Wallaby and Condor - Southern Hemisphere Syrah

A touchstone southern hempishere debate is currently being played out between Chilean Syrah and Australian Shiraz. There has been of late - or so the Chileans would have us believe - a consumer trend away from big, powerful Aussie Shiraz a la Barossa Valley, towards “cool-climate” Syrah of the sort currently found in the Chilean Central Valley and emerging in one or two other promising pockets of the long thin country. If such a shift in the consumer palate is indeed on the cards, Chile is currently looking like the most serious pretender to Australia's new world Syrah crown.

All of which could make very good marketing sense for Chile, which is currently trailing Andean neighbour Argentina by a country mile in the premium wine game. Argentinean Malbec is simply more of a selling point than the Chilean alternative - Carmenere - which is currently the only credibly unique Chilean offering. Were Chile to establish itself as a new world source of quality cool-climate Syrah, some of this lost ground could be recovered.

In terms of regions, the north of Chile seems to have the most favourable combination of sun and breeze. To describe areas such as the Elqui Valley (pictured below) and Limari as cool-climate may seem counter-intuitive, being as they are on the fringes of the Atacama desert, but the cooling sea mist rolls in off the Pacific and tempers the heat. Elqui, which lies just inland from La Serena, one of Chile's most popular seaside resorts and also a functioning port, is the traditional Chilean growing area for pisco, the national grape spirit, and has so far largely been overlooked by wine producers. The combination of climate, relative cheapness of land (compared to more established regions such as Maipo and Colchagua) and access to transport could prove a winning formula.

Corporate relations between Chile and Australia appear to be cordial. Witness the recent joint distribution agreement between the UK arm of De Bortoli and Chilean producer Undurraga. Both outfits are long-standing family companies. Undurraga had not previously found a place in the UK market, which made it stand out among Chilean wineries of its size. With its route to the UK market now secured, it will be interesting to watch the development of Undurraga over here and see if the De Bortoli agreement sows the seeds of further southern hempishere couplings.

Whatever the business synergies, just as our palates were wooed away from the Rhone valley by muscular Barossa Shiraz, we may now be seeing a shift back towards a more refined Syrah style. The Next Big Thing in the Syrah story may well be happening in northern Chile. Watch this space...