be seeking ripe, but fine tannins, avoiding new oak, building a broad midpalate that showcases dark fruit, pepper and savoury complexity while being restrained enough to avoid stewed fruit. Time will tell.
I hope this exploration of these Syrahs has been interesting, and I’m curious to hear if you have experiences with any of these wines, or any particular recommendations for that matter. I’m also interested to hear what it is about Syrah that you enjoy, provided of course you do.
What’s the difference between a case of Syrah and a case of pneumonia? You can give away a case of pneumonia. Alleged joke told by Eric Asimov of the NY Times.
The dos limones label and the bottle above the Errazuriz, Las Pizarras Syrah, 2021 title are absolutely beautiful.