The secret of syrah

                                                                SCOTT HAMMOND
FROMM MARLBOROUGH: Fromm Wines general manager Will Hoare checks out the producer's 20-year-old syrah vines. Fromm's 2007 syrah was judged best in the country by a trio of wine experts.Relevant offers

Fromm Wines makes the best syrah in New Zealand, a trio of wine experts say.

Beating the better-known syrah regions of Hawke's Bay and Waiheke Island, the Fromm Vineyard Syrah Marlborough 2007 was named best in quarterly magazine The World of Fine Wine.

In an article, Tim Atkin MW muses on Oscar Wilde's quip that to be popular something must be a mediocrity, and how that relates to Marlborough sauvignon blanc, and laments the undiscovered secret of Kiwi syrah.

"Our top two [wines] (Fromm and Passage Rock) are from Marlborough and Waiheke Island respectively. Mediocre they are not. Now all they need is some popularity."

Fromm winemaker Hatsch Kalberer is not one for competitions and awards, but was happy the subtle Fromm offering found its way to the top of the masters of wine's list, rather than a bigger and bolder wine.

"It's not the biggest, loudest wine of all and it's nice to be recognised for the finer details in wine by some very high-profile tasters. It's good for us and it's good for Marlborough."

Fromm's was the only South Island winery invited to be involved in the syrah tasting for the article. The one-hectare block of 20-year-old syrah at Fromm Vineyard is about a week from picking. When Fromm Vineyard was planted in 1992, there were two or three wineries which already had syrah vines in the ground, Mr Kalberer said.

Eight red varieties were planted, including syrah and pinot noir. Pinot was expected to do well and although the syrah was slightly more of a gamble, they were quietly confident about it as well, he said.

"If we hadn't tried we would never have known how well it would go."

The other wineries have since pulled out their syrah to make way for other varieties, but there was a renaissance with some Marlborough companies, such as Te Whare Ra, planting it in recent years, he said.

About four years ago, a visiting European soil expert looked at the soil where the syrah was planted, at the Fromm vineyard at the corner of State Highway 6 and Godfrey Rd, near Renwick.

"He actually said, `from all my knowledge within France, this would be perfect syrah soil'," Mr Kalberer said.

In the cooler climate of Marlborough, the flavour of syrah can ripen before sugar levels get so high as to make a higher alcohol wine. The one to two percentage points less alcohol allowed syrah with more finesse than wine made with fruit from warmer climates.

SAY SYRAH

The cooler northern Rhone Valley in southeastern France is the benchmark for syrah, although the grape is planted all over the world. Australia has huge plantings of the variety, calling it shiraz. There are 300ha of syrah planted in New Zealand, producing 2115 tonnes of fruit. It is the ninth-most planted variety in New Zealand and the 12th largest export variety, with 227,000 litres sold abroad. It is thought to have been first imported to New Zealand in the 1830s. By 1984, there was only one block left in the country: a small government research planting in the Waikato.