Places compared
Northern Rhône vs Barossa Shiraz
One grape, two hemispheres, and about as far apart as a single variety gets.
Which to choose
Choose
Northern Rhône
You want savoury complexity, moderate alcohol, and a wine that tastes of somewhere cold.
Choose
Barossa Valley
You want power and generosity, or you are eating barbecue, where the fruit and the char meet each other.
Worth knowing
The peppery note in the Northern Rhône has an identified cause: rotundone, a compound that accumulates in cooler conditions. It is not that Barossa producers have removed it — it largely never formed. A significant minority of people cannot smell it at all.
Where they differ
Written rather than computed. A place has no taste profile of its own — the wines made there do, and they vary — so averaging one into existence would produce a number for every dimension and a meaning for none.
Climate
Northern Rhône
Continental and marginal, on steep granite terraces at 45° north. Syrah only just ripens in a cool year.
Barossa Valley
Warm and dry, with reliable ripening every year and very little vintage variation by comparison.
Alcohol
Northern Rhône
Typically 12.5–13.5%.
Barossa Valley
Typically 14.5–15.5%, and sometimes more.
Flavour
Northern Rhône
Black pepper, olive, smoked meat and violets over dark fruit. Savoury before it is fruity.
Barossa Valley
Blackberry, plum, liquorice, chocolate and sweet spice. Fruit-forward and generous.
Tannin
Northern Rhône
Firm and structural, sometimes austere in youth, and finer in Côte-Rôtie than in Hermitage or Cornas.
Barossa Valley
Abundant but ripe and soft. The wines are drinkable young despite their weight.
Vines
Northern Rhône
Grafted onto American rootstock after phylloxera, as almost all European vineyards are.
Barossa Valley
A significant proportion ungrafted and over a century old — South Australia never had phylloxera.