A glass of Pinot Noir, Syrah or a 'Big Red'?
Working the floor at The Lodge Bar Commercial Bay, Auckland, these past few weeks has been a lot of fun, busy at times and its good to be selling wine and noting what our customers drink during the day versus the evening. One trend is apparent - more red wine is being opened with Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah or Shiraz leading the charge.
By the end of 2021 the vineyard producing area of Aotearoa was 40,323 hectares. Syrah represented just 434 hectares of this, just 1.07% of the total. Not very much at all compared to Pinot Noir or Merlot, but is actually more than the plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon and enough suggest that the variety has quite a few fans, including me, and that winemakers are producing some fantastic examples. A Hawkes Bay Syrah received a ‘best in show’ gong at the world’s largest wine competition – the 2022 Decanter awards. Grown throughout New Zealand, from Northland to Central Otago, Syrah’s proclivity to adapt to myriad soil types and a range of climates suggests there is a great future for the variety. All we need is more people buying and drinking it.
The genetic mapping of grape varieties places Syrah’s first home firmly in France. Also known as Shiraz in Australia and South Africa it is grown throughout the Rhone Valley and southern France Syrah is the force behind the great Cote-Rotie , Hermitage and Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
The aroma, taste and texture of Syrah can be quite complex showcasing mineral and soil flavours as much as fruit and winemaking technique. Black currant, raspberry and plum, to a meaty scent (aged or fresh), mushroom, olive, licorice or earthy flavours; and spices from pepper or peppercorn to cinnamon and aniseed can be discovered in many examples. Shiraz and Syrah is a very oak friendly variety and nearly all use it layering complexity from the aromas and flavours of toast, sawdust and even a burnt cedar flavour can be noticed. Syrah holds acidity well and when I say in my wine notes ‘backbone of acidity’ I mean that the acid level is critical to the texture of a wine and provides for longevity and freshness. Tannins will nearly always be bold and firm – this is part of what makes these wines so textured and compelling.
When working the floor in a restaurant sommeliers and floor staff are required to engage their customers in a brief discussion about wine to help them make the right decision and selection for them. I am sometimes asked about ‘big red’ wines and can I make a recommendation. What a ‘big red’ actually is, is often based on an individuals’ liking for attributes in wine that fill their palate with flavour, texture and ultimately weight, making them a big red. To break it down there are certain attributes in wine that can add weight or body to a wine such as alcohol, oak and fruit concentration. Alcohol can add warmth and perceived sweetness to a wine touching multiple sensors in the palate adding to the perceptions of weight. The use of oak in red wine can deliver several primary sensations to a wine’s taste or feel, spice and perceived sweetness, texture from tannins and woodiness – all making a wine seem weightier or bigger. Fruit concentration in red wine originates from combinations of ripeness and amount of time spent on skins during winemaking processes. Warmer climate grown fruit tend to have a riper and often slightly sweeter flavours than those from cooler climates, these too can add weight and body to a wine, often more alcohol as well. If alcohol is a little higher because of riper fruit a winemaker can decide to use more wood or oak which in turn can add more weight. The spice and toasty aromas and flavours from the use of oak can also add complexity which does not add weight as such, but can add to the texture of wine which in turn can be perceived as more weight.
Some wines therefore can have more weight or ‘bigness’ about them because of the origin of the fruit, climate in which they are grown and the combination of winemaking techniques including blending different varieties or batches if wine together. Red blends using the cabernets and merlot, syrah, malbec and petit verdot varieties are weighty or big reds because of the combinations or blends of varieties and a winemakers decision on the use of skin contact, oak, potential alcohol and volume of tannins in the finished wine.
Red wines are either single variety expressions or blends with the blended red wine category providing a significant number of options. Classic red blends include the wine style made famous by the Bordelais of France – referred to as the ‘Bordeaux Blend’. These are wines based around the combination of varieties described above and are interpreted around the world where growing conditions allow for the same varieties and wine styles to be produced. There are other varieties of course, such as blaufrankish and saparavi that can be excellent alternatives to the classic blends and are also excellent examples of big red wines.