Wine Education : Syrah Grape

Wine Tasting at all FOUR locations

Taste Syrousse (70% Syrah) all four of our locations this Saturday, July 6th from 11am-4pm.

(each store will also have other wines out to taste)

A little more education: We are going to try to feature either a grape or a wine region each week at our stores. We will give you some background information on the grape or region and feature a wine that highlights what we are featuring. We will taste that wine on Saturday at all four of our locations. We will post it here in our blog and send it out in our emails - click here to sign up for our emails

We have started a new label "Education" that you can hit to read all the education articles (see the right column under the heading "labels".

Grape: Syrah

image from Wikipedia

Syrah or Shiraz?  Yes, they are the same grape.  What about Petite Sirah?  It is a descendant of Syrah, but it is a different grape.
Syrah is very popular and continues to increase in popularity.    Syrah originally got its fame from the Rhone region of France, particularly Northern Rhone where it makes the great wines of Hermitage, Cote Rotie and Crozes Hermitage.    Since you do not see the grape name printed on many French wine labels, you have most likely had Syrah if you enjoy the wines of the Rhone.  It can be bottled 100% Syrah or it makes a great blending grape in Cotes du Rhone and Chateuneuf du Papes.     In America, Syrah makes a big fruit forward wine and can handle a lot of oak ageing.   A lot of California producers will add some Syrah to their Pinot Noir to add body and fruit.   It is also blended with Cabernets to add that extra fruit dimension also.     Syrah is the most widely planted red in Australia where they call it "Shiraz".

At Forsyth we will taste Syrousse Cotes du Roussillon Syrah Blend, Bogle Petite Sirah, and Penfolds Koonunga Shiraz