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Great Plonk & Ideal Syrah/Shiraz Food Matches
By now, everyone who appreciates good wine has been long aware of the fact: South Australia produces some of the greatest red wines of the world, and its centerpiece is the rich and unruly Shiraz (otherwise known as Syrah in the rest of the world).
Without a doubt, the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, and Coonawarra are the three best known regions for Shiraz production in South Australia. Because of the fame of these districts, we are also beginning to see other wines from this state which bear less familiar regional distinctions; such as Clare Valley, Eden Valley, Langhorne Creek, Padthaway, Limestone Coast, Adelaide Hills, and the least known of all, Kangaroo Island.
But even Kangaroo Island – only recently cultivated to wine grapes – is already producing wines of serious import. Meaning, Shiraz based reds that knock your socks off, and blends of Shiraz with Cabernet Sauvignon or Grenache that fuse power with grace.
In my two visits to Australia I never did get to cross the chilly waters south of Adelaide to Kangaroo Island, but I have gotten many a good, hard look at bottlings exemplifying what makes South Australian wines the way they are.
Perhaps the biggest advantage that South Australia has over other wine regions of the world is its wealth of old vines planted on their original rootstocks. Virtually all the vineyards of Europe and the U.S., by contrast, were wiped out by phylloxera – a root louse which continues to wreak havoc even up until today – by the beginning of the 20th century, and had to be replanted on non-vinifera rootstocks.
Much of South Australia, on the other hand, has been unaffected by phylloxera. And so to this day, many of its original, ungrafted plantings of Vitis vinifera – vines of 75, 100, and even over 125 years of age – continue to produce wines of enormous concentration, buoyed by the natural balance of low yield, moderate leaf canopy and bunch growth typical of old vine viticulture.
What I have also always found pleasantly surprising about Australia is its sea of young vines – vineyards less than ten years of age – producing beautifully intense wines almost right out of the box. While varied, the districts of South Australia tend to be warm and very dry. In other parts of the world this may translate into thin, overripe wines.
However, South Australia's vineyards are largely made up of extremely shallow, gravelly, clay dominated soils layered over hard pans and hillsides that vine roots have difficulty penetrating -- the type of highly limiting, low vigor conditions that wine grapes tend to love. Vines in McLaren Vale, for instance, are typically grown in just six to twelve inches of topsoil; the vineyards located right alongside deeply carved quarries that yield blue colored gravel used for concrete. No wonder McLaren Vale is often singled out for such dense, gnarly, powerfully fruited wine!
The proof, as always, is in the pudding; and in the U.S. we are seeing a broader range of these top quality South Australian brands than ever before. For a good introduction, here are a few of my favorites:
PURE SHIRAZ
Mollydooker, “The Boxer” South Australia Shiraz - After many years of working with the incredible wines of Sparky and Sarah Marquis (famed for Fox Creek, Henry’s Drive, Marquis Philips, et al.), I only recently learned that their last name is correctly pronounced as mar-kwis. This, even after having visited with them (in 2001) in South Australia to find out the “secret” behind the consistent high-flying intensity and pure velvet textures of their wines, virtually across the board. What can I share? There is no secret – just a smart, meticulously detailed approach to winemaking from the ground up. Mollydooker is the couple’s most recent venture, and the silly thing about the “The Boxer” is that its plush, juicy, wham-bam quality is no less intense than Shirazs selling for two, three times more. Expect pungent American oak (vanillin-coconut notes) along with typically Aussie, round, fruit-bomb flavor; but its price (as little as $14 retail in some markets) makes it a one of the world’s greatest wine values.
Peter Lehmann, "Stonewell" Barossa Valley Shiraz - Typical of the Australian style, the Stonewell is not shy in the oak department. Yet the immensely rich, sweet pepper and violet-on-leafy-green fruit fragrances seem to suck in smoky/vanillin wood like a black hole; in the same way that the wine's brawny, tannic structure is absorbed by layers of juicy, concentrated fruit flavors.
Henry's Drive, Padthaway “Reserve” Shiraz - Henry's Drives exhibit great power but never without a deft sense of balance – like this one, charged up with sweetly perfumed, juicy, briary, black pepper and allspice-like fruit, going full blast in the nose, and giving a layered, meaty, gripping, yet miraculously round and pliant feel on the palate.
