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Let's clear something up right away: Syrah and Shiraz are the exact same wine. When Syrah (Sih-Rah) arrived in Australia from its birthplace in France, Australian winemakers took to calling it Shiraz (Shi – RAZ), instead of the grape's original name, Syrah. We like to chalk this renaming up to the Australian accent and their penchant for making many common words more fun to say, like how they call a barbecue a barbie.
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Pronunciation: Sih-Rah
No matter what you call it, Syrah is one of the darkest red wines on the market. Darker than Cabernet Sauvignon, this wine is so dark that if you were to hold a glass of the wine up to the light, you'd have a very hard time seeing through it. Syrah is a wine with a large amount of mouth-drying tannins, and it is known to be full-bodied, which means it feels heavy in your mouth; the wine features flavors such as berries, pepper, tobacco, and even smoked meat. While Syrah is the perfect accompaniment to meat, it really goes well with anything, so drink it with any food you enjoy eating. A great bonus to drinking Syrah is that due to the high level of tannins present in the wine, Syrah has one of the highest level of health-benefiting antioxidants.
Syrah came to prominence in the eighteenth century in the Rhone Valley of France. While many other regions of the country were busy making blends containing several different red grapes, the Northern Rhone set upon creating a red wine solely from Syrah. It was there in the town of Hermitage that Syrah became famous, and still today Syrah from this town fetches some of the highest prices in the world.