Posted on: Wednesday, June 8, 2005

RAISE A GLASS
Whatever you call it, shiraz rocks

By Kimberly Karalovich

You say shiraz, I say syrah. As with the potato in the old song, the difference is the way the name is pronounced. The shiraz grape was once thought to come from Iran, the former Persia, and syrah is the French pronunciation. Contrary to popular belief, the Australians only popularized the Iranian spelling; they did not originate it.

Shiraz is a town in Iran famed for its wine production. One ancient Persian legend says that Jamshid, a grape-loving king, stored ripe grapes in a cellar so he could enjoy grapes all year long. One day he sent his slaves to fetch some grapes. When they did not return, the king decided to go to the cellar himself to see what was taking so long. He found them unconscious, having been knocked out by the carbon dioxide gas emanating from bruised and fermenting grapes. One of the numerous ladies in the king's harem, feeling rejected and distraught, decided to drink this "poison" juice, only to leave the cellar singing and dancing in high spirits. The king realized that this fermented juice had the wonderful and mysterious power to make sad people happy, and wine — specifically shiraz, according to the story — was born.

Some say that when Alexander the Great burned down Persepolis, the great palace of the Persian kings, he was drinking shiraz. Apparently, the pyrotechnics were suggested at the climax of a drinking party by an Athenian prostitute who suggested that Persepolis be burned to the ground to avenge the Persians burning of the Athenian acropolis in 480 BC. Thus was the magnificent wooden palace burned to the ground in 330 B.C. The morning after, Alexander regretted what they had done.

With all that history, one would think that the first shiraz grape sprang from the soil of Iran. In fact, it is indigenous to the Rhone Valley in France. In 1997, University of California-Davis grapevine geneticist Carole Meredith and her graduate student John Bowers used genetic profiling techniques to discover that the shiraz grape was actually a cross between dureza and mondeuse blanche varieties. Dureza grows in the Rhone Valley and mondeuse blanche is a white berry found in Savoie, a popular tourist destination in the Alpine region of France, bordering Switzerland. The Rhone River flows through this area on its way to the Rhone Valley. This explains how these two grapes eventually met and gave birth to the grape we know today as shiraz.

The wine is blessed with bold, black fruit flavor, spiciness, perhaps some floral notes, and sometimes a smoky or gamey quality. It is a perfect companion to grilled meats, barbecue and robust braised foods. Try the Milton Park Shiraz ($12.99); its soft black fruit and black pepper spice provide a wonderful complement to grilled meats and barbecue. For more elegant fare, try the Hazyblur Shiraz ($34); its blueberry and sweeter spice notes, such as cinnamon and wild raspberry, will lend sophistication to more complex meat, red tomato, venison, pork, or squab dishes.

Shiraz/syrah is a voluptuous wine and a primary grape used in Rhone wines, a lovely wine to pair with a wide variety of foods.

Though the shiraz grape is not indigenous to Iran, grapes were first made into wine in the Middle East in much the same way that lomi salmon — salt salmon, tomatoes, onions and ice cubes — is a tasty Hawaiian dish, though the ingredients originated in other parts of the world. Que Syrah, Shiraz!

Kimberly Karalovich is wine consultant and general manager of the Wine Stop, 1809 S. King St., 946-3707. See www.thewinestophawaii.com.