Dutschke, "St. Jacobi" Barossa Valley Shiraz - This wine comes with a heavy metal jacket of tannin (non-tannin lovers need not apply), while also epitomizing the compelling strengths of South Australian style Syrah – luscious, smoky oaked fruit aromas punctuated with spice steeped plums and cracked peppercorn nuances, followed by full, almost fat, yet massively structured, velvety flavors that go long into the black night.
Clarendon Hills, "Hickinbotham Vineyard" Shiraz – This pure Syrah, from a spectacular, higher elevation, rolling hillside estate, combines the blunt, brutish, clobbering structure associated with South Australia with a sumptuously rich, oily, satisfyingly lush taste. Does it mean that it's conflicted? No, it means that a wine lover needs to take it for what it is; and if you can handle its brash, full throttled character – and the Parkerized $70+ price points – you'll greatly appreciate its richly fruited, meaty, nostril tingling qualities.
Wild Duck Creek, “Springflat” Heathcote/Victoria Shiraz - Another ultra-ripe, almost raisiny black and plummy aromatic style, with strapping tannins lending a mouth watering note to a thick, round, juiciness on the palate. “Over the top,” you might say, but no doubt just right for hardcore Shiraz drinkers.
Fox Creek, McLaren Vale "Reserve" Shiraz - Is it any wonder that the most extreme style of Australian Syrah is now considered the finest? Praise the lord and pass the toothbrush, as this wine is black as a dungeon, with purple stained tones. The nose is huge – a sweet, billowing concentration of blue and red berry Syrah qualities, practically sensed by the eyelids – followed by opulent flavors bursting through a powerful, iron clad structure bolstered by gripping tannins.
Torbreck, “Runrig” Shiraz – In the heart of the Barossa Valley, Torbreck cultivates a stable of powerful, Shiraz-dominated, dry farmed vineyard bottlings, but the Runrig is the sum of the estate’s best parts. Proprietor David Powell describes it as “Vintage Port-like,” and that’s as good a description as any. Its size seems to go far beyond its typical 14.5% structure, and it breaks the scale with blackberry and dark roasted coffee intensity, stirred up with drops of marmalade and the slap of leather typifying the house style. If there’s any one Australian wine worthy of its $100-plus price point, this is probably it.
SOME IDEAL SYRAH/SHIRAZ FOOD MATCHES
> Syrah is a quintessential “big red” calling for red fleshed foods – from beef and lamb to tuna and game.
> It pays to play up to Syrah’s spice (suggestive of black pepper and smoky incense), a complexity that is more subtle that often assumed; and this can be done with use of aromatics like garlic and alliums, peppercorns and peppers (bells as well as chiles), cinnamon and clove, all mushrooms, mustards, ginger, bay, basil, mints, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.
> The violet and floral qualities of Syrah can be highlighted with the use of plum, berries and cherries (fresh or dried).
> Grilling and roasting are always good ideas, but bringing out the sweetly scented berry or plum qualities of Syrah by first marinating any number of ways is also good. We’ve had luck with soy sauces infused with ginger, garlic, scallions, star anise, lemon grass, and even chili pastes, balanced by sweeteners like palm sugar (I’ve met connoisseurs of Chinese cuisine who swear by Syrah as their single most versatile wine for their complex seasonings and sauces).
> There is enough of a sweetly fruit forward quality in top drawer Syrah to be successful with stews and braises; classically in seasoned natural stocks (especially with quatre-epices), and innovatingly in Japanese, Chinese or Korean inspired stocks.
And a few of our culinary blasts from the past:
> Twice cooked duck and mesclun salad with confit of garlic in a Syrah reduced balsamic vinaigrette with Chave’s sprightly, smoky, slightly gamey and smoothly rounded Saint-Joseph “Offerus.”
> Cracked peppercorn crusted tuna in a garlic thyme Syrah syrup with a moderately tannic, black peppery perfumed Bonny Doon “Sir Rah” Syrah.
> Grilled quail and wild mushroom terrine in a spicy roasted red bell pepper suce with a round and fruit driven Qupe Central Coast Syrah.
> Cassoulet of lamb, oxtail and pig’s ear with a classically huge, muscular ornas by Allemand.
> Australian free-range lamb chop in a wild cherry Shiraz reduction with a owerfully sculpted, sinewy, scented Penfolds Grange-Hermitage.
