Red grape · Full-bodied
Syrah
The Late One
Syrah is grown in Northern Rhône, Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale.
- Tastes of
- blackberry, black pepper, smoked meat and olive
- Goes with
- grilled lamb chops, bbq ribs and smoked brisket
- Also called
- Shiraz
The story
Syrah is the natural child of two eastern-French grapes now almost gone: Dureza of the Ardeche (about one scattered hectare survives) and Mondeuse Blanche of Savoie (roughly five hectares). DNA testing by Carole Meredith's UC Davis team with INRA-Montpellier's Jean-Michel Boursiquot confirmed the parentage in 1998. Long before science settled it, the grape had already outgrown its own written record: Syrah's first known mention is 1781, in the vineyards of Hermitage, spelled 'Sira' — barely two and a half centuries of paper trail for a variety legend places in ancient Persia, Syracuse, or a Greek island called Syra. Philologist Pierre Rezeau's 1997 dictionary instead traces the name to the Indo-European root *ser-, 'long duration' — the root of Latin serus, 'late' — the same root behind 'Serine,' one of Syrah's oldest synonyms. So Syrah and Serine are not rival place-names but a single word for 'the late-ripener.' For most of its history the grape stayed within five small northern-Rhone appellations. Then, in fifty years, France's plantings rose from 1,602 hectares (1958) to a 42-fold peak of 67,834 (2008) before slipping to 65,772 by 2018 — a boom followed by a quiet plateau almost nothing written about the grape mentions.
Insider story
Hermitage's own regulator admits its founding legend is fake. The AOC's legal text recounts a crusader-knight, Henri Gaspard de Sterimberg, who supposedly settled the hill as a hermit in 1224 — then adds, in its own voice: 'Ce recit reste apocryphe.' All that actually survives are town archives showing hermits on the hillside from 1598, no knight attached. Syrah collects false origin stories the way old barrels collect must: Vouillamoz's own accounting lists four — Crusaders from Persia (1095-1291), a hypothetical Vitis syriaca, an untraceable Greek island called Syra, and Emperor Probus hauling vines from Syracuse to Gaul in 281 AD — and closes them in one line: 'toutes ces legendes sont erronees.' Even technical literature isn't immune: a 2012 Assoenologi research paper misstates Cortona DOC Syrah as '100% uve Syrah' when the disciplinare's actual floor is 85%. One figure shows the opposite failure mode: a reported $102,850 Sotheby's 2011 sale of six La Chapelle 1961 bottles was dismissed as an invented, blended figure — until a second source proved it was a separate, real sale at a different house four years after the famous 2007 Christie's case record.
Technical deep dive
Syrah carries a named, unsolved disease: deperissement de la Syrah, vertical cracks at the graft union first spotted in the Gard and Herault in the 1990s, now found on nearly every continent except Australia. IFV Occitanie has excluded pathogens and favoured a genetic cause since 2009; France's own Pl@ntGrape catalogue is more cautious, calling the cause simply unknown. Clone selection has moved with it: France's twelve currently approved clones (470, 471, 524, 747, 1140, 1141, 1188, 1345, 1346, 1352, 1353, 1354) have shed every clone flagged as decline-sensitive (100, 174, 300, 525, 877) and every clone the Rhone bans outright by law (73, 99, 301, 381, 382, 383). Agronomically Syrah buds 6-7 days after Chasselas, ripens fast with a short optimal picking window, is sensitive to chlorosis and poorly suited to active limestone (hence Saint-Joseph's ban on rootstock 110 Richter), and has a compositional weak point tasting notes rarely mention: low tartaric acid, with real risk of pH climbing too high on schist soils. Institutions disagree on rot resistance: Italy's 1962 ministry monograph calls it excellent, France's Pl@ntGrape calls it fairly susceptible to grey rot, Argentine/Italian researchers call it Botrytis-prone near harvest. A 2012 trained panel found eight descriptors common to every Syrah tested: violet, black pepper, liquorice, blackberry, raspberry, cherry, jam, smoke.
Industry secrets
The northern Rhone's five crus form an exact, rarely-stated ladder of how much non-Syrah they tolerate: Cote-Rotie 20% Viognier, Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage 15% Marsanne/Roussanne, Saint-Joseph 10%, Cornas 0% — always a field-blend and co-fermentation rule, never permission to blend two finished wines afterward. None of the five requires a single day of ageing; the only legal ageing guarantee for Syrah anywhere is a Tuscan DOC, Cortona, whose Riserva needs 24 months (12 in wood, 4 in bottle) from 1 November of harvest. A Cotes du Rhone red can legally be 100% Syrah — but only north of the Montelimar parallel (44 33'); south of it Grenache is compulsory. Six Syrah clones (73, 99, 301, 381, 382, 383) are banned by number across the whole Rhone, a different list from the clones flagged for decline. On the market side: no retail price data exists anywhere, in any language. What exists instead is a thin, spectacular top: a single bottle of 1951 Grange made AUD 157,624 at Langton's in 2021, and a 12-bottle case of 1961 Hermitage La Chapelle made GBP 123,750 at Christie's in 2007 — more than five times what 12 bottles of 1961 Mouton Rothschild made in the same room, same day.
For collectors
Investment grade B+
- Auction records
- Penfolds Grange Bin 1 Shiraz 1951: single bottle, AUD 157,624 (incl. 16.5% buyer's premium) at Langton's, closed 19 Dec 2021 — Australian wine record, breaking AUD 142,131 set at Langton's in July 2021 for the same wine (~40 bottles believed to survive). Jaboulet Hermitage 'La Chapelle' 1961: a 12-bottle case made GBP 123,750 at Christie's London, 20 Sept 2007 (European record for a case of wine, beating a 1978 Romanee-Conti record of GBP 93,500); a second case made GBP 112,500 same sale; a single 1937 bottle made GBP 5,500. Separately, six bottles of the 1961 La Chapelle made USD 102,850 at Sotheby's New York, Nov 2011, ex-Jaboulet cellars.
- Blue-chip producers
-
- Paul Jaboulet Aine
- Penfolds
- Henschke
- Tenimenti Luigi d'Alessandro
- Value picks
- Not established — no retail, en primeur or secondary-market price data was found in English, French, German or Italian sources.
- Price trend
- No price time series exists in any language searched. The only proxy is a supply signal: France's plantings peaked at 67,834 ha (2008), falling to 65,772 by 2018 — a plateau after a 42-fold rise since 1958 — consistent with demand no longer growing, though that is an inference from area data, not a price observation.
- Collector’s tip
- Two legal quirks matter more than vintage chat. A Cotes du Rhone red can be 100% Syrah — but only north of the Montelimar parallel (44 33'); south of it Grenache is compulsory, so the 'commodity' regional appellation hides a genuinely distinct northern, monovarietal-capable tier. And Cortona DOC Syrah Riserva (Tuscany) is the only Syrah bottling anywhere with a legally mandated ageing period — 24 months, at least 12 in wood and 4 in bottle, clock from 1 November of harvest — making its release date more informative than its label.