SA Shiraz

Whatever will be, will be. Or so Joanne Simon discovers after exploring the foreign regions with the most influence on South African Shiraz, and asking some local producers whether a distinctive Cape style is emerging yet...Shiraz from the Cape seems something of an afterthought - or at best an aside - in my 1999 edition of The Oxford Companion to Wine. "Shiraz," this mighty tome declares, "is the Australian (and South African) name for the Syrah grape."

And so I dutifully page forward to the "Syrah" entry and read that this is "one of the noblest black grape varieties, if nobility is bestowed by an ability to produce serious red wines capable of ageing majestically for decades". It has grown in the Rhône region of France since Roman times, producing wines so fine that some Bordeaux producers in the 18th and 19th centuries sneakily called their red wines "Hermitage" after Syrah's most famous manifestation (even though this entire northern Rhône appellation, at just 132 hectares, is smaller than some Bordeaux estates...).

If the French - those sticklers for classification - knew they were on to a good thing in the old days, then we really should have seen those Aussie bastards coming (to use a recognised Antipodean term of endearment). As James Halliday, in his definitive Wine Atlas of Australia and New Zealand, puts it: "The world has plenty of great Cabernets, but relatively little great Shiraz. And great Shiraz comes (relatively) easily to Australia."

That the grape may first have come to Australia in the form of Cape vine cuttings is a subject of academic debate (let's claim a Proudly South African moment anyway). But two things are certain: quantity-wise, Australia now produces far more Shiraz than any other country, and quality-wise, it boasts the oldest plantings of Shiraz in the world, thanks to some parts having never been infested by phylloxera, the vine pest which devastated vineyards almost everywhere else in the late 1800s. Gnarled, twisted vines planted in the 1860s in South Australia's Eden Valley continue to be the sole source for Henschke's Hill of Grace (a dark, brooding wine I have had the privilege to taste), while the non-irrigated, low-yielding, 100-year-old-plus bush vines of the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale are a national treasure.

Viticulturally, it should be noted, Australian Shiraz is identical to French Syrah but - to quote my trusty Oxford Companion again - "the resulting wines taste very
different, with Australian versions much sweeter and riper, more suggestive of chocolate than the pepper and spices often associated with Syrah in the Rhône".

And there's the rub - or burnt rubber, in the case of mean, astringent French Syrah that has not reached full maturation. Whereas the world celebrates the enormous diversity from the "relatively limited vineyards" of the Rhône, wines from Australia - a country the size of the United States! - are stereotyped as big blockbusters with sweet, often overripe fruit and lashings of new American oak (at the cheaper end of the market gleefully administered in the form of chips or staves). Penfolds Grange, for decades regarded as the Australian icon wine, hasn't helped matters - the now-infamous response to winemaker Max Schubert's experimental 1951 and 1952 vintages was: "Schubert, I congratulate you. A very good dry port - which no one in their right mind will buy, let alone drink." And a true world original was born...

So how does SA Shiraz shape up, given that our best Shiraz vineyards were planted less than a decade ago? "Promising," proclaims the 1999 Oxford Companion, which summarily lumps us with Australia - and not just because we typically used the Australian name back then. "I recently had the opportunity to re-taste the first release of KWV's Perold - the 1996 vintage that caused such a stir at R1 000 a bottle," reveals Alex Dale, a Brit who studied at Dijon University in Burgundy and now, with Aussie winemaker Ben Radford, is responsible for the Radford Dale, Black Rock, Vinum and New World ranges of wine. "The wine was hollow, dominated by American oak and tasted like candy - articulating to me that 10 years ago, our Shirazes were very much driven by Australian influences."

Today, the fact that more and more estates - from Akkerdal to Zevenwacht - are using the French name immediately hints at very different aspirations. Chris Williams, who makes The Foundry Syrah (as well as Meerlust's wines), explains: "I follow the French rather than the Australian model because for me, as a winemaker, it's more interesting to try and reflect place than simply focus on fruit."

Gorgeous intensity of fruit is, after all, what the Australians are famous for, the result of their pioneering viticultural techniques as well as an obsession for hygiene and technology that has filtered through to cellars worldwide - and a good thing too. "We should always look to further our understanding and efficiency of our vine growing and winemaking," agrees Gordon Newton Johnson, winemaker at Walker Bay estate Newton Johnson. "But [unlike the Australians] we should do so as non-interventionists," he stresses, "striving to allow our wines to express themselves and - that over-used and abused word - their terroir."

