syrah
Syrah is a red grape variety widespread especially in the French region of the Rhone Valley. Contrary to what had been thought in the past, telling the name and its spicy notes, it is not an oriental grape variety brought to Hermitage by some knights returning from the Crusades. Much more prosaically, the syrah arises from a spontaneous cross between the mondeuse blanc, an ancient variety of Savoy, and the duraza, a grape variety native to the Ardeche region. Today the syrah is the grape variety symbol of the wines of the upper Rhone Valley, in particular of the Appellation Côte-Rôtie, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, Cornas is also among the grapes used to produce the wines of the Lower Rhone region: Gigondas Vaqueyras and above all Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It is a variety that produces wines with 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 variety 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 especially in Australia with the name of Shiraz.