> Hoisin marinated tenderloin of lamb in a tamarind plum ginger glaze with asabi mash, matched by a massive yet sweetly concentrated Peter Lehmann “Stonewell” Shiraz.
Enough to get you started? Let the games begin!
Without a doubt, the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, and Coonawarra are the three best known regions for Shiraz production in South Australia. Because of the fame of these districts, we are also beginning to see other wines from this state which bear less familiar regional distinctions; such as Clare Valley, Eden Valley, Langhorne Creek, Padthaway, Limestone Coast, Adelaide Hills, and the least known of all, Kangaroo Island.
But even Kangaroo Island – only recently cultivated to wine grapes – is already producing wines of serious import. Meaning, Shiraz based reds that knock your socks off, and blends of Shiraz with Cabernet Sauvignon or Grenache that fuse power with grace.
In my two visits to Australia I never did get to cross the chilly waters south of Adelaide to Kangaroo Island, but I have gotten many a good, hard look at bottlings exemplifying what makes South Australian wines the way they are.
Perhaps the biggest advantage that South Australia has over other wine regions of the world is its wealth of old vines planted on their original rootstocks. Virtually all the vineyards of Europe and the U.S., by contrast, were wiped out by phylloxera – a root louse which continues to wreak havoc even up until today – by the beginning of the 20th century, and had to be replanted on non-vinifera rootstocks.
Much of South Australia, on the other hand, has been unaffected by phylloxera. And so to this day, many of its original, ungrafted plantings of Vitis vinifera – vines of 75, 100, and even over 125 years of age – continue to produce wines of enormous concentration, buoyed by the natural balance of low yield, moderate leaf canopy and bunch growth typical of old vine viticulture.
What I have also always found pleasantly surprising about Australia is its sea of young vines – vineyards less than ten years of age – producing beautifully intense wines almost right out of the box. While varied, the districts of South Australia tend to be warm and very dry. In other parts of the world this may translate into thin, overripe wines.
However, South Australia's vineyards are largely made up of extremely shallow, gravelly, clay dominated soils layered over hard pans and hillsides that vine roots have difficulty penetrating -- the type of highly limiting, low vigor conditions that wine grapes tend to love. Vines in McLaren Vale, for instance, are typically grown in just six to twelve inches of topsoil; the vineyards located right alongside deeply carved quarries that yield blue colored gravel used for concrete. No wonder McLaren Vale is often singled out for such dense, gnarly, powerfully fruited wine!
The proof, as always, is in the pudding; and in the U.S. we are seeing a broader range of these top quality South Australian brands than ever before. For a good introduction, here are a few of my favorites:
PURE SHIRAZ
Mollydooker, “The Boxer” South Australia Shiraz - After many years of working with the incredible wines of Sparky and Sarah Marquis (famed for Fox Creek, Henry’s Drive, Marquis Philips, et al.), I only recently learned that their last name is correctly pronounced as mar-kwis. This, even after having visited with them (in 2001) in South Australia to find out the “secret” behind the consistent high-flying intensity and pure velvet textures of their wines, virtually across the board. What can I share? There is no secret – just a smart, meticulously detailed approach to winemaking from the ground up. Mollydooker is the couple’s most recent venture, and the silly thing about the “The Boxer” is that its plush, juicy, wham-bam quality is no less intense than Shirazs selling for two, three times more. Expect pungent American oak (vanillin-coconut notes) along with typically Aussie, round, fruit-bomb flavor; but its price (as little as $14 retail in some markets) makes it a one of the world’s greatest wine values.
Peter Lehmann, "Stonewell" Barossa Valley Shiraz - Typical of the Australian style, the Stonewell is not shy in the oak department. Yet the immensely rich, sweet pepper and violet-on-leafy-green fruit fragrances seem to suck in smoky/vanillin wood like a black hole; in the same way that the wine's brawny, tannic structure is absorbed by layers of juicy, concentrated fruit flavors.
Henry's Drive, Padthaway “Reserve” Shiraz - Henry's Drives exhibit great power but never without a deft sense of balance – like this one, charged up with sweetly perfumed, juicy, briary, black pepper and allspice-like fruit, going full blast in the nose, and giving a layered, meaty, gripping, yet miraculously round and pliant feel on the palate.
Dutschke, "St. Jacobi" Barossa Valley Shiraz - This wine comes with a heavy metal jacket of tannin (non-tannin lovers need not apply), while also epitomizing the compelling strengths of South Australian style Syrah – luscious, smoky oaked fruit aromas punctuated with spice steeped plums and cracked peppercorn nuances, followed by full, almost fat, yet massively structured, velvety flavors that go long into the black night.
