Gary's Corner: Wine Myths and Shibboleths

By Gary Hewitt, DipWSET, CWE, FWS, Sommelier

It is said that Syrah, or Shiraz, originated in the famous wine-growing region surrounding Shiraz, the capital city of ancient Persia. This city of poets and literature produced wine lauded in the documents of traders and travellers. Roman soldiers carried vines from the Middle East to Gaul; or perhaps more recently, the grape vine “Seyras” travelled with a crusader-cum-hermit who resided at, you guessed it, Hermitage in the northern Rhône Valley. Thus, started the great tradition of Syrah in Rhône Valley wines.

These fascinating stories of Syrah’s arrival in France, a story sustained by local tradition, perpetuated in 19th-century catalogues of French grape varieties, and given international coverage in the writings of early Australian vine hunter and importer James Busby… is bunk.

Indeed, the city of Shiraz produced renown wines—fresh ones for early drinking and dried-grape and sweet ones for aging—and exports to Europe were strong from the 17th to 19th centuries. (The Islamic ban on wine production and consumption in Iran is a modern prohibition dating from 1979.) The greatest wines were Sherry-like and acquired a nutty complexity with age.

However, DNA analysis reveals Syrah’s parents to be Dureza, a native grape of the Rhône, and Mondeuse of the Savoy wine region. Voilà, Syrah’s heritage is entirely French. Likely, the colourful myth sprang from the fertile imagination of French tourists visiting Shiraz in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The wine world is full of myths, half-truths and shibboleths “wine improves with age” or “white wine with fish”. Such lore is inevitable, as wine’s cultural role spans from the dawn of civilization; some even claim that the desire for beer and wine caused civilization. From classic myths of Dionysus and Bacchus to roles in cultural affairs and literature, the treatise of wine embraces academia, creativity, and alternate facts.

Not all misconceptions have deep historical roots, however: consider two of our modern beliefs.

Famous wine regions have produced the same wines for centuries. Ah, the great wines of Europe—Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rioja (to name a few)—wines with centuries-long traditions. Each with gobs of time to match grapes to soil, to experiment with viticultural and wine-making techniques, to create classic, unchanging touchstones of the wine world.

Hmph.

Even discounting older history portraying greater stylistic differences, consider that each of these regions suffered the ravages of three late-19th-century vineyard plagues imported from North America. The third, phylloxera, resulted in abandonment of grape varieties and clones to be replaced with more “suitable” grafted varieties. War and economic downturns next ravaged these regions. Then two 20thcentury developments—refrigeration and stainless steel— changed winemaking everywhere, as did further advances in viticulture, fermentation, and processing. Finally, the recent challenges of climate change and capricious consumer demand continue to drive stylistic change. As great as the long-famous wines of the world may be, stylistically, they are not what they were and not what they will become.

The best wine. We are frequently asked to recommend the “best wine,” often without context. The concept of a “best wine” may arise from a preoccupation with reviews and ratings in an instant-gratification world concerned about how our wine choice reflects upon ourselves. Perhaps a 100-point wine is best for the individual reviewer tasting a specific bottle on a particular day. But to say such a wine is best for everyone in all situations is nonsense.

The recent adoration of Château Lafite-Rothschild among aspiring Chinese entrepreneurs illustrates the importance of context. As wine-naïve Chinese business travellers discovered the wine world, they discovered the esteemed wines of Bordeaux and the famous 1855 Classification, which clearly places five wines at the top of the list. Among these five, Château Lafite resonated with the Chinese. In a culture of mianzi (the concept of saving and giving face) and guanxi (social connections), gift-giving, and sanctioned bribery of officials, Lafite quickly became the ultimate “gift,” often changing hands many times and seldom opened. It was the best wine whether or not anyone cared to drink it!

These examples are mere sips from the wine goblet of lore, teasers to remind you to question what you read and hear, but above all, to remind you of the fascinating breadth of the study of wine. And, that’s the truth.