SYRAH vs SHIRAZ: What's the Difference? (Let’s Find Out in a Blind Tasting)

[@50somethinglawyer]

Probably my favourite grape. I've a taste for Hermitage but only a Crozes-Hermitage budget. Well, usually...

[@NoSediment]

Lately I have fallen in love it greatly’ 🍷

[@markntexas8265]

I am Côtes du Rhône budget but Chateauneuf du Pape taste

[@arrowzen7433]

Same. So versatile, deep and expressive.

[@JS-shim]

I’m from Australia, and love the variety in all styles. There is substantial variation in Australia, depending on the terroir. My favourite French producers are Yves Cuilleron and Paul Jaboulet. The main problem with the Australian style is that many require decades of ageing to peak.

[@apistosig4173]

Young Shiraz may present as dry or woody - a little age and the wine will refine - I like body and the tannins contribute here.

[@SteveDC]

All the Aussies I know love tannins. The bigger the better. Shiraz from the Barossa or Mclaren Vale is hard to beat but Durif from Rutherglen gives it a run for its money :)

[@benhall9321]

Our Australian household love drinking tannic wines, including Barolo and Chianti. I haven’t heard it said before that Aussies don’t like tannic wines. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Incidentally, there are quite a few fantastic Aussie red wines made in the style of Syrah - eg Clonakilla.

[@joecali2442]

Haven’t explored many selections from the Rhone yet, so my favorite “Syrah” was from California, the SQN Syrah from the Eleven Confessions Vineyard. My favorite “Shiraz” is The Armagh by Jim Barry.

[@Colin-o9b]

Agnese you deserve the all the best vintages of Penfolds Grange and Hermitage. ❤❤ I like budget Chilean Syrah, it tastes 'Rhone-ish" for less money spent. Great with my steak 🥩 🍷😊

[@andrewwebster15]

I love the Syrah style, but can appreciate all. I’ve experienced some excellent examples from Chile at great prices, including some serious ones with ageing potential.

[@aaronhigginbottom5181]

Penfolds bin 150 definitely one of my favourites . have drank a lot of this wine. glad you showed it on your show.

[@NoSediment]

Cheers! 🍷🍷🍷

[@davidhalldurham]

Very interesting! I learned a lot. Thank you!

[@NoSediment]

Thank You, that is so sweet. 🙏🏻

[@kareltimmerman]

I just came back from France, the way you explain the character of these wines is absolutely magical! Compliments, this makes me want to go back immediately and tast some more wines... Bourgonge was good, but Nothern Rhone absolute value for money. Personaly prefered in particular the Cornas region😍. merci d'avoir expliqué la différence......et une bonne journee!

[@NoSediment]

Thank You very much. That is so sweet. 🙏🏻 On of greatest compliments I could have. 🙏🏻

[@jpdonovan3753]

My favorite grape by far! It's just so beautifully layered. I'm in the U.S. and am partial to Syrah coming out of Santa Barbara County. Melville Winery in the Sta. Rita Hills AVA makes a fantastic Syrah. Stolpman in Ballard County too. More Rhone than Aussie, I would say.

[@nigelgreenhalgh4316]

Great tasting, Agnese. Must say i love syrah/shiraz. My first great experience was from down under. Yarra Yerring Red Wine No. 2. Genius of Dr. Bailey Carrodus. Hermitage followed; a wine of such depth and structure. Now i have the good fortune to visit SA frequently. My new love! Especially as the wines are so affordable. Look out for Savage wines, Boschkloof, Boekenhoutskloof, J.C.Wickens and Sadie Family Wines. Truly they merge the best of both worlds. Keep up the good work 😊

[@Powertop85]

Another awesome video that made me smile! In my uneducated opinion shiraz is a Syrah from Australia and because of a wam climate they say it’s fuller in the body

[@NoSediment]

Climate, soil and overall different winemaking practices will result in a different style, completely correct. I didn’t analyse the clones in detail though, but that is a very interesting and unique subject. 😅

[@andrewtate8303]

Allways enjoy your posts

[@NoSediment]

Thank You! 🍷

[@andrewkarl5174]

This shadow of a beautiful woman, fantastic description.

[@zaphod333]

I never buy New World wine, almost exclusively France, Germany and Austria as a matter of self restriction and in order to dig deeper. But it doesn't feel I'm missing anything. We've had a private Northern Rhône reds tasting (Cornas, Côte-Rôtie, Hermitage) two years ago and the spread in styles was astounding. As it went, the entry level 2011 Balthazar Casimir had a hard time there, but I'm sure your Chaillot would have showed better. The 1990 Clape Cornas and 1995 Chave Hermitage however were outstanding and hot contenders for my (our) Wine of the Year, even though he Clape was a bit further developed than we might have thought. Yes, they are expensive (if you can get some at all), so not my every day bottle at all. Great video, and I once again found a large overlap between your descriptions and my perception. I'm sure looking forward to your future recommendations. Keep it up!

