InternationaShiraz Day 2024 – Wine Not Celebrate?
Mark it on your calendars folks – Thursday 25th of July 2024 is International Shiraz Day!
I love Shiraz! It is probably one of my go-to red wines as I find it so versatile. It’s great to sip on while watching TV and equally as great to have with a tasty meal. Some of my favourite food matches for this juicy peppery wine has to be curry and oxtail gumbo. YUM!
So there’s definitely no doubt that I will be celebrating Shiraz Day this year.
Why and who started Shiraz Day?
It was in 2000 that the fabulous team at Mastermind Consulting firmly established that the fourth Thursday in July every year is Shiraz Day.
Shiraz Day is celebrated around the world now and I am all for it.
There was a hole in the International Wine Days Calendar for our beloved Shiraz and seeing as it is one of Australia’s most popular and widely planted red grape varietals, it really was a no brainer to ensure it had its own day on the calendar.
And yes there is an International Syrah Day, which is technically the same grape. However stylistically and geographically Syrah and Shiraz do differ. Here in Australia and New Zealand this wonderfully delicious red wine grape is more commonly seen as Shiraz. Whereas in the Northern Hemisphere you’ll a lot more Syrah.
How to celebrate Shiraz Wine Day in 2024
There are plenty of ways to celebrate Shiraz this year. Keep an eye out for events in your local area run by wineries, bottle shops, etc. More and more people are getting onboard with this wine day, which is awesome to see.
If there are no events in your area then I suggest you simply buy a bottle of the good stuff and enjoy it! Plus if you can post about it on social media and use the hashtag #shirazwineday then you are going to help spread the word and support our wine industry further.
To get the palate salivating, here are some delicious Shiraz’s that would be simply perfect to celebrate with:
Shiraz Tasting Notes & Recommendations
Dandelion Vineyard 2020 Eden Valley Shiraz
Thank you to Dandelion Vineyard for sending this sample bottle of their Red Queen Eden Valley Shiraz 2020 to me.
We popped it in our Riedel decanter a few hours prior to cooking dinner. We decided to match it with a steak dinner with peppercorn sauce, shoestring frites and homegrown broccoli.
The wine was exceptional as you would expect at a $300 price tag!
Super silky smooth in texture yet it has such delicious concentrated flavours of blackberries, dark chocolate and spice. It’s seamless yet layered. This definitely makes my top red wine list of 2024.
An incredible experience to enjoy such a wine of this calibre!
Other than its incredible sensory experience, what makes this wine so special you ask?
The grapes come from an ancient site in SA’s Eden Valley:
“Planted in 1912, on a south facing slope of limestone bed rock covered with loamy sands absolutely laden with quartzite, the vineyard survives to this day. The rocky outcrops of quartz are spectacularly coloured with ironstone streaks, and sit over a c.1600 million year old Barossa Complex basement of gneiss and schist.”
Wow! I’m in awe of drinking something from vines so old.
A truly amazing wine experience. And if you really want to celebrate in style, then this is the way to go.
PS: Please note this wine was sent to me as a sample. I was under no obligation to post about it.
Whicher Ridge
Name a better wine and food pairing than Shiraz and Curry.
It is one of my absolute favourite wine and food pairings. There’s no doubt I will be indulging in curry on Shiraz Day!
A big thanks to the wonderful Cathy from Whicher Ridge Wines for this sample of her 2017 Long Road Shiraz from WA’s Frankland River region.
Amazing quality for only $42 per bottle. Blueberries, juicy red cherries, savoury spices and a lick of chocolate makes this Shiraz so divine.
PS: It you live around Portarlington on the Bellarine Peninsula make sure to try out the delicious curries from the Hello Foody food truck.
Curtis Limited Series Shiraz 2016 McLaren Vale
Some friends brought this around to our house to enjoy and I absolutely loved it. It has 8 years of age under its screw cap and boy it’s tasting good.
You can find this Curtis Limited Series Shiraz 2016 McLaren Vale on their website to purchase for $100. It was given 94 points by James Halliday in 2018.
The flavour is so concentrated, think blackberries and black plums accompanied by perfectly integrated spice and some delicious dark chocolate flavours. It also made me think about those chocolate bullets – sweet, soft liquorice covered in chocolate.
I highly enjoyed this Shiraz and would recommend getting your taste buds around it!
