Three Hills Shiraz in context

Shiraz or Syrah is one of the oldest established grape varietals in the Cotes du Rhone region of southern France, and there were competing stories abound about its origin. One legend attributed its arrival in France to the Phocaeans of Asia Minor, who brought the grape from Shiraz, Persia when they established Marseilles around 600 BC. Another story claims that Romans brought the varietal from Syracuse, in Sicily, to the RhÙne in the 3rd century AD.

In 1997, UC Davis grapevine geneticist, Carole Meredith, and a graduate student in her lab, John Bowers using genetic profiling techniques discovered that the shiraz grape originated in a cross between Dureza x Mondeuse blanche. Both these vines are still grown in the South of France. So much for legend and stories.

There do not appear to be any near relations to shiraz as there are with the Bordeaux varieties. Perhaps its reputation as a wine, founded on the performance of Hermitage in France, is so old, older than the wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy, that man has been satisfied with what they have and are careful to preserve its character in cultivation by propagation from wood rather than seed. At any rate, there is much less interest in clonal selection with the variety than with others like Pinot Noir. Shiraz yields well, and yield is the first thing that growers look at. It resists odium, and gives very little trouble in dry climates.

James Busby collected shiraz cuttings in Hermitage and took them to New South Wales. He called the variety 'Scyras' rather than the French Syrah. Its use spread quickly in Australia where it has come to be known as either 'Shiraz' or 'Hermitage'. The French persist with 'Syrah'. The Californians discovered twenty years ago that their 'Petit Syrah' was not in fact Syrah and they are currently busily catching up. The South Africans are very interested too. The whole story is well told by Jenni Port at http://www.winestate.com.au/magazine/article.asp?articleno=234

Hermitage was a wine known to the Roman writer Pliny 23-79 AD who was an early proponent of the notion that place and climate are the critical factors in determining wine character and quality. The wine produced on the Hill of Hermitage was second in price only to top growth Bordeaux between 1700 and 1900. Its second place is largely due to the fact that the English made the market and hermitage was inaccessible to them. Shiraz was often used to stiffen the Bordeaux wines. The wines of Hermitage and Cote Rotie have always been highly regarded in France. Today shiraz is also well regarded as an ingredient in the wines of Chateunef du Pape, second in importance to Grenache.

Shiraz in Australia. Climate determines style.

Shiraz at Three Hills

Despite the history of its success in France since ancient times shiraz is in fact more widely planted in Australia in much greater volume than in Europe. It is also planted here in a greater variety of environments, mostly much warmer than in Europe. Australian styles are different to those of Hermitage primarily because the latter enjoys much cooler ripening conditions, and reliably so, than most places in Australia where the variety is grown. Of Australian sites Coonawarra, central and southern Victoria and the south coast of WA have similar heat loads during ripening to Hermitage. However, the transition towards winter is much swifter at the higher European latitudes. This difference in environmental temperatures is critical to flavour expression and similar examples to French styles are not found in Australia.

It is hard to imagine that the rich and elegant sweet fruit flavours that the variety generates in some years in the ultra late ripening and low yielding regions of central Victoria have any relation to the firm raisined styles that emerge from the warmer districts, the light elegant styles of Coonawarra in a cool year, or the blockbusters of McLaren Vale. In fact, as noted above, Pliny had worked all this out in 35AD. We will never produce ëHermitageí in Australia but we might produce something equally interesting. The enthusiasm of Robert Parker for Australian styles has opened the eyes of American connoisseurs to the appeal of Australian shiraz in very recent times and American auction markets are driving a speculative boom that is of great interest to Australian producers. This unimpeachably independent wine critic has created this Shiraz boom and we owe him.

An emphatic difference between Australian and French examples relates to the Australian preference for American oak. My own view is that this oak has much too assertive in its aromatic character to be used on its own. This wood provides the ëtop noteí for too many big company wines from South Australia, so much so that many consumers think that it is the flavour of the fruit. Wine made in America!

Shiraz in Margaret River

The Hill of Hermitage, France

Shiraz has not been much planted in Margaret River because in the early years it was not regarded as a suitable subject for refined company. Shiraz at the time was in surplus and thought to produce the vin-ordinaire of Australia. It had not yet been discovered by Parker and was out of favour.

Shiraz produces a different wine in the north of Margaret River to that in the south. I am now very familiar with both. The particular challenge that it presents in a maritime environment is its propensity to accumulate questionable vegetative flavour elements, too easily mistaken for sulphides, acceptable to some extent on the Rhone, but very much out of favour with Australian show judges. No matter how generous, savoury, peppery, spicy, tarry and long is the palate the slightly herbaceous edge is a disqualifier. A pity. One way out is to overlay the whole thing with so much American oak that the character of the grape is heavily disguised. The Greeks do it with pine resin, we do it with American oak. It's a bloody sacrilege.

Viticulture

It has been a surprise and a delight to see how well shiraz performs at Three Hills. It's a star. Part of the secret is to prune it hard and provide it with a trellis that comprehensively splits the fruiting zone therefore supporting it's rambling habits in such a way as to maximize the porosity of the canopy. The structure then becomes a light trap for solar energy. The fruit ripens to high sugars in the cool of late April.
The plan for making exceptional wine begins with the needs of the vine rather than the needs of a harvesting machine. It is important that it should never be irrigated and like Cabernet, the leaves must be on the turn at picking date. Irrigation is not only unnecessary but undesirable in this environment. The vine is a galloper already and mightily drought tolerant.

The Hill of Hermitage, France

At Three Hills, Shiraz has been a standout wine from the beginning. The 99 was well reviewed by Robert Parker (95 points) in the Wine Spectator and Huon Hooke and Ralph Kyte-Powell in the Penguin good Australian Wine Guide. The 2000 vintage has confirmed its pedigree and gets better and better as it gets older. The 2001 was not released. The 2002 has been judged top WA shiraz at the Sheraton wine show.

I commend the judges who see the virtues of shiraz without an overlay of American Oak for their perspicacity and their courage. Unfortunately they are still in the minority and it is possible to see awards for the Three Hills Shiraz swing between gold and Bronze from one show to another. There are wave makers and wave riders with the latter prepared to depart from the conventional wisdom and the former sticking with the recipe no matter what.

The wine is different, a product of a unique environment, an authentic original. The wine is an expression of the fruit and the fruit is an expression of the place.

Winemaker Mark Warrens note on the 2003 Three Hills Shiraz

A full bodied intensely flavoured wine with a velvety mouth-feel. The palate is concentrated and ripe with sweet raspberry fruit, with plum skin, mint and stewed fruit. Some nice cedary oak is completely soaked up by this wines intense fruit. The tannins are dense but still soft and velvety and give the wine great texture and length.

James Halliday – Review

Deep colour; potent licorice, leather, spice and blackberry aromas and flavours; very good balance and length. Cork. RATING 94 DRINK 2018

 

Current Vintage:  2003