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Quady North 2022 4-2-A Syrah
AKA Shiraz
Quady North 2017 Syrah A rebel goes north to southern Oregon
In the San Joaquin Valley of California, the name Quady means world-renowned dessert wines and aperitifs, orange muscats that explode like a sunburst on the tongue.
A second-generation winemaker, it would have been easy for Herb Quady to stick with the family business. But Herb Quady has never done the easy thing....or the expected thing.
So, Quady went north to Oregon to build his own winemaking career. To a place where the wine industry still welcomes rebellious sorts that don’t take themselves too seriously. He started making big reds and bright whites, leading with unusual varietals, like Grenache Blanc and Mourvedre, Viognier and Cabernet Franc. Herb loves to shock folks by selling some of his wines as box wines – enclosed inside ammo boxes.
These days he can be found in the tasting room, or at Barrel 42 - a new 40,000 square foot, state-of-the-art winemaking facility, incubating a few dozen small producers from across the state. When he isn't in the winery, he is generally in one of dozens of vineyards he helps steward through Applegate Valley Vineyard Management.
Named by the Oregon Wine Press "2023 Winery Person of the Year", the rebel is building quite a reputation, with folks all around wearing t-shirts proclaiming, “Herb is my winemaker.” Which leads to an important question: Can you still be a rebel when you’re the king?
Cellar 503 Tasting Notes
Quady North, Jacksonville, Oregon
2022 4-2-A Syrah
Winemaking is a family sport in the Quady family. Herb's amazing wife Meloney is the artist behind the labels (and the amazing art than hangs in the tasting room. Meloney's mama, Consuelo manages the vineyards.
Quady North sources Syrah from several different sites in the Rogue and Applegate Valleys, prizing each lot for its own individual attributes, which work together to create layers and nuance in a delicious wine. The name "4-2,a" was coined by elder daughter Margaux, as a suggestion to resolve the quagmire inherent when one's plan of making only single vineyard Syrah is upset by the fact that the better wine was made as a blend of the different sites. Margaux, at 8 years old, was in the habit of making her own fruit juice blends, and called her favorite one the "fortooay" presumably a derivative of wine names she heard around the house, like Viogn-ier, Caber-net, or Chardo-nnay.
Fast forward Margaux Mae will be working harvest this year in addition to helping in all facets from grape to glass. She's just graduated from OSU with a degree in engineering. We look forward to reveling in her impact to the industry.
"From its bright acidity to its crisp, clean mouthfeel, this exciting Syrah over delivers on quality... A bowl of Bing cherries is sandwiched between aromas of bone marrow and coffee served with a touch of vanilla cream. The wine's dark plum, blackberry, cinnamon and cedar flavors are delightful." — Michael Alberty, 94 pts Wine Enthusiast
Back to School
Let's start clearing up any confusion: Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape variety. Except that Syrah is what it is known and called in its place of origin, France, as well as the Old World; while Shiraz is the name given to it in Australia and other New World countries.
According to the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation, Syrah is the world's 6th most planted wine grape variety (4th among reds). Almost every wine-growing country has dedicated some vineyard space to Syrah, from Sicily to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley to Mexico's Baja California .
A study on the origins of Syrah performed in 1998 discovered the grape to be a genetic crossing of the far more obscure varieties Dureza and Mondeuse Blanche. Interestingly subsequent research also revealed Syrah to be a great-great-grandchild of Pinot Noir . In addition, Syrah appears to share a certain but vague genetic relationship to Viognier, with whom Syrah co-habitates in the vineyard slopes of Côte-Rôtie. Viognier might be a grandparent to Syrah, or potentially a half-sibling. Which makes sense as magic happens when they co ferment together
Exactly where Syrah was born is a more complicated question – and one that has given rise to legend. Many believe Syrah to derive from the ancient Persian city of Shiraz – whose name lends itself to the Australian term for the variety. Some further hypothesize that Syrah was first brought from Persia to the Rhône Valley during the Crusades. Others point to the grape Syriaca, described in antiquity by Pliny the Elder, as a possible ancestor to Syrah. Scientific investigation has now proven the Persian and Syrian connections to be doubtful.
Today scientists believe Syrah's true birthplace lies near to where it continues to accomplish its most classic expression: France's Northern Rhône Valley. Here, in the appellations of Côte-Rôtie and Hermitage , as well as Cornas , St. Joseph , and Crozes-Hermitage , Syrah achieves an uncanny ability to illuminate the nuances of place - much in the same vein as the great Pinot Noirs of Burgundy due north (and here in the Willamette valley). France's highest acreage of Syrah, however, comes from its southwesterly Mediterranean corner of Languedoc-Roussillon , cultivating nearly two-thirds of the country's total plantings.
After France, Syrah is most highly cultivated in Australia . Down under, the grape more commonly goes by its alias Shiraz and is found growing all over the country, though most famously in the Barossa Valley , Eden Valley , and McLaren Vale . Shiraz most likely first came this way at the hands of James Busby, the "Father of Australian Viticulture" who collected vine cuttings from France in the early 1830s.
In his 1920 "Notes on a Cellar-Book," British scholar and wine connoisseur George Saintsbury famously described Hermitage as "the manliest French wine I ever drank." Connotations of gender aside, in the 19th Century, merchants would notably blend a bit of Hermitage to Bordeaux wines to add some extra umph and subsequently raise the price. No matter where Syrah is grown, it is celebrated for its sweaty, gamey savory flavors –"bacon drippings" often finds its way in tasting notes – and brooding, muscular structure.
A Cellar 503 selection in September 2024, Back to School Rogue Valley | Syrah
