Could the golden age of Shiraz be coming to an end?
The next whipping boy
Could the golden age of Shiraz be coming to an end?
Merlot has had a bad press lately. Some might argue that its fate was sealed by the movie Sideways, others that the storyline of the film merely reflected its already diminished status. There is a third possibility, which is that the US experience of the variety has not been repeated elsewhere. In this event, it is only the Americans who think it produces simple, sweetish, plush red wine for people looking for alcoholic fruit juice (the Sideways caricature). Elsewhere, Merlot's problem is that it doesn't appear to be meeting the drinkability spec which has been its US downfall.
By the same token, Shiraz has been getting a bit of a free ride. With eccentrics like Randall Grahm setting it on its Californian pedestal, and Robert Parker driving its claims to vinous fame for the better part of 30 years, it's been hors de combat. In South Africa, where plantings have increased almost tenfold in as many years, the very suggestion that the variety may actually be defective would produce a tidal wave of wrath - given the roughly R2.5 billion current cost of planting the vineyards.
No vinous reputation is entirely fair: Pinot Noir has been called the heartbreak grape yet its major crime was to have been planted in the wrong places by people who thought they could make it like Cabernet. Pinotage tasted most like rusty nails when virused, under-ripe fruit was vinified by a generation of winemakers who thought Brett was the rooinek at the special needs school. Chenin lurched along as the so-called orphan of the industry just as long as the co-ops were trying to make bulk for Lieberstein. It's not the grapes which are at fault, but those who grow and vinify them.
It seems that Merlot - superseded years ago by Shiraz as the great red hope of the industry - can do no right. And Shiraz, upon which so much appears to be riding, cannot be accused of any wrong. When - a few years ago - over 120 Shiraz entries at the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show yielded a solitary gold medal, the industry said there must be something wrong with the Shiraz panel. When, a couple of years later, an (admittedly smaller) Merlot class failed to yield a single gold the response is, "Well, what do you expect of Merlot?"
Merlot producers are aware of its reputational problem and have been meeting regularly to study the issues, to separate the truth from the noise, and to plan a way forward. They know - since it's glaringly evident - that there are vineyards which have been incorrectly sited and clones which should never have been planted. In this the Merlot story is not unique. Sauvignon Blanc was in the same position less than 10 years ago - hence the need to fake its flavour on a commercial scale. The combined efforts of producers as well as the development of cooler climate sites have sorted out many of the problems.
Long before that happens, however, someone will round on the Shiraz growers. It's human nature to seek another whipping boy and Shiraz is the obvious candidate. Probably half of the 10 000 hectares planted since the 1990s are largely unsuitable.
In the mad rush of that era, it's a racing certainty that soil preparation was often cursory, rootstock selection non-existent and choice of clones completely arbitrary. The heated exchanges which will inevitably follow should put an end to grower complacency. Hopefully they will also serve to nudge the less reactionary producers to up their game - providing, of course, that they don't own a property best suited to farming vegetables.
