25
years
ago
We were dreaming of making Syrah – only Syrah.
The terroir afforded us the fruit to make a Rhône Syrah in the most honest way we could – for it to be not of what we did to it in the winery, but a reflection of what happens in the vineyards. The elegance and gentle sophistication of the Kleinood Tamboerskloof Syrah is created by soil, rain, sun, wind, and the hands that nurture it.
Oh, come let’s scatter rose petals
and fill the cup with wine;
let’s tear the ceiling of the universe
and create a new one.
If the army of woes
is intent on shedding the lovers’ blood,
Cup-bearer and I will ride together
and uproot the army’s foundation!
We’ll pour rose water
in the bowl of purple wine;
we’ll in censer pour the sweetness
of the scented wind.
Hafez
ghazal 129
Spanning over two and a half thousand years, Iranian (Persian) literature is considered as one of the four main bodies of world literature.
Khājeh Shams-od-Dīn Mohammad Hāfez-e Shīrāzī was a highly respected Persian poet and Sufi, whose work is still regarded as one of the pinnacles of middle Eastern literature. He was born in Shiraz in 1325 where he lived for most of his life. He died at the age of 65.
Hafez was a freethinking bon vivant expressing his belief in freedom from religious and social constraints, his deep faith and disgust in all forms of hypocrisy in a vast oeuvre of lyrical poetry. His odes and ghazals are often tongue in cheek, mocking societal norms and his own weaknesses, but more often he expressed the divinity of love, the mysticism of wine and the beauty of nature.
The rose is often present in Persian poetry as a symbol of beauty, love, and artistic expression and Shiraz is most often referred to as the city of roses and poets.
For over 5,000 years Persia had remained the documented habitat of the naturally fragrant varieties freely recurrent in bloom and the only ones that bore yellow flowers. The elegant single layered Iranian Rose possesses such an exquisite and heavenly perfume that it is nurtured and grown entirely for its nectar. Such was the legendary resplendence of the fragrance of the Rose water – Gool Ab that the nectar itself, by its very name, became the Rose.
The Damask rose holds deep cultural and religious importance in Iran, often symbolizing love, purity, and the divine, and is frequently used in religious ceremonies and traditional medicine.
Furthermore, Shiraz’s historical and cultural significance extends beyond roses and poetry. It was the epicentre and origin of a vast and extremely sophisticated culture of handcrafts, fine art and architecture, visually and philosophically diverse and eclectic in nature.
Shiraz carpets, mostly produced by the Ghashghai nomadic people, are simple Persian carpets made of wool from the region and traded either under the name of Ghashghai or under the name of Shiras (Shiraz) in the city’s bazaars.
Monumental architectural structures were surrounded by gardens and richly decorated with paintings, silverware and ceramics depicting flora and fauna, royal hunts, Persian poetry, mythology, and literature.
According to recent archaeological research the date of the known origin of winemaking in Persia goes back to the pre-Islamic or Zoroastrian period and as early as 5400–5000 BC. Persian wine was a cultural symbol and copiously enjoyed by royalty, who were known for their habits of fasting and feasting in Iran until 1979.
Wine was a symbol for liquid gold as well as the moving fire of the radiant sun. It therefore held a ritual function, especially during warfare, where it was often used as a substituted for blood. In poetry and literature in general it often represented the lover, the sublime and vehicle in search of deeper spirituality.
However, none of this has anything to do with Syrah.
Syrah is not a Persian variety and was not born in Shiraz, as legend would sometimes have it. While it was long believed that the grape originated from the city of Shiraz in ancient Persia (now Iran), DNA testing has definitively proven it is indigenous to France, likely a cross between two French grape varieties.
Shiraz and Syrah are two names for the same red grape variety. The name Shiraz is primarily used New World wine countries, where there is more sun, it is generally warmer and the wines are therefor bigger. Syrah is more often used in the cooler regions and the area of its origin, France’s Rhône Valley where the terroir affords a softer more elegant wine.
But the precious things in life, more often than not, have a story to tell. Perhaps it is when things are truly sublime we want them to have a more magical origin, something to enhance the value we believe they have… We want them to have a magical origin. So it is with wine.
One of the oldest wine stories too has its origin in Persia.
Long, long ago, in Iran, there was a ravishing young Persian princess who fell desperately in love with the Shah. However, the old king, had more important things on his mind and, in a very harsh way, sent her away. The poor young princess, her deep and sincere love so harshly rejected by the Persian emperor, was inconsolable.
The young maiden, driven to distraction by humiliation and heart break, wanders aimlessly through the imperial palace when her eye falls on a forgotten bunch of rotten grapes. She decides to put an end to her misery by eating them. As princesses do, she faints, and to her surprise, when she awakens from her deep (intoxicated) sleep, she is happy to be alive. Of course she immediately hastens to share her discovery with his royal highness, who then, to her utter delight, richly awards her for her revelation.
Last night, as half asleep I dreaming lay,
Half naked came she in her little shift,
With tilted glass, and verses on her lips;
Narcissus-eyes all shining for the fray,
Filled full of frolic to her wine-red lips,
Warm as a dewy rose, sudden she slips
Into my bed – just in her little shift.
Said she, half naked, half asleep, half heard,
With a soft sigh betwixt each lazy word,
‘Oh my old lover, do you sleep or wake!’
And instant I sat upright for her sake,
And drank whatever wine she poured for me –
Wine of the tavern, or vintage it might be
Of Heaven’s own vine: he surely were a churl
Who refused wine poured out by such a girl,
A double traitor he to wine and love.
Go to, thou puritan! the gods above
Ordained this wine for us, but not for thee;
Drunkards we are by a divine decree,
Yea, by the special privilege of heaven
Foredoomed to drink and foreordained forgiven.
Ah! HAFIZ, you are not the only man
Who promised penitence and broke down after;
For who can keep so hard a promise, man,
With wine and woman brimming o’er with laughter!
O knotted locks, filled like a flower with scent,
How have you ravished this poor penitent!
Hafez
Ode 44
To wine!
