Syrah Masters 2017: the results in full

What did the judges think? (continued)

Clive Barlow MW

There were a number of points to draw from the Syrah Masters.

At every price point there were good wines to be had. Value was to be found with medal wines in the below £10 and £10 to £15 brackets. You can get a lot of wine for your £ sterling.

Most wines delivered in terms of concentration of fruit and structure. It would appear that the growers of the grapes cared that dilution should not be an issue and that ripeness was waited for.

Syrah responds to climate and expresses its origins well. The imprint of origin shone through. Whilst, in some instances, this character can be due to wine making, the wines showed climate characters. Personally I enjoyed the cracked black pepper and dark fruits of Hawkes Bay, with ripe tannins and depth as a meeting point of cool climate and hot climate styles.

Syrah, in the form of Shiraz, does ‘powerful’ terrifically well. Plenty of extract, intense concentration and high alcohols can still be in balance and a number of the wines were turbo-charged beauties. These styles are not ‘drinking wines’ but they are statements of intensity.

A few countries performed better than others; Australia was solid gold and its regionality came through, New Zealand, especially Hawkes Bay, is showing promise, a number of South African wines had terrific depth and harmony. Disappointment came from Chile with a few angular efforts. And Portugal surprised with quality and interest.

Many of the expensive wines, especially the Australian examples, were very young. The wines showed very well but it would be fascinating to see them in 10 years time.

It must be said that not everyone on the panel enjoyed the big hitting wines but all appreciated them. It is possibly true to say that cultural tastes and perceptions of usage, on-trade versus off-trade, affected the individual scores.

Overall there was a sense that the more you paid the more you got. As we know, this is not always the case with some grape varieties. Those varieties which are in fashion achieve higher prices without necessarily delivering the quality.  Perhaps Syrah is one of those dark horse varieties, always the bridesmaid never the bride, etc. Therefore one could argue that it is an under-priced variety, with the qualification that there are a number of producers and regions which can demand higher prices for market reasons.