Which is not to say that there aren't some clear regional differences Down Under. "In SA we hardly ever get to see Australia's top examples of Shiraz but Grange is only one style," points out Australian-trained winemaker Chris Kelly of Hidden Valley Wines. "From Hunter Valley 'sweaty saddle' to Central Victoria pepper and prune, McLaren Vale liquorice and tar, Margaret River blackberry and mint or Coonawarra black cherry and mint, there's a whole range of styles - some of which appeal to the Robert Parkers of the world and some that are more 'European' in focus, but each distinctly Australian."
He predicts that the same thing will happen in SA. "We are very impatient to be taken seriously and have pedigree across a whole range of varieties and styles. However, as we do not have the Australian legacy of 100-year-old-plus vineyards to trade on - and slightly cooler areas (with longer ripening periods) such as Elim and Elgin and the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley are only now being developed - the icons we eagerly await are still a little way off. We have come a long way in a short time but without a particular South African style emerging yet - and to a large degree that is a good thing."

Hell yes - after all, who'd want to be stereotyped like the Aussies? (On which subject, Kelly can't resist having a dig at anti-Oz sentiment in SA: "We're quick to point the finger at their over-wooded, over-extracted Shiraz and yet, when given the chance, reward this style fervently if made locally...")

Ridgeback and BWC winemaker Cathy Marshall is a self-confessed Rhône Ranger: "I prefer the more classic, restrained, quieter version of Shiraz - the delicate fruit yet powerful restraint of the overall structure." But she insists it is entirely up to winemakers to identify what style they want to make and market, and go with it". Rather than trying to "pigeonhole" a particular benchmark style, she says: "I believe the less prescriptive we are, the more creative the wines will become. Now's the time to jump in and create something individual, expressive and with personality. Syrah allows us to do this."

So well, in fact, does this grape adapt to different growing conditions that Walker Bay Pinot Noir nut Anthony Hamilton Russell has derided it as a "site slut" and predicted that, with more than half of production in the hands of the co-ops, Shiraz may just become SA's "commodity red" rather than anything special. Neighbour Gordon Newton Johnson leaps to its defence: "Syrah is incredibly adaptable and multi-dimensional - more so than, say, Cabernet and definitely more forgiving. But in SA it needs to be - in our vineyards alone, seemingly sterile white sandstone soils can change suddenly into duplex soils with organic, dark sandy soil on top and heavy reddish clay below, that then change into deep, gravelly yellow Tukulu soils or stones à la Chateauneuf - all within a 20-minute walk!"

And then there are the topographical variations: "Massive mountain ranges coupled with oceanic influences from all angles [are the reason] microclimates differ so radically within the Western Cape which is roughly only the size of Bordeaux," says Newton Johnson. "So where does this leave us? A whole lot of ingredients and one confused potjiekos? I believe the more we embrace the non-homogeneous character of our terroir, and refrain from trying to categorise style, the further we will progress in establishing our identity."

His conclusion? "SA Shiraz is still a work in progress, and for the moment it would be wrong to try and pre-empt its course. The solution is just to be ourselves, think about what our terroir can do for us, and the proof will be in the pudding."

One man giving terroir a lot of thought is Eben Sadie, who has claimed that "SA can get closer to Europe than any other New World country [if] we start taking terroir seriously". He has chosen the Perdeberg region of the Swartland for his acclaimed Columella and, more recently, Sequillo wines - and others have followed the young "guru", including Tom Lubbe (The Observatory) and Paul Kretzel, the owner of Lammershoek, whose winemaker Albert Ahrens says: "Syrah is perfect in this area. The soil is poor so we get small berries that are intensely spice orientated. But it's not that we want to make Côte Rotie or Hermitage," he insists. "We ultimately want to make Appellation northern Perdeberg."

Unlike northern Rhône wines, which are rarely blended (except occasionally with Viognier - now something of a trend both in SA and Oz), northern Perdeberg wines are more typically southern Rhône-style blends à la Chateauneuf-du-Pape (Syrah with Mourvèdre, in the case of Columella; Carignan for The Observatory; and Grenache, Carignan and Viognier for Lammershoek's Roulette Rouge).

Stellenbosch-based The Winery is now also blending Perdeberg Shiraz, Grenache and Carignan for its Black Rock Red, as Alex Dale explains: "Most of the great wines of the world (with one or two exceptions like Burgundy) are not single-varietal wines. Now, in SA too, some of the finest winemakers are blending, and the area that for me is showing the most character - perhaps the first uniquely South African character - is the Perdeberg. Whereas Stellenbosch Shiraz, which I love, is winemaker driven, Perdeberg Shiraz - for the first time in SA - is site driven."

In nearby Agter-Paarl, Cathy Marshall is also excited by the idea of blending: "I recently had the good fortune to taste through 13 newly released Syrah/Viognier blends and some Syrah-Viognier-Mourvèdre-Grenache blends. All of these examples were fantastic, and I feel, for the first time, truly convinced that we have something here. The thing about these blends is that we have the opportunity to create and make individual and original wines. We are definitely able to bring something from the Old World to the New."

And, to conclude as Marshall does, "how exciting is that?"