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Slideshow
Top 12 Syrahs over £30
Following on from our top Syrahs under £15 round-up, we reveal the wines priced over £30 that were awarded a Gold or Master medal in this year’s drinks business Global Syrah Masters.
Each wine was blind tasted by our panel of Masters of Wine and Master Sommeliers, in flights arranged by price bracket. Of the 150 wines that entered, 131 received a medal, making it our most successful Masters competition to date.
Among them, 25 wines were awarded Gold medals while three scooped the top accolade of a Master, two of which hailed from Australia and one from the Rhône.
The following wines were awarded a gold or master, and were priced over £30, making them the showstoppers of the competition.
For the full results and analysis from this year’s Global Syrah Masters click here.
Scroll through for the wines that won a gold or master in this year’s Global Syrah Masters, that were priced over £30.
About the competition
In a crowded wine competition arena, The Drinks Business Global Syrah Masters stands out for its assessment of wines purely by grape variety rather than by region. Divided only by price bracket and, for ease of judging, whether the style was oaked or unoaked, the blind tasting format allowed wines to be assessed without prejudice about their country of origin.
Wines were scored out of 100, with those gaining over 95 points being awarded the top title of Master. Those earning over 90 points were given a Gold, those over 85 points a Silver and those over 80 points a Bronze. The wines were judged by a cherry-picked group of Masters of Wine on 9 September at Broadway House in Fulham.
Rhebokskloof Private Cellar, Black Marble Hill Syrah 2011, South Africa
Rhebokskloof Wine Estate is situated in South Africa’s Paarl valley. Its history stretches back to 1692, when Simon van der Stel, then governor of the Cape, awarded a free grant of land to Dirk van Schalkwyk. The initial large piece of land was divided into six different farms between the First and Second World Wars, and sold off.
The original farm was only reclaimed in 1986, when new owners bought back the other five farms. An early dwelling on the farm built around 1692 has since been restored as the main homestead. Rhebokskloof’s current owners bought the estate in 2006.
Its Black Marble Hill Reserve Syrah undergoes cold maceration and is fermented in steel tanks, with an extended maceration on skins for two weeks, before being aged in French oak barrels for 20 months.
Style: Oaked 100% Syrah
Medal: Gold
Price range: £30-£50
Montes Wines, Montes Folly 2011, Chile
Self-billed as Chile’s “first ultra-premium Syrah”, Folly represents the adventurous spirit of Montes.
Grapes used to produce Folly, one of its three “icon” wines, are grown on the estate’s steepest, highest slopes of its Finca de Apalta estate, in the Apalta Valley, Chile. Here, the incline of vineyards is greater than 45 degrees, requiring hand harvesting, with yields at less than four tonnes per hectare. Grapes are consequently smaller and more concentrated, making Folly a “richly complex and powerful” wine.
The wine is aged for 18 months in 100% new French oak barrels, with production limited to just 9,000 bottles.
Style: Oaked 100% Syrah
Medal: Gold
Price range: £30-£50
Sileni Estates, Exceptional Vintage Syrah 2013, New Zealand
Sileni Estates, in New Zealand’s Hawke’s Bay, is named after the Sileni, a Greek god who featured alongside Bacchus, the god of wine, in Greek mythology.
Graeme Avery, a pharmaceutical scientist and former owner of medical publishing company Adis International, founded Sileni in late 1997, along with financial director Chris Cowper and winemaker Grant Edmonds. Their first vintage was released in 1998.
Its vineyards and winery are based near Hastings, Hawke’s Bay, on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand.
Style: Oaked 100% Syrah
Medal: Gold
Price range: £30-£50
Giesen Wines, Marlborough Syrah Single Vineyard Selection Clayvin 2012, New Zealand
Giesen was founded by three German brothers, Alex and Theo and Marcel Giesen, the sons of a stonemason, who fell in love with New Zealand while travelling through Australia in the 1980s.
With most of the wines available on the island from the warmer North Island, the brothers spotted potential to produce wines, including the popular German varietal Riesling, on the cooler South Island. The first piece of land purchased was in Burnham, within the Canterbury wine region, in 1981. At that point it held the title of the world’s southernmost vineyard. Over the past 32 years, they have established 283 hectares of vineyards in Marlborough’s highly sought after Wairau Valley.
The brothers produced their first Syrah in 2011, with this only the second vintage, having sourced fruit from its Clayvin vineyard in Marlborough.
Style: Oaked 100% Syrah
Medal: Gold
Price range: £30-£50
Jean René Germanier, Cayas Syrah du Valais 2011, Switzerland
Jean René Germanier was founded in 1896 by Urbain Germanier. It is located in the hamlet of Balavaud within the commune of Vétroz in the heart of the Valais and the Rhône Valley, Switzerland.
Grapes used to produce its reserve Cayas Syrah du Valais come from the schist hillsides of the right bank of the Rhône in Switzerland. The grapes are macerated for 10 days before fermentation and barrel aged in new oak for 24 months, producing a 12.8% ABV wine with an “intense and complex nose with aromas of fruit, a hint of vanilla, leather and spice.”
Style: Oaked 100% Syrah
Medal: Gold
Price range: £30-£50
Songlines Estates, Songlines Shiraz 2005, Australia
2004 vintage pictured
Hailing from Australia’s McLaren Vale, Songlines Estate’s 2005 Shiraz is a powerful 15% ABV 100% Shiraz, with the winemaking behind its Songlines range “extremely complicated”, according to the producer.
