by Jeff Miller of Artisan Family of Wines (Seven Artisans, Sly Dog Cellars, Red Côte Rosé)
I’m not going to go through the history of the Syrah grape here, except to say that it hails from the South of France, and is one of the “noble” grapes. Instead, I’m going to think out loud about why this wonderful grape isn’t a bigger seller than it is.
According to the USDA Grape Acreage Report for 2008, there were 75,000 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon under vine, compared to 19,000 of Syrah, or roughly four times as much.
If you look at the February edition of Wine Businesses Monthly, at the Nielsen tracking of wine sales, you’ll see for a year Cabernet Sauvignon sold $1.2 billion dollars worth, Syrah sold only $290 million. What’s worse, where Cabernet Sauvignon showed modest growth (even during this horrible recession), Syrah sales are down almost 8%. What gives?
While there is plenty of room for people to have different preferences about the wines they like, I just really don’t understand what the problem is with Syrah. True, it’s still the fourth biggest red wine seller. But why isn’t it higher, is what I want to ask.
I can’t believe it’s a quality issue. I’m not going to badmouth Cabernet Sauvignon. It makes wonderful wines. But does it make a better wine, on average, than Syrah? In my opinion, it does not. Quite the contrary. Syrah, in my view, is more consistently good. Cabernet Sauvignon a little on the underripe side can be horribly herbal, reeking of green pepper. Syrah doesn’t have that problem. When overripe, or grown in hot areas, Cabernet Sauvignon can lack flavor. Syrah doesn’t have that problem, either.
But, in another sense, Syrah is inconsistent in a way that Cabernet Sauvignon is not. If someone asks me what to plant on their land, I usually ask them what the climate there is like, and, specifically, whether they have any solid climate data. In most cases, I get some vague response like it’s “warm”, with no real data of any sort. When you don’t have good information on your climate, then there’s, to my mind, only one obvious choice of what to plant—Syrah.
Why? Because Syrah does well in so many different environments. But therein lies the problem. Cabernet Sauvignon is a style unto its own, varying in quality but not in its essential character. When someone plunks down their money for a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, they pretty much know the style of wine they are going to get.
Not so with Syrah. In a cooler climate, such as Carneros, it can produce lighter, racy reds. In a hot climate, such as Suisun Valley (where we grow our Syrah) it produces a rich, dark, opulent wine, packed with dark fruit. And, of course, the gamut runs all the way in between as well. Add that Syrah can taste really different whether harvested relatively early (and therefore lighter) or later (richer), and there’s always a lot of question marks which Syrah is going to show up for tonight’s dinner.
So when you’re eyeing that bottle of Syrah, it’s something of a crap-shoot what’s actually in that bottle. You can pretty much know it’s going to be good, but good in what style is uncertain. And that, at least in my opinion, is why Syrah isn’t more popular than it is.
Nice one, same here!
The variety of possible results depending on the climate characteristics made me notice that Syrah is one of the most interesting wine grapes.
We shall remember Croze / Hermitage in France as one of the greatest varietals of all times and also its elegance found in a Loire Valley assemblage with Viognier. As with its power and structure in varietals from both South and North America, unfortunately many times exceeded in wood and alcohol.
The market driven forces (aka. greedy retailers, wealthy and powerful wine writers and also myopic producers around the globe) are taking the consumer to well known and expected experiences instead of new taste opportunities that could express a unique identity.
Great post. Saude!
Good food/wine for thought, Jeff. I agree that Syrah makes magnificent wine in the U.S. today, but as someone who’s been watching the market closely for over thirty years, I can’t completely agree that inconsistency of style or quality is the reason why Syrah isn’t nearly as popular as Cabernet Sauvignon which, as it were, comes with as much (or probably more) variety of style and quality as Syrah.
I think the reason is a lot simpler: Cabernet Sauvignon just happens to be a classic grape that the wine world has *always* considered a “king” of grapes. Its popularity today is simply the residual of a good half-century of this kind of hype; plus, of course, the fact that the grape makes genuinely great wine.
It will take a few more years for Syrah to catch up, but it doesn’t happen overnight. Consumers can only absorb so much, especially in today’s tight economic climate, and given the enormous choice of wines they have at all price points from seemingly every pocket in the world (not to mention each state in the Union) where it is possible to grow a grape. Give them time, and undoubtedly they’ll come around to your way of thinking.