3/26/2023 0 Comments Educational wine maps california![]() We do know though that it does not come from Persia and has no link with the Persian city called Shiraz at all. ![]() The grape originates in France and is called Syrah, as far as I can tell, no one knows why. I will just go off on a brief tangent about the name of the grape – Syrah. The rules were pretty simple, we each had to present two wines, one per round, with the first one selling for under £20 and the second between £20 and £40. After a little contemplation both of my wines came from California. We had already debated Syrah once before and I had shown one from Chile that was very well received, the delicious Errazuriz Aconcagua Costa Syrah (while the winning wine that previous time was also one of mine, the magnificent Syrah du Liban from Domaine des Tourelles in Lebanon), so this time I chose to focus on the United States as I have tried quite a few really exciting American Syrahs of late. Whilst thinking about what actual wines to show, I decided to concentrate on just one area. ![]() I had decided to champion the Americas, while colleagues had each opted for other places Jimmy Smith chose South Africa, Cherie Agnew is from New Zealand and decided to showcase the increasingly exciting Syrahs from her homeland, while Shane Jones, our resident classicist, took on the job of presenting Syrahs from France. It’s all good fun and I suppose that we shouldn’t read too much into the results, but recently we had a tasting debate on Syrah and the results were extraordinary, so I thought I would tell you about the wines. What happens is that we choose a grape variety or style to compare in a tasting and then each of the school’s tutors champion a country or region that produces that style. I do quite a lot of teaching at The West London Wine School – Wine and Spirit education Trust / WSET Courses mainly, but every now and again we hold a tasting debate there. However, records show the name has been used since at least 1518 and what’s more, Primitivo derives from the Latin for early, while Tribidrag derives from the Croatian for early – they are both early ripening grapes.īien Nacido Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley – photo courtesy of the vineyard. Crljenak Kaštelanski and Tribidrag are as alike as different clones of Pinot Noir, or Tempranillo and Tinto Fino, but Tribidrag is the more common name, although not much of it is left, so it too is obscure. In 2011 the researchers discovered another match, this time with a grape called Tribidrag which is also used on the Dalmatian coast. The vine was known as Crljenak Kaštelanski, or ‘the red grape of Kaštela’. This find narrowed the search down and in 2001 a vine that matched Zinfandel’s DNA was discovered in a single vineyard in Kaštel Novi north west of Split on the Croatian coast. The other parent was Dobričić, an incredibly obscure Croatian grape that only grows on the Dalmatian island of Šolta. That was all we knew until the 1990s when DNA testing discovered that Zinfandel was identical to the Primitivo that is widely used in Puglia, the heel of Italy.įurther investigation and DNA work then discovered that Primitivo/Zinfandel were one of the parents of the Plavac Mali grape which is used on Croatia’s Dalmation coast. Records show that it was taken from the Austrian Imperial nursery in Vienna to Boston and was originally sold as a table grape in New England, but destiny called when cuttings were shipped to California to take advantage of the boom caused by the Gold Rush in 1849. The wine is a Zinfandel and it is worth me giving you a little background on the grape variety from a piece that I wrote a couple of years ago:Īs far as we can tell, the grape that became Zinfandel was taken to the eastern United States from Europe in the 1820’s – long before the annexation of California. ![]() I was fortunate enough to taste one the other day and I enjoyed it so much and it is so delicious – and perfect for the icy weather we are having right now – that I have made it my Wine of the Week. So while it is always a struggle to feed my love of California wine, there are some high quality bargains out there. Yes, there are huge amounts of very everyday stuff that is barely worth drinking – you know the brands, while the fabulous wines that gave California its fame tend to be ludicrously expensive once they arrive in the UK – actually in the US too come to think of it. Therefore it pains me that it is so hard to enjoy California wines here in the UK. As a consequence I have loved California wines pretty much all my working life. ![]() As a consequence I had opportunities to taste some amazing California wine while at a young and impressionable age. One of my very early jobs was working for the late Geoffrey Roberts who was an early champion of the wines of California and Australia in the UK. ![]()
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