“No individual vineyard parcel is given the same complete treatment”, it says. “Each vineyard is separated into a minimum of two discrete batches for fermentation, often more, and different techniques applied to each.”
This builds “layers of complexity” into Songlines and allows for development in years to come. This example is from the 2005 vintage, with the 2013 vintage recently released Likely to benefit from cellaring.
Explaining its name, the producer website reads: “‘Songlines’ are invisible pathways which criss-cross the land all over Australia and also stretch across continents and ages. These ancient tracks, made of song, described the creation of the Earth and act as a map for those who walk upon it. Wherever men have walked, they have left a songline.”
Style: Oaked 100% Syrah
Medal: Gold
Price range: Over £50
M Chapoutier, Hermitage Monier de la Sizeranne 2011, France
2006 vintage pictured
Chapoutier, also known as Maison M. Chapoutier, was founded in 1879 by Polydor Chapoutier. Based in Tain-l’Hermitage in the Rhône region in France, Chapoutier produces wines from appellations across the whole Rhône region. Max Chapoutier led the business until his retirement in 1977, after which his sons Michel Chapoutier and Marc Chapoutier took over.
Its top wines typically come from Hermitage, as does this “Monier de la Sizeranne” 100% Syrah. Entirely de-stemmed, the grapes are fermented in concrete tanks at temperatures between 30 and 33°C. The wine is then aged in oak casks for between 12 and 14 months.
Style: Oaked 100% Syrah
Medal: Gold
Price range: Over £50
Casella Family Brands, Casella Limited Release Shiraz 2010, Australia
Founded in 1957, when Filippo and Maria Casella immigrated to Australia, the Casella Family brands has expanded hugely in the past near 60 years, becoming a global success story. Today it encompasses its Yellowtail, Casella and Peter Lehmann Wines brands.
Its Casella Limited Release wines are produced from a selection of the finest parcels of fruit from each vintage, sourced from Australia’s most famous wine regions including Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, and Wrattonbully.
Style: Oaked blend (min 50% Syrah)
Medal: Gold
Price range: £30-£50
Black Stallion Estate Winery, Limited Release Napa Valley Syrah 2012, USA
Black Stallion Estate Winery was only founded in 2007 but has already established itself as a serious producer, earning a gold for its Limited Release Syrah in this year’s competition. Named after an equestrian centre that used to sit on its premises in Napa, its former indoor track now houses a winery with the remnant of 36 horse stalls still visible. In May 2010, the estate was purchased by the Indelicato Family.
Its 14% ABV Limited Release Syrah is dark and rich with aromas of blueberry, blackberry and spice with notes of ripe berry fruit, vanilla and dark chocolate.
Style: Oaked blend (min 50% Syrah)
Medal: Gold
Price range: £30-£50
Blue Pyrenees Estate, Ridchardson Reserve Shiraz 2012, Australia
The first wine in our round-up to be awarded a Master, this Shiraz comes from the Blue Pyrenees Estate in Australia’s Western Victoria. Originally called Chateau Remy, the estate was founded by French company Remy Martin, who had gone in search of cool climate regions from which to produce sparkling wine.
Later renamed Blue Pyrenees Estate, the estate was purchased by a group of Australian “wine-passionate” businessmen in 2002. Today it is led by chief winemaker Andrew Koerner, who oversees the estate’s 150 hectares of vineyards.
Its 2012 Reserve Shiraz comprises a blend of 9% of Cabernet and 1% Viognier, matured for 20 months in French and American barriques, 10% of which is new oak.
Style: Oaked blend (min 50% Syrah)
Medal: Master
Price range: £30-£50
Casella Family Brands, Casella 1919 2007, Australia
The second wine featured from Casella, the Australian producer also went home with a Master for its 2007 Casella 1919, which is only made in exceptional vintages.
Unveiled in 2014, with the 2006 vintage, the range is designed to showcase the producer’s very best vineyards in their very best years. Grapes are sourced from premium vineyards across South Australia handpicked by John Casella, managing director of Casella Wines.
Its name is intended to represent the Casella family’s journey to Australia, with 1919 the year that John Casella’s grandfather’s returned from WWI. It was also the year that the farm where the current Casella winery is located was first founded.
Style: Oaked 100% Syrah
Medal: Master
Price range: Over £50
Delas Hermitage, Domaine des Tourettes Rouge, 2012, France
2010 vintage pictured
Founded in 1835, Domaine Delas was acquired by Champagne House Deutz in 1977, and was later absorbed by Louis Roederer in 1993, who is the current owner of this boutique domaine in the northern Rhône.
Its production is overseen by winemaker Jacques Grange, originally from Burgundy), with recent vintages produced from vineyards in Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Côte Rôtie, Condrieu, Côtes-du-Rhône and Côtes-du-Ventoux.
Its Domaine des Tourettes Rouge is produced from fruit sourced across three vineyards in the Drôme département of the Rhône: Tainl’Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage and Larnage.
The wine is matured in French oak barrels, with the wine described as having a powerful nose expressing aromas of blackberries, spices and leather, with “tightly-knit” tannins on the palate.
Style: Oaked 100% Syrah
Medal: Master
Price range: Over £50