Syrah, Languedoc-Roussillon
Syrah is a red grape variety widespread mainly in the French region of the Rhône Valley. Contrary to what was thought in the past, fabling about the name and its spicy notes, it is not a grape of oriental origin brought to Hermitage by some knights returning from the Crusades. Much more prosaically, the syrah comes from a spontaneous cross between the mondeuse blanc, an ancient variety of Savoy, and the dureza, a grape native to the Ardeche region. Today syrah is the symbolic grape of the wines of the upper Rhône Valley, in particular of the Appellation Côte-Rôtie, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, Cornas is also one of the grapes used to produce the wines of the Lower Rhône region: Gigondas Vaqueyras and especially Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It is a variety that produces wines of good structure, with floral aromas, of small berries, embellished with the characteristic notes of oriental spices and black pepper. In Italy, it is cultivated with excellent results in Tuscany, both in purity in the Cortona area and in the Bolgheri area as a complementary grape to cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot in the Supertuscan blends. It is also cultivated with interesting results also in Sicily. In the rest of the world it is widespread, mainly in Australia under the name of Shiraz.
Languedoc-Roussillon was born as an administrative region in 1980. Since 2016 it is included in the wider Occitania, after the merger with Midi-Pyrénées. Located near the Mediterranean coast, it extends north into the cities of Nîmes and Montpellier and borders Spain to the south. Inside it includes several appellations including the Côtes du Roussillon, Minervois and Banyuls as well as the Pays d'Oc PGI which can be used for wines produced in almost all of its territory. Languedoc and Roussillon are two different areas both from a cultural and geographical point of view. Culturally, Languedoc is more akin to the French tradition, while Roussillon shows clear Hispanic-Catalan influences. The region is overall hot and dry, with a Mediterranean climate, however the vineyards of Languedoc are concentrated more in the coastal plain while those of Roussillon are mostly perched on the slopes of the Pyrenees. The production is very varied and includes very different expressions: from the Blanquette de Limoux sparkling wines obtained from the indigenous Mauzac variety, to the rosé wines of the Côtes du Roussillon and the fortified reds of Banyuls. Unlike other regions favored by internal river transport, the demand for Languedoc-Roussillon wines only increased following the construction of the first railway system.