The first Shiraz vines made their way to Australia in James Busby's 1832 collection. Recognised as the father of Australian wine, Busby travelled through Spain and France collecting vine cuttings that were the foundation of the Australian wine industry.
Shiraz is often thought of as the classic Australian red wine. The red wine grape varietal is simply Syrah – which originates from the Rhône Valley in France – under a different name. Its new moniker came after its arrival in Australia and the name gradually morphed into its New World variant.
The first evidence of grape cultivation in Shiraz came around 2,500 BC, when vines were brought down from the mountains to the plains of south-west Iran, the professor says. By the 14th Century, Shiraz wine was immortalised in the poetry of Hafez, whose tomb in the city is still venerated today.
Australia's winemaking history stretches back to 1788, when Governor Arthur Phillip brought the first vines to Sydney. In 1833, James Busby, considered the father of the Australian wine industry, brought cuttings from Spain and France and introduced Shiraz (a.k.a. Syrah) and Grenache to the region.
Shiraz: French in origin, Australian by nature
The first Shiraz vines made their way to Australia in James Busby's 1832 collection. Recognised as the father of Australian wine, Busby travelled through Spain and France collecting vine cuttings that were the foundation of the Australian wine industry.
James Busby died on July 15, 1871 during a visit to England. He was survived by his wife and three of their six children. While not the first to import or grow vines in Australia, Busby's drive and entrepreneurship in the craft of viticulture has left him a legacy as father of the Australian wine industry.
The modern Shiraz grape, now known to be identical to the Syrah grape, was brought to Australia by James Busby, the father of Australian wine. Busby travelled through Spain and France collecting vine cuttings that were the foundation of the Australian wine industry.
The reason Shiraz thrives in South Australia is thanks to its dry, warm summers and chilly, wet winters — the same reasons the Syrah grape flourishes around the Mediterranean.
Shiraz is a red grape varietal, believed to have originated in Iran around 2500BC when vines were brought down the mountains to the plains of south-west Iran. It is thought that this grape was the offspring of the grape varieties dureza (father) and monduese blanche (mother).
Syrah originates in France, while Australia adopted the term 'shiraz' for the same grape variety. Climate differences led to distinctly different styles. Cooler climate Aussie makers started using syrah for their shiraz, and chaos ensued.
Shiraz (/ʃɪəˈrɑːz/ ( listen); Persian: شیراز, romanized: Širâz [ʃiːˈɾɒːz] ( listen)) is the fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars (پارس, Pārs) and Persis.
Shiraz is one of the most popular black grape varieties in the world. It's also known as Syrah in Old World wine regions, with Northern Rhône in France being the classic region for internationally renowned premium-quality Syrah.
The area around Sydney has the longest history of grape growing in Australia. The original grape vines came with the First Fleet and were planted at Sydney Cove in 1788.
The Barossa Valley in South Australia is one of Australia's oldest and best-known regions for shiraz. Half of the Barossa's vineyard plantings are shiraz. Some of the vines are the oldest in the world, dating back as far as 1843.
Clare Valley-based winery, Taylors Estate, has won the coveted title of International Champion 2022 at a prestigious international contest. Taylors Estate's 2020 Shiraz – a $22 drop produced in Clare Valley – has just been crowned the best wine in the world at a prestigious international contest.
France's Rhône Valley has a long history of producing some of the world's best shiraz. Nowadays, shiraz is Australia's most popular grape and widely regarded as the country's most famous wine, thanks to benchmarks from the Barossa, Clare and Hunter Valleys, McLaren Vale, Great Southern and the Adelaide Hills.
The focus of shiraz production is the heavyweight wine state of South Australia, producing most of the country's wine and boasting some of the its oldest vines. The dry, hot climate ripens grapes fully, making bold, dense and concentrated wines. Shiraz is king in the Barossa Valley, located an hour north of Adelaide.
The grape variety is called Syrah in France, while it's Shiraz in Australia. Originally, this grape hails from the Rhone Valley in France but is now grown worldwide.
The city of Shiraz, Iran is more than 4000 years old.
- Shiraz is widely considered one of the 'healthiest' wine varietals. Its high dose of antioxidants is believed to help with stress, weight loss and prevent heart disease - when consumed in moderation. - It takes between 600 and 800 grapes to produce a single bottle of Shiraz.
The members of Australia's First Families of Wine are:
D'Arenberg, (the Osborn family), founded in 1912, with vineyards in the McLaren Vale wine region of South Australia.
Established in 1849, Yalumba is Australia's oldest family owned winery.
Max Schubert
Penfolds first ever Chief Winemaker, the creator of Grange and one of the most prolific Australian winemaking figures of the twentieth century.