The same but different

Don't laugh too loudly when people tell you they prefer shiraz to syrah which are, essentially, the same thing. Well they must be. They're made from the same red grape.

Yes. Indeed they are.

But it doesn't make them the same, not when you seriously consider the difference been the wines the Australians call shiraz, and we, and most of the rest of the world, call syrah. But first. How and why did the Aussies get out of step? The most likely explanation is that shiraz is simply an Okker take on Scyras or Ciras which is what James Busby called the variety when he introduced it to Australia in the 1830s. It could also have something to do with the story that the grape originated in Shiraz, in Persia.

Whichever, the term shiraz did not, in fact, become widely used in Oz until the 1980s when the wine many preferred to call Hermitage, after the area in the northern Rhone famous for syrah, ran into marketing difficulties in some parts of the world.

The grape also traces back to Busby and the 1830s in New Zealand, where in 1906 Government Viticulturist Romeo Bragato noted that it thrived here but it was too cool and wet in most areas for the fruit to ripen properly.

And this, apparently, was the general view until in the 1980s when there was renewed interest in the variety in Hawke's Bay, especially in the warmer, newly established Gimblett Gravels, where a friendlier clone of the grape was also introduced.

Although the fruit is still among the last to ripen (along with cabernet sauvignon) it is at least ripe enough to produce powerful wines with characters reminiscent of those from the Rhone – floral, peppered, spicy with blackcurrants and plums.

In many, but not all parts, of Australia the problem is the reverse.

It is too hot and grapes can easily over-cook creating rich, burly, alcoholic wines with "jammy" flavours. This, in simple terms, is the difference between syrah and shiraz as we know it, though it needs to be remembered that Australia produces some outstanding examples of what it calls shiraz – Penfolds $500-plus a bottle Grange among them.

For the moment though, it is New Zealand's syrahs that seem to be turning heads, as Geoff Kelly, a man who has watched the development of our reds for nearly 50 years, predicted they would back in 2006 after tasting what he described as "the most exciting bracket of New Zealand red wines I have ever encountered".

They were all syrahs; wines in which florals, complexity and finesse could be valued as much as size, he said, suggesting that they represented New Zealand's greatest hope, after pinot noir, for our red wines to attract international recognition.

He was right on the button.

To get the picture, and the taste, try some of these more recent releases against syrah from the Rhone Valley and a typical South Australian shiraz.

Top drops:

• Trinity Hill 2007 Homage Syrah ($120): One of New Zealand's finest and most expensive syrahs. A powerful but elegant wine (laced with viognier, to encourage the aromatics) that presses all the buttons – violets, spices black currants plums and black pepper.

• Weeping Sands 2008 Waiheke Island Syrah (about $30): Plays second fiddle to Obsidian (its parent label) but a good expression of Waiheke syrah. A beautifully scented, dark-fruited wine that drinks earlier than the very classy, more expensive model.

• Craggy Range 2008 Gimblett Gravels Syrah (about $29): From a producer of stunning and serious syrahs, this is a wine that delivers exceptional value for money, a whiff of roses, a mouthful of dark cherries, spice and pepper – all singing from the same song sheet.

• Te Mata Estate 2009 Woodthorpe Syrah (about $19): One of the best, most widely available and cheapest introductions to a New Zealand syrah that you will find. Has all the necessities – florals, fruit, pepper, spice and best of all – drinkability.

- © Fairfax NZ News