There's a town in Iran called Shiraz and they (Shirazians, Shirazites?) were known for their wine (could still be known for their wine, I have to admit my knowledge of Iran is limited and I've had exactly 0 bottles of Iranian wine in my life).

This, combined with the various names for Syrah, lead to the belief that it came from Iran via the Romans.

Not true.

Syrah is a native french grape, a cross between two almost extinct grape varietals: Duerza and Mondeuse Blanche happening sometime around the 1st century.

The romans DID indeed seem to like this grape and it seems that the grape migrated from the lower  Rhone to the upper Rhone and across southern France, wherever the Romans were. Now, let's fast forward through history:

* In the late 1600's the French Huguenot's fled france for South Africa taking grapes with them.
* In the mid 1800s Syrah had established itself in Northern Rhone in villages such as Hermitage and the great debate began on who produced the best wine: Bordeaux or Northern Rhone. British investors were the catalyst for such a debate.
* In 1831 a Scotsman by the name of James Busby took grapes to Australia, among those: Syrah
* During the 1970's California producers become interested in the grape
* Early 80's winemaker David Lake suggested that the owners of Red Willow Vineyard in Washington State get a few vines of syrah from Joseph Phelps in Napa.
* During the late 90's Syrah/Shiraz took off; including finding a home in Washington.


Syrah/Shiraz (and just so we're clear, Shiraz is a bastardization of Syrah--but call it whatever you want) is now grown in over 20 countries, it's the third mostly planted red wine grape in the world and is to Washington what Cabernet is to California.

It's come a long way with a confusing history--but sadly it seems to be loosing steam due to it's over-popularity.

But more plantings of Syrah in Argentina, Chile, Spain and Italy are piquing people's interest. One is also seeing critics raving about Northern Rhone wines in the same breath as Bordeaux. And, finally, if you read a wine rag and flip to the Washington section the dominate grape? Syrah.


Next: Syrahs to try

 One of the most widely cultivated grape in the world (it thrives in places like Brazil and Mexico as well as France and California) is also one of the more difficult wines to find on a grocery store shelf.

I call it the lost wine. Or the 'white merlot'.

Most of us have seen Sideways and I'm sure I've talked about this before, but let me review:

Great movie. I just hate that it affected the wine industry so much, and in a negative way. The line when Miles exclaims "I'm not drinking anymore fucking Merlot!" hit home with a bunch of people. The wines snobs laughed heartily and thought "here, hear" while other red wine drinkers laughed, uncomfortably thinking "But I like merlot..."  After that movie, and to this very day, Pinot Noir sales have soared, and merlot is finally, slowly, making a come back as a good wine.

But even prior to that movie and Mile's dramatic disdain for Merlot, Merlot had a bad rap for the most part.

In the 70's and early 80's it was overproduced in California. It was easy to grow and took off like wildfire. Then, when people began actually drinking red wines (white, or pink wines were more the fashion back in the mid to late 80s) this overproduced, easy drinking, non complex merlot proved to be a hit. And because there was a lot of it, it was cheaper than, say Cabernet Sauvignon.

By the late 90's wine snobs poo-pooed that style of merlot, stating the grape was unsophisticated, dull and bland. Nevertheless it was still a hit with the general population.

The popular movie was a final blow to poor merlot.

But! Merlot is great, one of my favorite grapes (when done correctly--I agree I've had a lot of dull, bland and unsophisticated merlots but some of the best wines I've ever had were Merlot based).

So, while I've just spent a few minutes writing about Merlot, that's not the grape I'm talking about...no no..the grape in discussion today is Chenin Blanc.

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Chenin grows vigorously (although has its fair share of viticultural issues--which I won't get into because most people don't care about bunch rot and early bud break) and has proved to be a good grape of choice in areas that are generally too warm for most wine grapes (the above stated Brazil) as well as finding homes in cooler regions (France's Loire Valley).  Because it's easy to grow, disease tolerant, soil tolerant nature it took off like, um, something else (don't want to use that wildfire term again and am drawing a blank on another expression) in California in the 70's and 80's. And, that's when light, slightly sweet, white wines were very popular.

It was the perfect grape.

But, then, tastes changed and people moved away from sweet wine (and in a lot of cases white wine in general). However, Chenin did not disappear, instead it found a home in jug wines. And to this day is still one of the most widely cultivated grapes in california, but the majority of it finds it's way to bulk, bad wine.

In my home state Chenin production has gone downhill dramatically. There were almost 300 acres of chenin planted in 93, in 06 (the last year of production reports available--they're done every three years) there were only 160 acres.

Most growers were pulling it out due to lack of demand and the bad image the wine had in general.

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Here's the thing, though. Chenin makes beautiful wine. It's style is best observed in an off-dry (meaning a touch of residual sugar, so yes, slightly sweet) wine. The nose on good chenin should start off with a strange damp straw aroma followed by a plethora of fruits ranging from tropical (guava, papaya, kiwi) to more traditional (peach, apricots, pears, melons) with a back drop of honey or honeysuckle. There's also spice notes in most of clove and nutmeg. Not only is the nose beautiful, but the palate should meld all those flavors together into a rich, lush wine.