[@NoSediment]

I was actually trying to get Casimir, as it was more affordable, but I couldn’t, so ended with Chaillot. And I think it was amazing wine. It seems to me this was for the best! 🙌

[@oliverpfeiff6261]

I used to like Shiraz and Syrah so much that my dentist was always wondering why my teeth were so stained. I had to admit it was the Shiraz. It turned out that my dentist was a Bordeaux collector and I looked forward to each dental visit so we could talk about fine wines!

[@NoSediment]

The only thing I keep wondering about in this story is - how were You able to talk about Your wine passion? When I am in my dentist’s chair, I can only communicate with eye movements. 😷🤐

[@charliefrago1380]

great video as always; reminds me to get back into this style. what type of wine preserver to you use? I rarely have more than one or two glasses of wine. have an old wine preserver (Sky Bar), but no longer around. Coravin can be pricey and the pumps (vacu vin?) don't preserve for that long.

[@NoSediment]

I use Coravin, as You say, I cannot finish whole bottle in a one day, and I have poured too many great wines down in the drain. It is not the most effective, as I would still sometimes feel the oxidation. And when the bottle is relatively full I will sometimes use simple vacuum corks. 🍷

[@zaphod333]

@@charliefrago1380 Company! Doesn't exactly preserve but safely keeps the wine from tipping. 😂 No, you can't overcome physics/chemics: Once the cork is popped and a glass poured there's enough oxygen dissolved to start the oxidation process. So you can just as well store the open bottle, with some closure against odours. Younger wines should survive or even profit from a few days. Coravin (I don't use it) in theory works better as you keep oxygen away, but apart from the price you're screwed with screwcaps or glass stoppers. I used a vacuum pump for a while but now think it's useless. YMMV

[@t0rnt0pieces]

Hi Agnes, when you do these blind tastings you know what the bottles are, right? You just don't know what order they're in. Or am I mistaken? I feel like that could introduce bias since you'd have expectations about how each should taste. It would be good to see some tastings where you don't know anything about the bottles aside from very general details like the grape or region. Cheers.

[@NoSediment]

Unfortunately that is completely true. I do know the wines, simply not the order. Yes, I would love to do completely blind tastings, hopefully some day I don’t need to select the wines myself. 😇

[@billmccorvey953]

My favorite as well. I'm crazy for Cotes Rotie but, sadly, it's usually out of my price range.

[@NoSediment]

🥹🥹 same here.

[@stroopwafel6141]

I hope you did not pack those bottles yourself 😁. But serious, nice tasting, well done. In general I like my syrah's from northern Rhône and Swartland South-Africa, where they're doing amazing things. But even more and for usually more affordable prices, I tend to buy GSM-blends.

[@NoSediment]

Hahah, no I bought them, so I knew them, but I did not pack them. I study wine, so it is fun to have some blind tasting exercise once in a while. 🙏🏻

[@dangareau3143]

I’m an australian shiraz guy myself. (Penfolds St Henri) but I’ve been seriously tempted of late to dive into the cote-rotie side of things. There seems to be some incredible (and never ending) choices out there. Which do you prefer?

[@NoSediment]

I am sorry, for such a late reply. In all honesty Cote-Rotie and Hermitage are wines I do not have a chance to taste regularly, mainly because of their price. The top, top producers amongst Cote-Rotie might be Jamet, Levet and Rostaing, but.. we cannot forget the famous LaLaLa’s from Guigal.

[@markcordwell2625]

Hunter Valley Shiraz is my favourite, but I'm biased as its the nearest wine region to where I live.

[@juanmanuelmunozhernandez7032]

Nice, nice, nice! I'll use it as reference later on my journey into Diploma which I'm beginning in October! 😄 I've got a question about your last comment on "structure never lies". I see Beyond Flavour in your section headings and I've given it a try but I found that it spoke in a rather personal kind of language, as if the metaphors Nick Jackson does were well suited to his own understanding but perhaps difficult to extrapolate on. Would you still suggest to work on the book for Diploma and after? Cheers! 🍷

[@derekcontreras7494]

I enjoy your content very much. Thanks for sharing your passion for wine. Syrah, Shiraz I enjoy in both styles! I was fortunate to try this one wine from Tua Rita Syrah Per Sempre from 2007. The wine still had purity of fruit but you hit it right on the nose with the animalistic, meaty quality. It was almost chewy, if that makes sense 🤯

[@NoSediment]

It absolutely makes sense, I understand it! 🍷 Cheers!

[@carlcadregari7768]

Lovely video. Yes, big Syrah and Shiraz fan. If I HAD to pick a style, it would be northern Rhône, St Joesph first, (Coursodon is a favorite) then Barossa Valley (Henschke is a favorite). Cheers

[@NoSediment]

I actually found one Henschke label for this tasting, but I had to cancel it, as I learned that it is blend with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. So it would not fit - even though the retailer web page said it was 100% Shiraz. 🍷🤷‍♀️

[@QualeQualeson]

Lovely literary, sensuous descriptions. I'm quite fond of shadows of beautiful women passing by myself 😊 You know, I was "working" on a shy Pinot last night, trying to wrest from it its secrets. I did make _some_ headway, but I'm nowhere near being able to experience nuances on your level. I hope I will develop.

