Shiraz or Syrah

At the bottom of the page are my tasting notes for a Syrah that I got wrong. I guessed Pinotage, but somehow feel I should have guessed a French wine. I'm doing Rhone next week as part of my WSET Advanced, so hope it will get better.

How to tell a Syrah (old-world) from a Shiraz (new-world). They're both packed with black fruit and spice. Shiraz normally has a higher alcohol content (due to hotter climate), tastes sweeter, although that's just the fruit, and the spice is sweeter, with cinnamon and clove. Syrah (same grape) originates in the Rhone valley (but is now a term used in e.g. Chile where they are trying to develop the same complexity). Syrah has more peppery and even leathery notes depending how old it is. If you drink the two side by side Syrah is sophisticated and Shiraz is the fun cousin. Aussie Shiraz feels like a Ribena-berry has smacked you in the face, but Shiraz is more discerning, more savoury, likes to take its time in your mouth.

I think where I got lost is this is a vin de pays, which means there will have been less strict rules applied, and although the savoury flavours were developed, it was a little unbalanced, and had a colour purple - which I had assumed was new-world, but was due to it being so young.

All good though. It's going down nicely.

Syrah Vin de Pays, IGP, L'Ardeche, Rhone, 2012, 12.5%
Appearance: Medium, ruby almost purple, clear
Nose: Clean, med,legs, developing
Aromas: blackcurrant, plum
Mouth: high alcohol, med intensity,  high acidity, med+ tannins, dry
Flavours: blackcurrant,  cherry, stewed plums, pepper, herbaceous
Quality: Short length, good, inexpensive

How can you tell which grapes are in French wines?

So I am given a glass of a light red wine, and before tasting "It's pinot noir!" I exclaim. "No, it isn't" my friend replies, with the knowledge of having chosen it for me to blind taste as practice for my WSET Advanced course.

"Oh, well what is it..." I ponder. Right, lets do this properly.
Appearance: light intensity, ruby, clear, med legs.
Nose: Clean, med+ intensity, developed.
Aromas: raspberry, cherry, plum, strawberry, rosehip, strawberry sweets, cherry jolly rancher.
Mouth: low intensity, dry, low acidity, low tannin, light body, medium alcohol
Flavours: strawberry, cherry, plum.
Quality: short length, acceptable quality, drink now not for ageing, inexpensive.

OK, so its not pinot noir... grenache? a rubbish pinotage? sangiovese? none of them make sense.

What is it? Roncier Burgundy 12.5% Vin de France. Ah! An understandable mistake - my friend doesn't realise that Burgundy is pinot noir, "it doesn't say it on the label". One of the "tricks" about French wine is that they expect you to know whats in the bottle from the minimal labelling terms they use. This is a common mistake.

As a basic rule of thumb:
Burgundy red = pinot noir
Burgundy white = chardonnay
Chablis = chardonnay
Beaujolais = gamay
Rhone red = syrah (aka Shiraz)
Bordeaux red = cabernet sauvignon and merlot
Loire white = chenin blanc or sauvignon blanc

Hope that helps!
Let me know if you need to know others and I'll put together a more comprehensive list.

En Primeur and how to choose which wines to taste

I went to an en Primeur wine tasting hosted by Jeroboams recently and I was confronted with 70 wines. How do you choose what to taste? Unless you're a professional like Oz Clarke who wants to taste them all, it can be a daunting task if you're not sure what you're looking at.

First of all, what is en Primeur? En Primeur is when wine producers offer you the chance to taste wine while it is still in barrels before it has been bottled. This is a gamble, because the idea is that you get to buy wine cheaply now with the motivation that once it gets released it will be far more expensive. However, its not guaranteed it will develop well. I suggest if you want to try en Primeur that you go through a wine merchant, because you're pretty likely to bag yourself a bargain, as they will have selected the best producers to recommend to you. Tastings normally happen in November for Burgundy and Bordeaux. Rhone and Port en Primeur is becoming more popular, and other regions are likely to get in on the action in the future.

The Jeroboams 2012 Rhone en Primeur tasting was held at the Royal Thames Yacht club in Knightsbridge, London. Sixty-nine wines were up for tasting, although some were not available on the night, probably because the producers hadn't been able to get the wine to the merchant on time. The prices ranged from £65 for a case to £225 for six bottles, so quite a range.

I knew I wasn't going to taste them all, so how did I select which wines to try? En Primeur isn't like the sit-down tastings where a specialist guides you through the bottles. You need to know what you're looking for. I was given a catalogue, so I was able to have a look through and think about which might be interesting. The idea of trying almost 70 different wines from the same region might make you think "but can they really taste that different?" I wanted to pick a few that would stand out for quality and/or differentiation, but how? Of course if you're very experienced in wine you'll know all the villages, chateaus and possibly blends, but particularly in France its so hard to know them all.

Here are my tips:

1. Look for villages that are best known, e.g. Chateauneuf-du-Pape in Southern Rhone and Crozes-Hermitage ad Cote-Rotie in Northern Rhone.
2. Look for wines where several have been provided by the same producer and two/three of them to gauge the difference.
3. Look for wines that have special belnds, for example, I tried a Cuvee Felix from Domaine Versino, guessing that "Felix" must be someone important to the winery and has specifically chosen this blend. This one in particular I found to be very well balanced and the advice from the server was that once I found a producer I should stick with it.
4. Look for "Reserve" or "Grande Reserve" as even if it doesn't offcially mean anything for French wines, it will be the best produced by a particular chateau.
5. Look for wines that are the same producer and same name but two different years, as this will give you something to compare.
6. Look for "Vieilles Vignes" as this wine will have come from old vines, which produce more complexity in their grapes, which will develop with time. I tried the 2012 Cornas 'Granit 60' from Domaine Vincent Paris and I could immediately tell the highly pronounced nose. With time, I would expect a brown tinge to develop. This was my favourite wine on the night, and was only £240 (£20 a bottle),and I would expect it to fetch a very large price once its on the shelves.
7. Look for wines that have interesting names. One I particularly liked was the Cornas 'Vin Noir' which definitely lived up to its name, with intense black fruit flavours and an inky consistency.
8. Try to find out if any are limited release - it may not increase the value on taste, but it means you will get a batter deal, because once its on market it will be at a much higher price tag and you'll be less likely to be able to find it. These are best for investment, or to impress others at the dinner table.
9. Try something you wouldn't expect, like white from Rhone, as they're only going to showcase their very best at an en Primeur tasting.

My final tip for tasting en Primeur, is don't expect it all to taste nice! This is because you have to remember it hasn't even been bottled yet. You need to find wines that have some fruit so you can expect it to develop with time, and a lot of tannins which will soften and add complexity to the wine. All sorts of drying out and acidic taste is actually what you're looking for... but you still have to like the wine.

Its a fun experience, so if you get the chance, you should try it. Use the spittoons or you'll walk out legless, if that's possible. Consider buying something - once you've paid now and can drink later you'll be really happy when your case arrives, especially as it will taste far better than you remember.

If you'd like to go to Jeroboams next tasting, its usually reserved for customers, but they will let the public come for £25. http://www.jeroboams.co.uk/ They also do tutored tastings in their cellars if you prefer to taste wines that are ready to drink now.