How to Make Shiraz

Syrah grapes

Shiraz is a Australian (and spreading elsewhere in the new world) name for wine made from the old French Syrah grape. Regardless of whether it goes by its original name or its newer variant, it is known as the source of a solid, dry, red table wine. The wine has what is arguably the highest serving temperature of any red, at a usually recommended 65 °F. This quality makes it a forgiving and therefore popular wine for a home winemaker.

Things You'll Need

• Plastic vats with lids Winemaker's testing kit Sugar Campden tablets Winemaker's yeast Spring water, calcium carbonate or potassium bicarbonate. Large strainer or colander Siphon hoses Winemaking sulfites Old, clean water carboys with oak chips or oak barrels Winemaker's air locks

Instructions

Making Grape Juice

1. Remove the woody, big, central parts of the stems from the Syrah grapes, and rinse the grapes.

2. Crush the grapes. Small producers without a grape crusher can do this in the time-honored fashion of putting them into a vat and stomping on them with bare feet.

3. Empty the collection of grape juice, skins and tiny stem bits that is known as a "must" into vats. The skins in particular should be left in for a big red like Shiraz, so be sure to keep as many as possible in the must.

Primary Fermentation

1. Use the testing kit to establish the acidity and sugar content (Brix) of the must. This involves using separated instruments that are supplied in the kit. Take samples from the must of each vat and note the results.

2. Stir sugar into the must if it has a Brix lower than 20. For simple, homemade Shiraz, the rule is to put in a pound of ordinary table sugar per gallon of must and for every two points below 20 in Brix scoring. If you have 10 gallons and an almost-there Brix rating of 19, only one pound per gallon is needed for 10 pounds. A correct sugar content fosters good fermentation.

3. Put Campden tablets in so that the tablets' sulfites will kill undesirable microorganisms. The acidity, or pH, of the must will serve as your guide. For example, a must with a pH of between 3.3 and 3.5 needs one tablet per gallon.

4. Cover the vats and leave them to sit for overnight. Add winemaker's yeast about a day later. How much depends on the strain of yeast, and whether or not it is a dry yeast, but a typical example of dry yeast would be 1 gram (0.03 oz) per gallon of must.

5. Let the vats of must ferment for seven days, stirring the vats twice per day. Kick the "cap" of foam and debris to the bottom of the vat when you stir.

Secondary Fermentation

1. Run the must through a strainer (even a colander might do for a home winemaker) to remove the skins and stem bits. The must is now "green wine" or "new wine."

2. Use the testing kit again to check the acidity, which must be no more than 7 parts per thousand tartaric. Acidity can be reduced by adding one of the following: calcium carbonate; potassium bicarbonate; spring water (the least of the three options). Since the target is simply to get it under a score of 7, make conservative guesses and retest until the new wine's acidity is down far enough.

3. 

   Using a siphon hose or a funnel, pour the new wine into either oak barrels or carboys for secondary fermentation. Shiraz is a big wine with a lot of tannins, so giving it an oak aging is essential. If you cannot afford oak barrels, then put two handfuls of oak chips into every 5 gallon carboy. Stop either container with winemaker's airlocks.

4. Return after three weeks to redistribute the wine. Fermentation will have caused some settling, creating air spaces that will ruin the wine if left unchecked. Choose the least full container, and using a siphon hose, top off the rest of the containers with wine. Add a spoonful of sulfite to kill any microorganisms that found their way in during the redistribution, and replace the airlocks.

5. Age the wine for a further 5 to 6 months. Shiraz needs to spend a long time in the barrel or carboy.

Tips & Warnings

• It is a good idea to have a small carboy handy to save as much of whatever wine might be left from when you pour the wine into barrels or carboys. After secondary fermentation, Shiraz should be aged in the bottle for at least a further 2 to 3 years, and ideally for 5 to 7 years. This will get the most out of the tannins.

References

• Time to Make Wine
• Cox, Jeff. "From Vines to Wines." (1999)