Grape Guide
Durif
RedDurif is a black grape that arose by chance in nineteenth-century Isère as a natural cross of Peloursin and Syrah, and it has nearly disappeared from France. Today it is grown mainly in California, where it is sold as Petite Sirah, and in Australia, where it makes inky, tannic reds built for long ageing.
Key characteristics
- Natural cross of Peloursin (seed parent) and Syrah, confirmed by DNA profiling in 1999
- Small berries with a high skin-to-juice ratio, giving very dark, tannic wines
- Late ripening and best suited to warm, dry climates
- Prone to sunburn, shrivelling, botrytis, black rot and wood diseases
- Sold as Petite Sirah in North America and as Durif in Australia and South Africa
Typical flavors
Major regions
California (Napa, Sonoma, the San Joaquin Valley and the San Luis Obispo area) · Riverina, Australia · Rutherglen, Australia · Washington State · Israel · Baja California, Mexico · Chile
Also known as
Petite Sirah (California · Israel · Mexico) · Petite Syrah · Plant Durif · Pinot de l'Hermitage · Pinot de Romans (Drôme) · Serine des Mauves (Ampuis) · Gros Noir (Savoie) · Dure · Duret · Sirane Fourchue
Durif makes some of the darkest red wines produced anywhere. The small, thick-skinned berries give almost opaque juice, and the wines combine heavy tannin and colour with firm acidity. Blackberry, blueberry and black plum dominate the fruit, with black pepper, licorice, dark chocolate and a violet note on the nose; leather, cedar and tobacco appear with bottle age. Alcohol is often high, and young wines feel dense and grippy.
The grape is seldom delicate, so the best producers manage extraction with care, using gentle pump-overs, restrained new oak and long cellaring to soften the structure. The same weight makes Durif a useful blending component: a small share adds colour, tannin and backbone to softer reds. Bottlings labelled Petite Sirah in North America and Durif in Australia and South Africa are essentially the same variety, although old Californian vineyards have turned out to hold some Peloursin under the Petite Sirah name.
The variety is named for François Durif, a botanist and nurseryman who cultivated it at Tullins, in the Isère department of eastern France. Victor Pulliat, an ampelographer, recorded the vine in 1868 as Plant du Rif, noting that Durif was propagating it at the time. Durif is said to have prized it for its good resistance to downy mildew, but it never took hold in France, and only scattered remnants survive in its homeland now.
California got the vine in 1884, when Charles McIver, who owned Linda Vista Winery outside San Jose, brought it in labelled Petite Sirah. Whether this was a deliberate commercial label or a simple error is uncertain, because true Syrah was commonly called Petite Syrah in the Ardèche and the Isère. In 1999, a University of California team led by Carole Meredith ran DNA markers on vines sold as Petite Sirah in private vineyards and found that 49 of 53 were Durif, while four were Peloursin. That research also revealed Durif to be a seedling of Peloursin, with Syrah as the likeliest pollen parent, which accounts for the frequent mix-ups between Durif and Syrah.
Durif is reported to have arrived in Australia in 1908, carried there by the Victorian viticulturist François de Castella, and later testing showed that the imported Australian clones are Durif, although some older vineyards also contain a significant share of Peloursin vines.
Durif ripens late, which limits it to warm sites with long, dry autumns. Bunches are compact and the berries small, so skin contact is high relative to juice volume. The berries are prone to sunburn and shrivelling in intense heat, and the vine is vulnerable to winter frost. It is also susceptible to botrytis bunch rot, black rot and trunk diseases, and the tight clusters raise the risk of rot in humid or wet seasons. Dry climates such as the Riverina, Rutherglen and the Californian interior valleys suit it best. Growers need to manage yield and canopy shade to avoid raisined fruit and to reach ripe tannins before autumn rain.
Varietal Durif is deeply coloured, full-bodied and high in tannin, often with alcohol above 14 percent. Californian Petite Sirah ranges from plush, jammy styles to leaner, more structured wines from cooler or higher sites, and some producers offer a straight bottling alongside a reserve. In Australia, Rutherglen and Riverina Durif is typically intense and inky, packed with dark fruit and structured for oak maturation; some producers also blend it with Shiraz. Beyond varietal wines, a small proportion of Durif is often added to Zinfandel and other reds to deepen colour and add tannic grip. Well-made bottles age for a decade or more, as the tannins soften and savoury notes of leather, cedar and dried herbs develop.
Where it grows
California
Recent state acreage reports show roughly 11,700 acres (about 4,700 ha), a large rise from about 2,300 acres in 1999. San Joaquin County and San Luis Obispo County hold the biggest areas, with significant plantings also in Napa and Sonoma. Foppiano in Healdsburg, Concannon in the Livermore Valley and Ridge are among the producers known for it.
Australia
Plantings reached about 625 ha in 2016, up from roughly 500 ha in 2012, spread over more than 30 regions. The Riverina holds the majority, while Rutherglen in north-east Victoria is the historic heartland. Campbells and Rutherglen Estates bottle it in Rutherglen, and De Bortoli makes several wines from Riverina fruit.
France
The variety has all but disappeared from the Isère and the northern Rhône, where it once circulated under names such as Serine des Mauves and Pinot de l'Hermitage. Only small remnants survive.
Washington and other US states
Petite Sirah followed its Californian reputation into other American states, with Washington the most notable.
Israel
Petite Sirah is an established red in Israel's warm, dry vineyards, valued for its heat tolerance and colour.
Mexico, Chile and Brazil
L. A. Cetto champions Petite Sirah in Baja California. Chile had about 31 ha in 2008, and Brazil had small plantings in Rio Grande do Sul.