WHAT wine are you? I’d like to think that I’m a syrah: wild, earthy and intense. However, according to a quiz on a well-known social networking website, I’m chardonnay. This is disappointing.

It is not that I don’t appreciate a well-made chardonnay, for I do; it’s that syrah is masculine and chardonnay is not.

Syrah, or shiraz as it is also known, is perhaps at its most red-blooded when it’s from Oz, but there are always exceptions to prove the rule.

Imagine my surprise when I was offered a taste of a McLaren Vale shiraz named after a Sheila! The wine in question is Paxton “Elizabeth Jean” Shiraz 2006, it was a case of one sip and I was hooked (And yes, not that I’m hinting or anything, but I do want a bottle for Christmas.) Made as a tribute to Elizabeth Jean, the matriarch of the Paxton family, the grapes for this wine come from 100-year-old vines, making it beautifully concentrated. Rich and smooth, with very fine tannins, it has ripe forest berry fruit flavours, mingling with earthy spices, pepper, liquorice and integrated oak notes. And one other thing that sets it aside from the norm, it is very elegant. No mean feat for a wine with a heady abv of 15 per cent.

Sadly, the price tag on this wine is a little prohibitive, but as a one-off, with the Boxing Day beef for instance, you will not be disappointed. A very good cheaper alternative from the same producer would be Paxton Quandong Farm Shiraz 2007 (£13.95 at Field and Fawcett). Nor will you regret popping the cork (or screwcap) on the following examples of that most macho of grapes.

Vidal Hawkes Bay Syrah 2007 is one of the best reds you’ll find for less than ten of your English pounds. In the Rhône style, this Kiwi oozes black cherry flavours without being jammy, spiced with crushed black peppercorns, vanilla, toasted oak and all held together by supple tannins.

Or prescribe yourself a bottle of Journey’s End “The Cape Doctor” Shiraz 2005, from Stellenbosch in South Africa. A full, earthy wine, brimming with hot spices, and lingering flavours of brambles, raspberries, vanilla and coffee.

New tasting date...

•THE HC Wines Christmas tasting will be held one week later than originally planned and is now on next Saturday, at Heworth Community Centre. Starting at 7.45pm, there will be around 25 wines to taste, with tickets costing £7. Phone 01904 421345 or 07785 531080 to book.

• Paxton “Elizabeth Jean” Shiraz 2006, £29.50 at Field and Fawcett, York 19/20

• Vidal Hawkes Bay Syrah 2007, £9.99 at Waitrose 19/20

•Journey’s End “The Cape Doctor” Shiraz 2005, £16.99 from Bibendum Wine (bibendum-wine.co.uk) 18/20