There are few grape varieties as closely linked to a specific style of wine as Shiraz. For many, the only thing that separates Shiraz, as it’s dubbed in Australia, from Syrah, as it’s known in France, the U.S., and beyond, is style. The archetype of Australian Shiraz is full-bodied with jammy fruit flavors and high alcohol, while Syrah—the same exact grape—evokes a sense of nuance, balance, and freshness.
Yet Shiraz—or Syrah—grown in Australia is not inherently ripe, jammy, or high in alcohol. “Australia has been making diverse, interesting, balanced Shiraz and Syrah from across the country for decades,” says Jane Lopes, the cofounder of Legend Imports, which specializes in Australian wine.
Part of the disconnect may lie in the way the category is commonly presented in the U.S. “I don’t like the term Australian Shiraz because we would never say, ‘what does French Syrah taste like?’ Or, ‘what does American Syrah taste like?’” says Aaron Meeker, the national sales manager for Vine Street Imports in New Jersey. “There needs to be more discussion about what do [wines from specific] states taste like, and what do regions taste like within those states?”
Indeed, there can be no single style of Australian Shiraz in a country with such a large and diverse winegrowing culture as Australia. “Australia has over 65 different growing regions and they all make Syrah/Shiraz,” confirms Lopes. “So, there is just a huge diversity on the market.”
But the dynamic nature of this category also makes it difficult to understand, especially for American consumers and trade professionals who often have little exposure to the diversity of styles available, and less familiarity with Australia’s many wine regions. After a deep dive into the category, one thing is clear: The monolith of Australian Shiraz is a thing of the past—and the U.S. market has a lot of catching up to do to reflect that reality.
Boom and bust for Shiraz in the U.S.
While the category’s nuances may be elusive, an image of Australian Shiraz is alive and well in the U.S. market, and it stems all the way back to the 1990s. “Australian Shiraz had its heyday in the U.S. in the late ’90s and early 2000s, when Robert Parker scores were paramount and Yellow Tail came on the scene,” says Lopes.
Australia had all the elements needed to produce the international style of red wine that was in demand at that time: warm, sunny wine regions that produced healthy, ripe grapes with ease; a well-established red variety (some plantings of Shiraz date back to the 1800s) with a penchant for fruity, full-bodied styles; and a fun, easy-to-understand marketing approach that featured cute Australian critters.
The wines were highly popular in the U.S., but by the mid-2000s, demand started to wane as Shiraz became overly big and alcoholic, chasing higher and higher scores. Then, global events caused U.S. imports of those wines to take a hit.
“If you look at the Australian-focused importers [that existed] prior to the recession in 2008, a lot of them went out of business or diversified away from Australia,” says Meeker. Lopes echoes this sentiment. “Due to a number of factors—the global financial crisis being primary among them, and the resulting lack of availability of quality Australian wine in the U.S.—Australian wine fell out of favor in the U.S.”
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