Editing Syrah (section)

=== Origin ===
Syrah has a long documented history in the [[Rhône]] region of southeastern France, but it was not known if it had originated in that region.

A 1998 study conducted by [[Carole Meredith]]'s research group in the [[UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology|Department of Viticulture and Enology]] at [[University of California, Davis]] used [[DNA typing]] and extensive grape reference material from [[École Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Montpellier|the viticultural research station in Montpellier]], France to conclude that Syrah was the offspring of the grape varieties [[Dureza]] (father) and [[Mondeuse blanche]] (mother).<ref name="Syrah WW Origins">{{Cite web |url=http://www.tenimentidalessandro.it/en/download/SyrahENG.pdf |title=Syrah WORLDWIDE ROMA |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108201113/http://www.tenimentidalessandro.it/en/download/SyrahENG.pdf |archive-date=2012-01-08}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.actahort.org/books/528/528_15.htm|pages=129–132|doi=10.17660/ActaHortic.2000.528.15|title=A Single Pair of Parents Proposed for a Group of Grapevine Varieties in Northeastern France|journal=Acta Horticulturae|id=Proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium on Grapevine Genetics and Breeding|issue=528|year=2000|last1=Bowers|first1=J.E|last2=Siret|first2=R|last3=Meredith|first3=C.P|last4=This|first4=P|last5=Boursiquot|first5=J.-M|access-date=2008-02-15|archive-date=2018-06-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180601203352/https://www.actahort.org/books/528/528_15.htm|url-status=dead|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>[http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v97/n2/full/6800842a.html Vouillamoz, J.F. and Grando, M.S. 2006. "Genealogy of wine grape cultivars: 'Pinot' is related to 'Syrah'", ''Heredity'' 97:102–110] Quote: "Our data strongly confirmed the 'Syrah' parentage ('Dureza' x 'Mondeuse blanche') established by Bowers et al."
</ref><ref name="oz_p_247">{{cite book |title=Oz Clarke's Encyclopedia of Grapes |author=Oz Clark&Margaret Rand |publisher=Hardcourt, inc |year=2001 |pages=g 247 |isbn=978-0-15-100714-1}}</ref><ref name="OCW Syrah">Entry on ''"Syrah"'' in J. Robinson (ed), ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'', Third Edition, pp. 676-677, Oxford University Press 2006, {{ISBN|0-19-860990-6}}.</ref>

[[File:Rhones Alpes region with Ardeche, Drome, Isere and Savoie highlighted.png|left|thumb|The [[Rhône-Alpes]] region. [[Dureza]] is believed to have originated in the [[Ardèche]] (#1) in the southwest and moved east/northeast into [[Drôme]] (#2) and [[Isère]] (#3). Somewhere in this area, most likely in Isère, the vine crossed with [[Mondeuse blanche]], a variety native to the [[Savoie]] region (#4), to produce Syrah.]]
Dureza, a dark-skinned grape variety from the [[Ardèche]] region in France, has all but disappeared from the vineyards, and the preservation of such varieties is a speciality of [[Montpellier]]. Mondeuse blanche is a white grape variety cultivated in the [[Savoie]] region, and is still found in small amounts in that region's vineyards today.

Both varieties are somewhat obscure today, and have never achieved anything near Syrah's fame or popularity, and there is no record of them ever having been cultivated at long distances from their present homes. Thus, both of Syrah's parents come from a limited area in southeastern France, close to northern Rhône. Based on these findings, the researchers have concluded Syrah originated from northern Rhône.<ref name="Syrah WW Origins" /><ref name="OCW Syrah" />

The DNA typing leaves no room for doubt in this matter, and the numerous other hypotheses of the grape's origin which have been forwarded during the years all completely lack support in the form of documentary evidence or [[ampelography|ampelographic]] investigations, be it by methods of classical [[botany]] or DNA.

Instead, they seem to have been based primarily or solely on the name or synonyms of the variety. Varying [[orthography]] for grape names render dubious any name-based evidence of origins. Nevertheless, origins such as [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]] or the famous Iranian city of [[Shiraz]] had been proposed while the genomic studies had yet to be done.<ref name="OCW Syrah" />

The parentage information, however, does not reveal how old the grape variety is, i.e., when the pollination of a Mondeuse blanche vine by Dureza took place, leading to the original Syrah seed plant. In the year 77 CE, [[Pliny the Elder]] wrote in his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Naturalis Historia]]'' about the wines of [[Vienne, Isère|Vienne]] (which today would be called [[Côte-Rôtie]]), where the [[Allobroges]] made famous and prized wine from a dark-skinned grape variety that had not existed some 50 years earlier, in [[Virgil]]'s age.

<ref name="OCW Rhône">Entry on ''"Rhône"'' in J. Robinson (ed), ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'', Third Edition, pp. 572-573, Oxford University Press 2006, {{ISBN|0-19-860990-6}}.</ref> Pliny called the vines of this wine ''Allobrogica'', and it has been speculated that it could be today's Syrah. However, the description of the wine would also fit, for example, Dureza,<ref name="Syrah WW Origins" /> and Pliny's observation that vines of Allobrogica were resistant to cold is not entirely consistent with Syrah.<ref name="OCW Rhône" />