Syrah
Northern Rhone
Black pepper, blackberry and smoked meat. Deeply coloured, with tannin that is firm but rarely harsh.
At harvest
Each bar drawn against the full range of all 54 varieties
Sugar
23-26 Brix
23 - 26
Titratable acidity
5.5-7 g/L
5.5 - 7
pH
3.4-3.8
3.4 - 3.8
Juice yield
0.65 L/kg
free run plus a gentle press
Sugar per kilogram
176 g
at 24.5 Brix, the midpoint
Fruit for 23 litres
35 kg
before racking losses
Potential alcohol
13.5-14.7%
from 1.103 fermented dry. A range, because conversion varies by strain
What it punishes
High pH at harvest in warm sites, which leaves the wine microbially vulnerable and hard to protect with sulphite.
Made into
- Dry red
- Rhone blend
Sulphite at this pH
At pH 3.60, protecting a red wine to 0.5 mg/L molecular SO2 takes 31 mg/L of free SO2. Work it out for your own reading.
Recipes on this site that use it
More vinifera red
Cabernet Sauvignon
Bordeaux, and now everywhere warm enough
23-25 BrixMerlot
Right Bank Bordeaux
22-25 BrixCabernet Franc
Loire and Bordeaux
22-25 BrixPinot Noir
Burgundy
24-27 BrixGrenache
Southern Rhone and Spain
24-26 BrixMourvedre
Bandol and Spain
24-28 BrixZinfandel
California, and Croatia before that
23-25 BrixSangiovese
Tuscany