Red Grape · Tuscany
The northern Rhone's great red, grown on Tuscan sandstone until it loses its pepper and finds violets instead.
Syrah is the dark, structured red of the northern Rhone, but Italy has quietly built its own version. In Cortona DOC, on the sandstone hills of the Val di Chiana, it ripens into something leaner and more mineral than either France or Australia tends to produce.
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Also known as
Taste · Where it sits
Forget scores out of five. Here’s Syrah described against grapes you already know.
Fuller than Sangiovese, lighter on its feet than an Australian Shiraz, because Cortona's cool nights hold the alcohol back.
Firmer than Merlot, far gentler than Nebbiolo. The tannins here are polished rather than chalky, which is why the wines drink well younger than Barolo.
Higher than most Syrah grown in warmer places, and the reason Cortona bottlings taste mineral rather than jammy.
Blackberry and dark cherry without the confected edge of a Barossa Shiraz. The fruit reads fresh, not stewed.
Key flavours
The map
Syrah is powerfully full, firm tannin, mapped against other red grapes you can buy. The closer a grape sits, the more its weight and grip resemble Syrah.
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Serving guide
Serve at
16-18°C
Below 16C the florals close up and the tannins read harder than they are.
Decant
30 minutes
Half an hour is plenty. Longer flattens the violet lift that makes these wines distinctive.
Glass
Bordeaux Glass
A Bordeaux bowl gathers the dark fruit without exaggerating the alcohol.
Drink within
3-5 days
Approachable at three years, though the tannins are polished enough to enjoy earlier.
Cellar
3-10 years
Good Cortona bottlings hold ten years, developing leather and dried herbs as the fruit recedes.
Buy it · three to start with
A curated trio across the price range, then every Syrah on sale in the UK right now.
12 of 40 bottles
4 retailers
Toscana
4 retailers
£19.30
£20.32
4 retailers
Bolgheri
4 retailers
£20.60
£23.68
3 retailers
Sicilia
3 retailers
£13.93
3 retailers
Sicilia
3 retailers
£13.96
3 retailers
Cortona
3 retailers
£18.40
£19.57
3 retailers
Bolgheri
3 retailers
£28.90
£31.76
3 retailers
Toscana
3 retailers
£36.90
3 retailers
Toscana
3 retailers
£45.60
£53.02
3 retailers
Toscana
3 retailers
£139.50
2 retailers
Toscana
2 retailers
£15.70
£16.53
2 retailers
Lazio
2 retailers
£17.90
2 retailers
Maremma Toscana
2 retailers
£17.80
£18.74
Denominations
The appellations where Syrah plays a starring role.
Where it grows
From galestro hills in Chianti Classico to the single Brunello rise of Montalcino and the sea-facing Cabernets of Bolgheri, Tuscany is Italian wine's stage in Read more
Volcanic Nerello on Etna's black terraces, sun-baked Nero d'Avola on the south-east coast, fortified Marsala in Trapani and UNESCO Zibibbo on Pantelleria Read more
The terroir
The same grape gives two quite different wines depending on where in Italy it is planted.
Cortona
eastern Tuscany, Val di Chiana
Violets, dark berry and liquorice with taut acidity and little or no black pepper. The mineral, elegant reading of the grape.
Sicily
largely the west and centre of the island
Riper and warmer, keeping much more of the peppery spice, and more often blended with Nero d'Avola than bottled alone.
Editorial
Syrah reached Tuscany long before it had a Tuscan identity. The vine is recorded arriving in the early 1900s, carried back by the Count of Montecarlo di Lucca after travels in France, but nothing systematic happened until 1967, when Tenimenti d'Alessandro planted Rhone clones experimentally on the hills above Cortona. The first results disappointed. It took the agronomist Attilio Scienza to identify the clone that actually suited the site, and another three decades before Cortona DOC was granted in 1999.
It took a count, a disappointing first harvest and an agronomist named Attilio Scienza before anyone worked out which Syrah clone Cortona actually wanted.
Cortona DOC, granted 1999The place explains the wine. Cortona sits in the Val di Chiana between 250 and 340 metres, on two soils that rarely appear together: macigno toscano, a compact sandstone, and siliceous lacustrine sands left by an ancient lake bed. Air moves constantly off nearby Lake Trasimeno, which keeps rot away and holds the annual average near 15C despite generous sun.
What comes out of it is the surprise. Cortona Syrah is built on violets, dark berries, liquorice and a citrus lift, with crisp acidity and fine tannins, and it is notably missing the black pepper that defines the grape in the northern Rhone and in Australia. That marker comes from a compound called rotundone, and on these sandstone hills it does not accumulate the same way.
The scale stays small: roughly 500,000 bottles a year from about 500 hectares across ten producers, with Stefano Amerighi, who presides over the DOC, among the names that shaped its direction. Elsewhere the grape reads differently again, riper and more overtly peppery in Sicily, where it is more often blended than bottled alone. Against Tuscany's own Sangiovese it is darker and less savoury; against Nebbiolo it is fruitier and far less tannic.
Good to know
Yes, they are one variety with two names. Syrah is the original French name and is used where the style is cooler and more savoury; Shiraz is the Australian name and usually signals a riper, softer, sweeter-fruited wine. Italian producers label it Syrah, which is a fair guide to what is in the glass: Cortona bottlings sit closer to the Rhone end than the Barossa end.
Cortona DOC in eastern Tuscany is the serious Italian address for it, granted in 1999 after three decades of trial planting. Production is small, around 500,000 bottles a year from roughly 500 hectares, and the wines have built a reputation for elegance rather than power. Sicily also grows a meaningful amount, usually riper and more often blended than bottled on its own.
Violets, blackberry and dark cherry, liquorice, and a citrus lift that keeps it fresh, carried on crisp acidity and fine-grained tannins. The striking part is what is absent: the black pepper note that defines the grape elsewhere is largely missing. It reads as mineral and taut rather than warm and spicy, which surprises people expecting a Rhone or Australian profile.
The peppery note comes from a compound called rotundone, and how much a vine accumulates depends heavily on site and climate. On the sandstone and lacustrine sands above Cortona, at 250 to 340 metres with constant airflow off Lake Trasimeno, it simply does not build up the way it does in the northern Rhone. The result is a Syrah that leads with flowers and fruit.
Grilled and roasted meats are the safe route, and Tuscan peposo alla fornacina is close to a local match. Wild boar ragu and aged pecorino both work with the tannin. Because Italian versions keep more acidity and less sweet fruit than an Australian Shiraz, they also handle lentils, mushrooms and roasted aubergine without overwhelming them.
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Jump to the editorial guide for each style this grape turns up in.
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