A few months ago, my wife and I were dining out at a local restaurant and the couple at the next table were asking the waiter for a full-bodied red wine recommendation. He suggested a Syrah from France. The couple declined, saying they didn’t like Syrahs and said they would take a further look at the wine list. Their ultimate pick was an Australian Shiraz. If you’re smiling, you may already know that the ‘Syrah’ grape and the ‘Shiraz’ grape are the same, just called by different names. Did the couple know that? And while wines produced from the same grape in different areas almost always have distinct styles and tastes, we’ll leave that for a future article.
There are more than 10,000 different grape varieties according to WorldAtlas and Wine Enthusiast and while recent DNA analysis concludes the number is more like 1,400 truly distinct varieties, even experts would be uber-challenged to name them. To complicate matters, many names differ by country or region.
Here are some of the more common varieties that have multiple names:
- Syrah = Shiraz
- Pinot Noir = Pinot Nero = Spätburgunder
- Pinot Blanc = Pinot Bianco = Weissburgunder
- Malbec = Côt
- Pinot Gris = Pinot Grigio = Grauburgunder = Sivi Pinot
- Tempranillo = Aragonez = Tinta Roriz
- Zinfandel = Primitivo = Crljenakl = Tribidrag
- Vermentino = Rolle = Pigato
So why all these different names? Is it simply country and language? Well, it is in part, but while language and regional traditions where the grape was first planted and used for wine making certainly did play a role in that first grape name, there are additional factors.
Wine production today is dynamic as vintners seek to successfully reach certain markets and buyers. It’s not just terroir, that combination of soil, climate and topography that influences the final product. It’s also the harvesting and vinification process employed that determines the wine’s style and taste. This is important because winemakers want to differentiate their wines and over the years, some have used different grape names to express a regional or country style.
Clearly, a ‘Syrah’ from the Rhone region of France is different from a ‘Shiraz’ from Australia. Same grape, different end wine. Maybe that couple did know the difference.
Cheers!
-Submitted by Jim Wolitarsky
(Image credit: Pixabay.com and Vinepair.com)