Let’s meet: The oficial passport of the Syrah grapevine variety

In her work from 1996, Jancis Robinson said that "Syrah belongs to the winegrower, while Cabernet Sauvignon belongs to the oenologist". [1] She referred to the fact that the "king of wines", Cabernet Sauvignon must be picked as late as possible, left to ripen well, in order to complete its character, and oenologists can express their talent by "playing" with winemaking techniques.

Syrah a variety that extracts everything possible from the soil, correlates its physiology with the potential of the microclimate and can give very high yields compared to Cabernet Sauvignon. That’s why the rationing of the production, the defoliation, the time of harvesting, all of which are the responsibility of the winegrower, can show his mastery in the fina Syrah.

Syrah wines are intense red, with a bluish hue when they are young, generously colored, with high alcoholic strength and remarkable full body, with high acidity, vigorous and rich in tannins. They are wines with complex aromas, between floral and fruity, with hints of violets and black currants, with accents of leather, tobacco and licorice, which lend themselves to light oak barrel contact, which can give them a slightly smoky tinge. [2]

In the wines produced in moderate climate areas, we can find dark chocolate aromas, herbal notes, smoked meat or black pepper. In the hot climate areas, aromas of liquorice appear in the wine, and through aging, notes of earth, wet leaves, and leather are revealed. In areas with a cold climate, the variety does not reach full maturity. [3]

But the climatic evolution of the last 15 years leads to lower and lower latitudes, the possibility of cultivating this grapevine variety, and the success can be felt in the taste of wines from Northern Romania, in areas once dedicated to white wines

In recent years, more and more oenologists are experimenting, in Romanian wineries, with Syrah wine without oak wood contact, enabling it to reveal all its extractive potential, fruitiness and minerality, expressing more and more faithfully the terroir- where the wine grapes are grown.

Syrah is one of the wine grape varieties that greatly appreciates mycorrhiza (the symbiosis of microscopic fungi in the soil with the roots of the vine) and becomes all the more complex the older the plantation is. That is why, only nowadays the wines from the plantations established in Romania 10-12 years ago, with this variety, are starting to show their potential as wines that can pass the test of time through aging.