Red grape
Syrah
How to read this
Capitals mark the stressed syllable. The French r comes from the back of the throat. The recording is the reference.
Syrah, the Hermitage grape, is a cross of Dureza and Mondeuse Blanche; a Gironde wine journal already praised it in 1838, and later books find it in the Graves, the Médoc, and Saint-Émilion.
Syrah is the black grape of Hermitage, on the Rhône. DNA markers show that it is a cross of Dureza and Mondeuse Blanche, a finding Wine Grapes dates to 1998 and that John Bowers, Carole Meredith, and colleagues published in 2000. Bowers and Meredith had named the parents of Cabernet Sauvignon in 1997. The Gironde books spell the grape many ways: “Sirha”, “Sirrha”, “Syrrah”, “sirah de l'Hermitage”, and Joubert’s “Serine”, all settled as Syrah on the sources’ own description of the Hermitage vine.
Auguste Petit-Lafitte, the Bordeaux agronomist, in La vigne dans le Bordelais (1868), quotes a Gironde wine journal of 1838: the grape was “still little spread”, but “very good results have been obtained from it.” M. du Puits de Maconex, a grower at Gradignan, in his Guide du propriétaire de vigne (1850), wrote that he had brought the Serine from the banks of the Rhône to Gradignan, where it kept its character so well that he knew it at first sight among the many vines of the Gironde. Petit-Lafitte credits “M. Destournel” with bringing the Hermitage vine into the Médoc, where by 1868 it had spread to several vineyards.
The guide of Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, kept finding it in estate plantings. In 1874 Château-de-Couloumey had planted only Médoc grapes “et la syrrah de l’Ermitage”. In 1886 the cru des Cordeliers at Saint-Émilion, in the enclosure of the old cloister, grew Cabernet Sauvignon for the greater part, with Merlot and “la petite syrah de l'Hermitage”. In 1893 the domaine de Mangot had added “la fameuse petite syrrah”. The 1922 edition still records the Sirha in its chapter on the grapes of the Gironde.
Syrah has found its way back to the Gironde: since 2022 Château Carbonnieux, in Pessac-Léognan, has made a pure Syrah rosé from a 2.5-hectare plot planted in 2018.
Oldest record in my library: “Scyras”, 1826, in the Œnologie française, as James Busby reported in 1838; “la petite sirrah” (Ardèche) and “grande et petite scyraz” (Hermitage), 1828, in B. A. Lenoir, Traité de la culture de la vigne; in the Gironde, a wine journal of 1838 (Le Producteur), as Auguste Petit-Lafitte reported in La vigne dans le Bordelais, 1868; first direct Gironde record: M. du Puits de Maconex, Guide du propriétaire de vigne, 1850
The family
Mondeuse Blanche shown by DNA markers
Dureza shown by DNA markers
Syrah
- Bowers et al. 2000, Acta Hort. 528:129-132; Lacombe et al. 2013; VIVC 11748
The discovery: In 2000, Bowers, Siret, Meredith, This, and Boursiquot published Dureza × Mondeuse Blanche as Syrah’s parents (Acta Horticulturae 528).
The names
As the Gironde books wrote it: Sirha, Sirrha, sira, Serine, Syrrah, Sirah.
Other names in VIVC: Biaune Noir, Caudive, Damas Noir Du Puy De Dome, Ermitage, Hignin Noir, Marsanne Noire, Petit Syrah, Petite Chiras, Petite Chiraz, Petite Syras, Plant De La Biaune, Serenne, Serine, Serine Noire.
In today’s rules
Not named in the rules of any Bordeaux appellation today.
In the books
“he introduced only Médoc grapes (cabernet-sauvignon, merlot, malbec, and verdot) and the syrrah of the Ermitage.”
il n’a introduit que des cépages du Médoc (cabernet-sauvignon, merlot, malbec et verdot) et la syrrah de l’Ermitage.
“The grapes that make it up are cabernet sauvignon for the greater part, merlot, and the petite syrah of the Hermitage.”
Les cépages qui le composent sont le cabernet sauvignon pour la plus grosse part , le merlot et la petite syrah de l'Hermitage .
“as well as the famous petite syrrah, whose sole cultivation produces the best wines of the Hermitage.”
ainsi que la fameuse petite syrrah , dont la culture exclusive produit les meilleurs vins de l'Hermitage .
“the varieties used to replant it are, for the red wine, cabernet-sauvignon, sirah of the Hermitage, malbec, and merlot”
les espèces employées à sa reconstitution sont pour le vin rouge , le cabernet- sauvignon , le sirah de l'Hermitage , le malbec , le merlot
My library records it planted at 10 estates, and one of them has a page here:
Sources
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, passport id 11748, accessed October 2026
- Bowers, J.E.; Siret, R.; Meredith, C.P.; This, P.; Boursiquot, J.-M. (2000), A single pair of parents proposed for a group of grapevine varieties in northeastern France, Acta Horticulturae 528:129-132
- Bowers, J.E. & Meredith, C.P. (1997), The parentage of a classic wine grape, Cabernet Sauvignon, Nature Genetics 16:84-87
- Robinson, Harding & Vouillamoz, Wine Grapes (2012), pedigree diagrams (Syrah sheet caption: parents found by DNA parentage analysis in 1998)
- Auguste Petit-Lafitte, La vigne dans le Bordelais, 1868, 'Établissement du vignoble' and 'E. Le Sirha', pp. 484-485, quoting Le Producteur, vol. 1, p. 281 (1838)
- M. du Puits de Maconex, Guide du propriétaire de vigne, Bordeaux, P. Chaumas, 1850 (bound with A. Joubert, Culture de la vigne dans le Médoc, in the library copy), 'Caractères des cépages'
- Charles Cocks (rev. Édouard Féret), Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 3rd ed., 1874, Château-de-Couloumey
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 5th ed., 1886, Saint-Émilion, cru des Cordeliers
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 6th ed., 1893, domaine de Mangot, p. 405
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 9th ed., 1922, 'Ampélographie', p. 14; château de Pic
- James Busby, Journal of a recent visit to the principal vineyards of Spain and France, 1838
- B. A. Lenoir, Traité de la culture de la vigne et de la vinification, 1828
- Nathalie Vallez, 'Vignoble bordelais : un pari rosé', Échos Judiciaires Girondins, August 3, 2026, https://www.echos-judiciaires.com/actualites/vignoble-bordelais-un-pari-rose/, accessed October 2026
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, accessed October 2026
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