Shirazi wine

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Shirazi wine was the wine produced around the city of Shiraz in Persia.[1][2] Already by the 9th century, the city of Shiraz had established a reputation for producing the finest wine of the Middle East,[1] and was Persia's wine capital. The export of Shirazi wine to India by European merchants in the 17th century has been documented. As described by enthusiastic English and French travellers to the region in the 17th to 19th centuries, the wine grown close to the city was of a more dilute character due to irrigation, while the best Shirazi wines were actually grown in terraced vineyards around the village of Khoullar. These wines were white and existed in two different styles: dry wines for drinking young, and sweet wines meant for aging. The latter wines were compared to "an old sherry" (one of the most prized European wines of the day), and at five years of age were said to have a fine bouquet and nutty flavour. The dry white Shirazi wines (but not the sweet ones) were fermented with significant stem contact, which should have made these wines rather phenolic, i.e., rich in tannins.[1]

It is likely that Shirazi wines of older times were dried grape wines.[1]

While travellers have described the wines, there seem to be no ampelographic descriptions of the vines or grapes, so it is not known with certainty which grape varieties that were used to produce Shirazi wine, only that white varieties were used. Marco Polo made mention of the wine, and other classical accounts describe vines trained by pulleys and weights to grow up one side of a house and down another.[3]

The British poet Edward FitzGerald translated Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam where praise is heaped on the Shirazi wines. Because of present-day Islamic rule in modern Iran, no Shirazi wine is produced today. The vineyards of Iran are instead used for the production of table grapes and raisins.

Shirazi wine or the city of Shiraz has no connection with the modern-day red grape variety "Shiraz", a synonym used in Australia and some other countries for the grape variety Syrah which originates from northern Rhône valley in France.[4]

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[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Entry on "Persia" in J. Robinson (ed), "The Oxford Companion to Wine", Third Edition, p. 512-513, Oxford University Press 2006, ISBN 0-19-860990-6
  2. ^ Hugh Johnson, "The Story of Wine", New Illustrated Edition, p. 58 & p. 131, Mitchell Beazley 2004, ISBN 1-84000-972-1
  3. ^ Lichine, Alexis (1967). Alexis Lichine's Encyclopedia of Wines and Spirits. London: Cassell & Company Ltd., p.495. 
  4. ^ Entry on "Shiraz" in J. Robinson (ed), "The Oxford Companion to Wine", Third Edition, p. 627, Oxford University Press 2006, ISBN 0-19-860990-6