[@NoSediment]

You will develop, for sure! I often think I describe wine in a very technical way, but then comes wine, where technical descriptors just makes no sense. 😊

[@felixcolon1568]

Please! Another video but with recommendations of Shiraz o Shyra for people who do not have oil wells 😝 cheers 🍷

[@NoSediment]

Yes, I agree, these were premium examples. 🥺What price category would You feel more comfortable with?

[@zaphod333]

@@felixcolon1568 Get some André Perret Saint-Joseph. Under 20 €, easy to find and always great fun.

[@felixcolon1568]

@@NoSediment For me, something between $45 and $70 would be excellent! Thanks for the approach. Cheers 🍷 😉

[@secretlook9218]

do pinotage eposide, beeslaar if u can find that producer plz

[@apistosig4173]

Hi from downunder - Shiraz needs its tannins - but - as the wine ages the presence of tannins will dinminish and when approaching decade of age will be virtually absent, silky smooth, soft and still flavoutful. I won't keep all my shiraz that long - some are awesome at 5 years!!! and others won't last a decade. Push me into a corner and I will state that I am a McLaren Vale man - However - as far as Shiraz is concerned for me its Heathcote and Bendigo regions, big bold balsy and in your face Shiraz - oh yeah 😛

[@NoSediment]

All that is true! 🙌 But do You like tannins? 😂😂😂

[@apistosig4173]

@@NoSediment if the wine is approachable they (tannins) are more than fine

[@1borism]

Great episode! Next time I hope you get an opportunity to try Shiraz from Rockford, Yalumba or other Australian winery from one of the South Australian regions,.. Penfolds is overrated

[@NoSediment]

Actually at first I didn’t want to taste Penfold’s, this came from my personal cellar, and I thought it was too expensive for the tasting. And I bought Henschke, but it turned out to not be 100% Syrah. 🤦‍♀️ So I went with what I had. And it was a really good wine. 🍷

[@1borism]

@@NoSediment :) Henschke is one of my favorite wineries, Eden valley, just next to Barossa, but they do blends only. Enjoy and keep up the good work! Cheers from a Croatian on Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia!

[@sakloud]

I am bit annoyed that we put more emphasis on Syrah vs Shiraz as being two different styles of wine as a similar result of two different grape varieties. Calling Syrah, "Shiraz" is purely a marketing tool to brand a wine style resulting from wine making techniques...there are also big / bold / fruit driven syrah in France (more in south) and they are called syrah not shiraz lol...same applies for cabernet sauvignon in US, malbec in Argentina...in a nutshell, syrah should be called syrah whenever it is planted and produces wine (at least for me...)

[@NoSediment]

It is nothing to be annoyed with I think. It is the same grape variety, and yet over the time the styles have evolved differently, it happens. Also over the years (hundreds of years) our pronunciation of different grape varieties has evolved and changed as well, who is to say that it should always be called Syrah, if historically it was spelled Sira! 🤷‍♀️

[@shingchoyyan]

I myself prefer Cote Rotie

[@NoSediment]

🍷🍷🍷 I have set aside some money for these great wines!

[@shingchoyyan]

You are joking 😊

[@stevenholt4936]

Love Syrah. Northern Rhone for me: I drank a lovely Cornas, '13 last weekend but my overall favourite is Cote Rotie. Aussie shiraz is just too much of an alcoholic fruit-bomb for my taste. Not familiar with SA syrah - must try.

[@NoSediment]

Interestingly this one did not have exceedingly high alcohol. But I do understand Your point. 😊

[@TarmoKriis]

Lovely

[@NoSediment]

🥂🥂🥂

[@TarmoKriis]

@@NoSediment Onion growers salute you!

[@TarmoKriis]

@@NoSediment A RED BURGUNDY 2017 Domaine Faiveley Mercurey Clos Des Myglands Premier Cru ($53) While there are inexpensive red Burgundies out there, try spending a little more. The grape of the region, Pinot Noir, achieves glory in its complexity and nuance - and this bottling shows that in its delicate floral and black raspberry aromas and flavors.

[@connorwinton4343]

syrah from the northern rhône is some of the best wine in the world. RIP Alain Graillot.

[@NoSediment]

I agree, absolutely great wines!

[@LadyAceRoxy]

Love this grape! Huge fan of Penfolds Shiraz but also love Pax Hillsides Syrah and a good Gigondas.

[@NoSediment]

Me too, although if I am being completely honest, I grow to understand this grape relatively late in my wine journey. 😅

[@bigpeeler]

Place take your pretentious pronunciations and stick them.

[@NoSediment]

In this case it is not about the pronunciations, but rather how each winemaking region or country calls the grape, to a point that they have developed as a separate style. I do not think it is pretentious.