It's lovely. And it makes it really easy to pair food with it: spicy asian, light beef salads, traditional turkey dinner...it all works.

Luckily two places have continued to produce really good chenin: South Africa where it's known as Steen, more commonly, and the Loire Valley in France--particularly in Vouvray.

The other really cool thing about Chenin is that it has high acidity for the grape, meaning it makes excellent, dry, sparkling wines or you can go the completely other route and make extremely syrupy dessert wines with it as well. It's even made into port-like wines and brandies.

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If you're interested in trying some Chenin, and you should be, look for these:

This morning, as every morning, my mother was watching the Today Show. I happened to be in the process of lacing up my shoes and putting on my dirty work clothes when a wine segment began--they said something to the affect of "have chardonnay tastes but a beer budget?"

Ahem.

The expert they had on is someone whom I normally would pay attention to, I've read a book co written by him that I absolutely adored. And, yes it was a wine book, not some book on something entirely unrelated to wine.

But I'd give his wine choices a D. You know, if I were a teacher and could grade such things. Actually if this were true, my life would be sweet.

Anyhow back to what I saw: bad, bad wine--and he was quoting pricing that's really hard to find. If you live in a large city with some competitive wine prices (NY, LA, Houston), you may be able to find these deals. He also mentioned Costco--but their choices are limited and while their pricing is good they don't specialize in 'cheap' wine. They specialize in good values--wines that usually are around $50-$20 that they price between $10-$30. In other words, the wine pricing he was quoting: good luck finding such deals.

His first wine was Charles Shaw--good old two buck chuck from Trader Joes. I don't have a problem with this wine and it's only $3, maybe $4 some places. But every time I've had it, it's been pretty bad. I'm picky, though, so I really would rather spend a few more dollars for something different or use my three dollars on a good bottle of Belgium beer.

But I know a lot of people who love CS, and good for them. Good for you. As we used to say, it's perfect for you, not good enough for me.

I thought the CS was predictable; it was the rest of the wine that he was promoting that was horrible. He mentioned magnums, then held up a really bad bottle of Chianti. He mentioned boxed wines and had this horrible vin de pays from France.  Then he ended with the statement that it's okay to splurge on wine every once in a while because it will give you pleasure: good wine delivers.

Or some such bullshit.

Then held up a bottle of Dom Perignon.

So let me just reaffirm what I'm good at: Finding cheap vino.

Also, let me say that I don't think he's an idiot, but it's obvious a distributor has his back pocket.

1. Private label wine can be good (Trader Joes, Costco, etc), but often times not the best deal. I'm always suspicious if they won't say who's actually making the wine. One reason why it's such a good deal is that they're purchasing extra juice for sale from various wineries. Sometimes it's great. Sometimes it's absolute shit. That's why one bottle of two buck chuck won an award and the bottle I had this summer went straight down the drain (not good enough to cook with). See if you can't find out where it's coming from before you buy it.
2. Avoid chianti if you can't spend at least $10/bottle on it. Those basket woven magnums? Most of them are quite horrible these days: Southern Italy and Sicily are where the wine deals are in that country. Just look for cheaper sangiovese from some other part of Italy in leu of that cheap chianti. Trust me.
3. There are some really good box wines out there now, and sometimes it doesn't seem like the best deal because they are around $25/box. But that's three bottles of wine--so about $8/bottle. That's great. The other good thing is that the wine actually keeps for a while in a box, once it's been open, verses a bottle--where you're lucky to get three days of decent tasting wine. But I really would avoid vin de pays box wines. A lot of those cheap box wines from other countries are made in a very fast fermentation process. That's fine if it's drunk 'fresh'--or if it's shipped properly. But cheap wine is going to be shipped cheaply, and those box wines taste like shit in the end. Look local (american--for us americans), or for the aussies. They know how to do box wines.
4. And finally, jesus, of course splurge on wine every once in a while if you can afford to do so. I have always done so and I've never made much money. A bottle of wine that I love that costs $50 is totally worth it, to me. This isn't the case for everyone--so if you don't fit this category, stop reading and keep on keeping on with your two buck chuck. But if you really do appreciate wine, and are willing to pay $50-$150 for wine every once in a while, great.
   
   But for fuck's sake: THINK. I've got nothing against Dom Perignon. It's quite good. But it's $110-$160 and is one of the wine's world most over charged wines: Champagne. Buy some sparkling from the US that's awesome (Schramsberg--their Mirabelle Brut Rose' just got great reviews and it retails for $25 for example), or there's a ton of non champagne european wines that are wonderful (Cava's from spain--Naveran Reserve is $19), Alsace (Lucene Albrecht Rose is $18), Loire--range in price from $10 to $20 and often awesome. But here's the real kicker for $50 (sometimes a bit less) you can get AWESOME small grower (meaning more of a hand made product) champagne--yes real champagne from France. Why not do something like that instead of spending twice as much on some name.
   
   What I'm saying is with these tough times, do a bit more research and find something cooler in that price range. You may be surprised and find something cheaper and better than what you'd normally drop $100 on.

Anyhow, that's all I've got. Just a rant and explanation why I thought his wine choices were stupid.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll give you some real tips? I'll think about it.

Meanwhile: Cheers--happy drinking and happy wine hunting.