Clarendon Hills, "Hickinbotham Vineyard" Shiraz – This pure Syrah, from a spectacular, higher elevation, rolling hillside estate, combines the blunt, brutish, clobbering structure associated with South Australia with a sumptuously rich, oily, satisfyingly lush taste. Does it mean that it's conflicted? No, it means that a wine lover needs to take it for what it is; and if you can handle its brash, full throttled character – and the Parkerized $70+ price points – you'll greatly appreciate its richly fruited, meaty, nostril tingling qualities.
Wild Duck Creek, “Springflat” Heathcote/Victoria Shiraz - Another ultra-ripe, almost raisiny black and plummy aromatic style, with strapping tannins lending a mouth watering note to a thick, round, juiciness on the palate. “Over the top,” you might say, but no doubt just right for hardcore Shiraz drinkers.
Fox Creek, McLaren Vale "Reserve" Shiraz - Is it any wonder that the most extreme style of Australian Syrah is now considered the finest? Praise the lord and pass the toothbrush, as this wine is black as a dungeon, with purple stained tones. The nose is huge – a sweet, billowing concentration of blue and red berry Syrah qualities, practically sensed by the eyelids – followed by opulent flavors bursting through a powerful, iron clad structure bolstered by gripping tannins.
Torbreck, “Runrig” Shiraz – In the heart of the Barossa Valley, Torbreck cultivates a stable of powerful, Shiraz-dominated, dry farmed vineyard bottlings, but the Runrig is the sum of the estate’s best parts. Proprietor David Powell describes it as “Vintage Port-like,” and that’s as good a description as any. Its size seems to go far beyond its typical 14.5% structure, and it breaks the scale with blackberry and dark roasted coffee intensity, stirred up with drops of marmalade and the slap of leather typifying the house style. If there’s any one Australian wine worthy of its $100-plus price point, this is probably it.
SOME IDEAL SYRAH/SHIRAZ FOOD MATCHES
> Syrah is a quintessential “big red” calling for red fleshed foods – from beef and lamb to tuna and game.
> It pays to play up to Syrah’s spice (suggestive of black pepper and smoky incense), a complexity that is more subtle that often assumed; and this can be done with use of aromatics like garlic and alliums, peppercorns and peppers (bells as well as chiles), cinnamon and clove, all mushrooms, mustards, ginger, bay, basil, mints, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.
> The violet and floral qualities of Syrah can be highlighted with the use of plum, berries and cherries (fresh or dried).
> Grilling and roasting are always good ideas, but bringing out the sweetly scented berry or plum qualities of Syrah by first marinating any number of ways is also good. We’ve had luck with soy sauces infused with ginger, garlic, scallions, star anise, lemon grass, and even chili pastes, balanced by sweeteners like palm sugar (I’ve met connoisseurs of Chinese cuisine who swear by Syrah as their single most versatile wine for their complex seasonings and sauces).
> There is enough of a sweetly fruit forward quality in top drawer Syrah to be successful with stews and braises; classically in seasoned natural stocks (especially with quatre-epices), and innovatingly in Japanese, Chinese or Korean inspired stocks.
And a few of our culinary blasts from the past:
> Twice cooked duck and mesclun salad with confit of garlic in a Syrah reduced balsamic vinaigrette with Chave’s sprightly, smoky, slightly gamey and smoothly rounded Saint-Joseph “Offerus.”
> Cracked peppercorn crusted tuna in a garlic thyme Syrah syrup with a moderately tannic, black peppery perfumed Bonny Doon “Sir Rah” Syrah.
> Grilled quail and wild mushroom terrine in a spicy roasted red bell pepper suce with a round and fruit driven Qupe Central Coast Syrah.
> Cassoulet of lamb, oxtail and pig’s ear with a classically huge, muscular ornas by Allemand.
> Australian free-range lamb chop in a wild cherry Shiraz reduction with a owerfully sculpted, sinewy, scented Penfolds Grange-Hermitage.
> Hoisin marinated tenderloin of lamb in a tamarind plum ginger glaze with asabi mash, matched by a massive yet sweetly concentrated Peter Lehmann “Stonewell” Shiraz.
Enough to get you started? Let the games begin!
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